Marcel Khalife: An Interview

Marcel Khalife is one of the Arab world's most revered and celebrated cultural icons. Composer, singer, and oud player, he is best known as the musical voice of students, intellectuals, laborers, and all those committed to social justice, freedom, and human dignity. His arrangements, especially those inspired by the poems of Mahmud Darwish and performed by his band, the Mayadine Ensemble founded in 1976, became part of the daily cultural life of two generations.  Since the early 1990s, Khalife has focused on orchestral music, occasionally writing innovative compositions for one, two and four ouds and instruments that were memorized by entire generations. With his latest double CD album, Fall of the Moon, dedicated to Mahmud Darwish, Marcel Khalife pays tribute to the great poet with some familiar covers of earlier works and new arrangements that reflect his rich and varied musical journey as well as Darwish's enduring legacy. Khalife is on tour in the United States where he has developed a significant following. 

Professor Beshara Doumani, Professor of History at the University of California--Berkeley, spoke to Marcel Khalife on Voices of the Middle East and North Africa (VOMENA) Radio where the musician reflected candidly about his music, activism, Mahmoud Darwish, and other life stories.