Ibrahim Maalouf

Short Biography

Ibrahim Maalouf (Arabic: ابراهيم معلوف‎) (born 5 December 1980) is a trumpet player and teacher, composer and arranger. He was born in Beirut, Lebanon, and now lives in Paris, France.Early career His family fled Lebanon in the midst of a Lebanese Civil War and Maalouf grew up in the Paris suburbs with both parents and his sister Layla, who is two years older than he is. He studied there until the age of 17 and earned a baccalauréat in General Science and Specialised Mathematics from the Lycée Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire in Étampes (Essonne).He began to study the trumpet at the age of 7 with his father Nassim Maalouf, a former student of Maurice André at the Paris Higher National Conservatory of Music and Dance. His father taught him classical technique, baroque, classical, modern and contemporary repertoires, as well as classical Arabic music and the Arab art of improvisation and style. In fact, his father was the inventor of the micro-tonal trumpet, called “quarter tone trumpet”, which makes it possible to play Arab maqams on the trumpet. Another characteristic of these early years was that Maalouf began playing the piccolo trumpet very young. From the age of 9, he accompanied his father in a duo throughout Europe and the Middle East, playing a baroque repertoire by Antonio Vivaldi, Henry Purcell, Tomaso Giovanni Albinoni, etc... This was how he learned to play in front of an audience, and how audiences gradually began to become acquainted with him. When he was 15, Maalouf came to the attention of professional musicians when during a concert with a chamber orchestra, he interpreted the 2nd Brandenburg Concerto by Johann Sebastian Bach, considered by many trumpeters as the most difficult piece in the classical trumpet repertoire. Several years later, Maalouf met Maurice André, who encouraged him to go professional. This prompted Maalouf to abandon his scientific studies and dedicate himself entirely to his musical career.