Pianist Marouan Benabdallah has never wished for a 9-5 job

Pianist Marouan Benabdallah hopes to introduce composers from the Arab world through his Arabæsque project

Marouan Benabdallah

Marouan Benabdallah is in his element as his fingers traverse the keys of the grand piano with ease and élan. As the melody softly blends into silence, he says: “That was a Syrian composition ‘Danse de Laila’ by Dia Succari. He is one of the composers I discovered during my Arabæsque research.”

A child prodigy, Marouan started learning to play the piano at the age of four and secured the first prize in nearly every major competition in Morocco by the age of 13. His mother, Gabriella, and his father, Hamid, are the ones who inspired him to take up the piano. A music teacher and choir conductor, Gabriella held music classes at home, “and so I grew up to music.” A traditionalist when it comes to music, Marouan says his experimentation with music is limited to introducing new, forgotten or unheard-of composers. “Classical music is a huge territory with a large number of composers with different styles. However, I am picky about the kind of music I play; it has to be quality music.”

The audience, he feels, needs to be open-minded when it comes to exploring new works. Like recently, he played meditative and minimalist works by 20th century composers. “The minimalistic music takes you into a state of calm, just like

shavasana at the end of a yoga session. Actually, yoga is what inspired me to explore the works by such composers,” says the yoga enthusiast. “If the audience were to attend a concert going by the names of the composers listed on the programme, they would miss out on such experiences. By the way, the audience enjoyed the concert featuring this music,” he adds.

It’s the artiste’s duty to hold the attention of the audience. “There’s nothing worse than an audience that is bored by the music.” And thus packaging the concert is important. “There is a dramaturgy when picking the pieces for the concert. I cannot play just flat and sad pieces, there must be something different and vice versa.” He often pauses between pieces to deliver snippets about the song played and about the composers so that the audience can connect to what is being played.

To spice up his performances, the 36-year-old often pairs music and lights, music and colours and even music and perfumes. “I performed with Clémence Besse, a perfume designer from Paris, who designed three perfumes for the three composers I put together for a show in Morocco. There were diffusers in the hall that dispensed the perfume while I played. She designed each perfume to suit the mood of the respective piece. The perfumes allowed the audience to not just listen to the music, but also smell the mood it was written in.”

Marouan Benabdallah

He laughs when he says it helps that his concerts are planned well in advance. “I am booked for Wigmore Hall, London for 2021 and I already know what I am going to play as I have to send them the programme when I confirm the date.”

Though he finds living out of the suitcase tiresome, he has never wished for a 9 to 5 job “as I love what I do.” His jet-setting life is also a reason why he doesn’t hold regular music classes for students. But what about online lessons? “I find them ridiculous. How can you demonstrate a technique of the wrist or correct one via a camera and a microphone?” When asked what line of work he would have chosen if he had not become a musician, he ponders and says “Pilot. I love planes and to fly.”

Marouan was in the city in connection with a concert organised by Trivandrum Centre for Performing Arts in association with the Embassy of the Kingdom of Morocco in New Delhi.

Music from the Arab world

The Arabæsque project, started in 2014, is Marouan’s search for piano compositions written by composers from the Arab world. He has discovered 97 composers from various Arab countries till date. So there are Turkish composers, Armenians, Iranians and also European composers influenced by Arab culture.

“It is a repertoire that is largely unknown as many of the pieces have not been published or recorded. These composers, trained in the Western music tradition, have blended Oriental and Western musical traditions to create an original synthesis. And, today, in the migration crisis in Europe and the US and in these troubled times of xenophobia and racism, many of these composers had to emigrate to the US or Europe to hone their talent. They are proof that mixing cultures is possible and that the results can be outstanding,” says the musician, who has played their works across the world.

The Moroccan-Hungarian pianist admits that there is racism in the Western classical music field. “It’s my Hungarian side that has opened up platforms for me to perform,” says Marouan, who plans to release an album comprising the works of some of the Arab composers shortly.