March –––– June 2025: 17th edition
20 years on the assassination of Samir Kassir
CONCERT
A CONCERT FOR TWO PIANOS
Bachar Khalifé, Rami Khalifé, Sary Khalifé
Lebanon, France / Creation 2017
Sunday 4 June 2017, 9:00 pm
Samir Kassir Square, Beirut Downtown
Bachar Mar-Khalifé is a Lebanese singer, composer and multi-instrumentalist.
He won the first prize for piano at the Conservatoire National de Région de Boulogne in 1999 and the first prize for percussion at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris in 2006.
He has worked with Lorin Maazel, James Gaffigan, l'Orchestre National de France and l'Ensemble Intercontemporain, among others.
He has also participated in several projects combining jazz, world music, electro and hip-hop with artists such as Bojan Z, Murcof, Kery James and Trio K/D/M.
Bachar is the son of Marcel and Yolla Khalifé. In 2010 he decided to start a solo career with his first album Oil Slick and in 2013 he released his second album Who's Gonna Get the Ball from Behind. His latest album Ya Balad, released in 2015, won several awards (Deezer, Adami, Prix des Indés).
He has also composed the music for a number of films, such as Layla Fourie by Pia Marais (which won an award at the Berlinale in 2013), Fièvres by Hicham Ayouch (which won an award at the Festival Panafricain du Cinéma et de la Télévision de Ouagadougou in 2015), and Home by Jihane Chouaib, in which he composed the music for the end credits with actress Golshifteh Farahani.
Rami Khalifé's work is as eclectic as it is daring, ranging from improvised concerts, recording a Prokofiev concerto, performing world music with Marcel Khalifé and the Al Mayadine Ensemble, composing contemporary works for orchestra, producing soundtracks for films and documentaries, only to turn it all upside down with his classical electro group AUFGANG. Hailed by the Daily Star as "a musician of extreme caliber and pure expression...a welcome experimental detour from today's norm and the relatively conformist world of classical composition...he is positively brand new," it's no wonder that Rami Khalifé has emerged as one of the most exciting young composers of the 21st century.
His oeuvre includes two piano concertos, a requiem, a cello concerto and several orchestral works, including "Tunnel to the Moon," all of which he premiered with the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra (QPO).
He was also commissioned by the Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra to write his new piece "Stories", which will be performed at the end of the year.
Rami Khalifé released two new albums simultaneously in 2016, "Turbulences" with AUFGANG and "Stories" with QPO.
The Beirut Spring Festival is a free of charge annual arts and culture programming that celebrates freedom and renewal in Beirut, in memory of Samir Kassir.
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