WOMAD

Claude Chalhoub with special guest Ronu Majumdar

From India

Biography by Andy Morgan, July 2003:An encouraging phenomenon over the past few years is the way in which the ‘high art’ and rarefied world of European classical music is opening its gilded doors and cosying up to other musical worlds like jazz, African, Arabic, Asian and electronica to name but a few. Claude Chalhoub is the kind of open-minded talent that has benefited enormously from this trend. Born in 1974 to musical parents in Lebanon, Chalhoub was taught to play the violin at home by his father. A promising spell at the Beirut Conservatory was truncated by the worsening civil war and Chalhoub was forced to continue learning on his own. At the age of 18 he was awarded a scholarship to attend the Royal College of Music in London and become the pupil of the famous Professor Grigory Zhislin. Chalhoub’s musical imagination flourished in London’s bubbling cultural melting pot and as well as attending as many concerts of western classical music as possible he also checked out Indian, African, Chinese and other styles whenever he could. He soon started to compose his own music and chose a self–penned piece called ‘Oriental Images’ for his final recital. It won first prize for best performance. In 1999 Chalhoub went to Weimar in Germany to lead Daniel Barenboim’s innovative ‘Western Eastern Divan’ project, which sought to give musicians from the Middle East and Germany the chance to work together. Soon afterwards Warner Brothers came looking for Chalhoub and offered him a contract. His eponymous debut album was produced by Michael Brook and released to passionate plaudits all over the world. ---Claude Chalhoub (Lebanon)Biography supplied by management, April 2003:Born in 1974 in Lebanon, into a family of musicians, Claude was first introduced to the violin by his father, who played the rebeck. When he was eight, his brother gave him his first violin, and he began to play at home with his family, mostly improvising to Arabic music. He then joined the Beirut Conservatory, but as the war in Lebanon led to its closure, Claude was forced to continue his musical studies by himself.Seemingly, his self-taught technique was good enough to meet academical standards, because at the age of eighteen he was awarded the prestigious Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Scholarship, which enabled him to pursue his studies at the Royal College of Music in London, under the tutorship of Professor Grigory Zhislin and later Rodney Friend. There he was introduced to an extensive repertoire of classical music, not only during classes, but also by listening to symphonic orchestras whenever possible. It wasn't just classical repertoire he absorbed at the time: living in London, where there is music from every corner of the planet, Claude was exposed to an array of musical cultures. He listened to Indian music, African music, Chinese music, looking for sounds to fuse together...During his 4th year of studies at the Royal College of music, this search led to the first recording session of his own music - "Red Desert", which combined Arabic improvisations with the sound of an Indian tabla and a string octet.In 1997, for his final recital, he also chose a self-penned composition - "Oriental Images", which won him the first prize for best performance, and his debut concert on the stage of St. John's in London's Smith Square paved the way for a series of live dates in London and abroad.In 1999, Claude was invited to Weimar in Germany to join the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, conducted by Daniel Barenboim. The aim of this "West Eastern Divan" was to give young musicians from the Middle East and Germany an opportunity to study and play together. Barenboim chose Claude as musical director of the orchestra.Claude's improvisation attracted so much attention that he was offered a recording contract and in the summer of 2000 he began to record his self-titled album with Michael Brook at the Sound Factory in Los Angeles.Ronu Majumdar (India)Biography by Andy Morgan, 2002;Ronu Majumdar plays music from a floating world and his magical instrument is the bansuri, or Indian flute. Pandit Ranendra (or ‘Ronu’) Majumdar grew up in the holy Indian city of Varanasi where he was taught to play the bansuri by his father who was in turn a disciple of the great Pandit Pannalal Ghosh, the man who brought the flute out of folkloric obscurity and onto the classical concert stage. Ronu Majumdar is a frequent accompanist to the great Ravi Shankar and he performed with Shankar and Philip Glass on the BMG album, ‘Passages’. He has also recorded with the late lamented George Harrison as well as Ry Cooder and the great tabla player Zakir Hussain. The gorgeous ethereal sounds of his flute have graced the soundtracks of films by Merchant Ivory, Mike Nichols and the great Bollywood director, RD Burman. His collaboration with the American banjo virtuoso, Bela Fleck, on the album ‘Tabula Rasa’ which was released by Water Lily Acoustic Records won Majumdar a Grammy nomination. Most recently he joined an A-list of rock and world music stars including Michael Stipe, Robbie Williams, Asha Bhosle and Baaba Maal on the ambitious Palm Pictures produced album ‘One Giant Leap’.