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Marcel Khalife (Arabic: مرسيل خليفة; b. June 10, 1950, Amchit, Mount Lebanon Governorate, Lebanon) is a Lebanese composer, singer and oud player. From 1970 to 1975, he taught at the conservatory in Beirut. In 1976, he created Al Mayadeen Ensembleand became famous all over the world for songs like Ummi (My Mother), Rita w'al-Bunduqiya (Rita and the Rifle) and Jawaz al-Safar (Passport), based on Mahmoud Darwish's poetry.
In 1999 he was granted the Palestine Award for Music. In turn, he contributed the financial portion of the award to the National Conservatory of Music at Birzeit University in Palestine. In 2005, Khalife was named UNESCO Artist for Peace.
Biography
Marcel Khalife was born in 1950 in Amchit, a small coastal village north of Beirut. His grandfather was a fisherman.
His first lessons in music was with a retired military man, a teacher in his village, Hanna Karam, who advised the parents of the young boy to let him continue learning music. His mother died of cancer when he was 16 years old. He studied the oud at the National Academy of Music in Beirut and contributed to the expansion of the possibilities of the oud.
From 1970 to 1975, he taught at the conservatory in Beirut and other local institutions and toured the Middle East, North Africa, Europe and the United States giving solo performances on the oud.
In 1972, Marcel Khalife created a musical group in his native village with the goal of reviving its musical heritage and Arabic choral singing. The first performances took place in Lebanon during the Lebanese civil war in 1975. During the war, he risked his life in bombed out concert halls.
Since I was born, I've felt I had a rebel's soul within me. I rejected things that might be inherited, but that were wrong.
I connected my artistic project with the fatherland, with life, society, and the people,
My music is for the service of humanity, and is intended to present a serious and sincere work for those tormented in this destructive war. My music was a sort of balm for those wounds.
In 1983, Paredon Records, now Smithsonian Folkways, released Promises of the Storm, a small collection of protest songs and political ballads.
