POPART: Improvisation/Jazz/classical Arabic music debut Rami Khalife piano (Beirut, Paris) Bachar Khalife percussion (Beirut, Paris) Peter Herbert acoustic bass (Vienna, Paris) Aleksandar Petrov Tapan (Skopje, Paris) Four musicians of quite diverse backgrounds will premiere their music, loosely based on compositions by Rami’s latest release ‘popart’ (with Francesco Tristano) and arranged by Bachar Khalife. Rami and Bachar, the two sons of beloved Lebanese singer/oud-virtuoso and composer Marcel Khalife, have been playing music with their father all their lives, nevertheless they are recently developing their own musical language and projects. Peter, coming from a classical/Austrian and Jazz/NY background has been playing with various groups of Marcel Khalife’s since 2000, and Aleksandar was also part of the larger ‘Al Mayadine’ ensembles by Khalife. The music to be heard will stretch the boundaries between classic arabic, balkan beats, Jazz and beyond-Jazz improvisations and classical western influences, creating new shapes of unheard musical territory, partly carried by the musicians enthusiasm and curiosity, professional presence and wide range of their rich cultural heritage. Aleksandar Petrov is a Macedonian born percussionist and a composer. His instrument of predilection is the Tapan, a traditional drum of his country with which he's been the rhythmical anchor of traditional folk orchestras since the age of twelve. He lives now in Paris where he's had many encounters with jazz musicians. He is an astonishing and a creative musician who composes and plays an innovating and interesting music, never satisfied with placing side by side the music of his origins with other music, but mixing them to obtain a new elixir. Bachar Khalifé was born in Beirut in 1983. After his classical studies in the National Superior Conservatory of music in Paris under the EIC's solist M.Cerruti, he continued exploring the world of percussions performing in traditional, jazz, and contemporary musical projects. He composed music for several creations of dance, cinema and art exhibitions. Since 2006, Bachar is teaching classical and traditional percussions at the conservatory of music in Toulon, France, and gives master classes around rhythms and sounds. Born in Beirut, Lebanon on September 25, 1981, Rami Khalifé exhibited a passion for music very early on. After a short initiation on the piano, seven-years-old Rami left Lebanon and resumed his musical training in France at the Conservatoire National de region de Boulogne-Billancourt, studying with Louis-Claude Thirion, Marie-Paule Siruguet and Abdel Rahman El-Bacha. In 2000, Rami Khalifé pursued his higher education at the Julliard School of Music in New York, where he graduated in 2003. He studied piano under the Hungarian pianist, Gyorgy Sandor, who was Bela Bartok’s last student and other professors like Bruce Brubaker and Joel Sachs. In 2006 he founded "Aufgang", a band consisting of two grand pianos and electronics. Today, Rami has released 4 recordings including two solo piano, classical music concerto, as well as his own compositions. www.ramikhalife.com Bassist Peter Herbert has been living in Paris since 2003 (in New York from 1989-2003) and leads a busy schedule with an average of 100 concerts annually performing throughout the world. Trained as a classical pianist/bassist, after years of successful 'main stream' jazz activities, he is now developing his own voice in the field of improvised music. Recent activities include solo concerts, in New York (Glassfarm), London (The Vortex), Moscow (The Dome), Vienna (Porgy&Bess), a.m.o. (CD: 'Naked Bass') and a focus on small ensembles like his duos with David Tronzo (CD: Segmente, AZM 1001), Carol Robinson (bass-clarinette/electronics). Herbert is also a prolific and versatile composer, mostly commissioned by European orchestras and ensembles, and his work has been well documented on over 100 CD’s. He has written for orchestras, choirs and chamber groups, designed experimental movie soundtracks and incidental music for European avant-garde theatre groups. Since 2007 he is also teaching at Linz’s Anton-Bruckner University in Austria.