Le désert is an 'ode-symphonie' in three parts by the French composer Félicien David with words by Auguste Colin, written after the composer’s stay in Egypt and the Holy Land.

The work was first performed at the Paris Conservatoire on 8 December 1844 conducted by Théophile Tilmant, and taken up at the Théâtre-Italien and by Berlioz. David had needed to borrow 1,200 francs to pay for the orchestra and hall.Le désert was successful from its premiere and influenced the conception of works based around the orient by many other French composers. David later wrote other works in similar vein, such as his operas La perle du Brésil and Lalla-Roukh.

The work is scored for speaker, tenor solo, male chorus and orchestra. It consists of several vocal and orchestral movements, each introduced by a recitation. The different sections of the ode move from the song of the desert, arrival of a caravan, storm in the desert, calm after the storm and the caravan continuing its journey, the star of Venus, a hymn to the night, dances, sunrise, the song of the muezzin, departure of the caravan and song to Allah.

Coordinates: 48°54′22″N 0°48′38″W / 48.9061°N 0.8106°W / 48.9061; -0.8106

Le Désert is a commune in the Calvados department in the Basse-Normandie region in northwestern France.

France Gall (born Isabelle Geneviève Marie Anne Gall on 9 October 1947 in Paris, France) is a popular French yé-yé singer.

Gall was married to, and had a successful singing career in partnership with, French singer-songwriter Michel Berger.

Gall's father was lyricist Robert Gall, and her mother, Cécile Berthier, was the daughter of Paul Berthier, co-founder of Petits Chanteurs à la Croix de Bois. (This made her cousin to the guitarist Denys Lable and the composer Vincent Berthier de Lioncourt, as well as niece to Jacques Berthier.) She was the sole daughter in the family and had two brothers named Patrice and Claude.

In spring 1963, Robert Gall encouraged his daughter to record songs and send the demos to a musical publisher, Denis Bourgeois. That July, she auditioned for Bourgeois at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, after which Bourgeois wanted to sign her immediately. France was subsequently signed to Philips.

At the time, Bourgeois was working for the label as Artistic Director for Serge Gainsbourg and assumed this role for Gall as well. He encouraged her to record four tracks with French jazz musician, arranger and composer Alain Goraguer.

Ludovico Einaudi OMRI (Italian pronunciation: [ludoˈviːko eiˈnaudi]) (born 23 November 1955 in Turin, Piedmont) is an Italian pianist and composer.

Einaudi was born in Turin, Italy. His mother played to him on the piano as a child. He began his musical training at the Conservatorio Verdi in Milan, gaining a diploma in composition in 1982. That same year, he studied with Luciano Berio and gained a scholarship to the Tanglewood Music Festival.

After studying at the Conservatory in Milan, and subsequently with Berio, he spent several years composing in traditional forms. In the mid-1980s he began to search for a more personal expression in a series of works for dance and multimedia, and later for piano. His music is ambient, meditative and often introspective, drawing on minimalism, world music, and contemporary pop. He has made a significant impact in the film world, with four international awards to his name.^{[citation needed]}

His father, Giulio Einaudi, was a publisher, and his grandfather, Luigi Einaudi, was President of Italy between 1948 and 1955. He currently resides on a vineyard in the Italian region of Piedmont.

Ballaké Sissoko (born 1968) is a noted player of the kora. He has worked with Toumani Diabaté and Taj Mahal and several others. He can be heard on Diario Mali. Ballaké's father, Djelimady Sissoko, was a notable musician in his own right.

The son of renowned griot Djelimady Sissoko, Sissoko started playing music at a young age, as most born into the griot caste do. He played in the Instrumental Ensemble of Mali, and then with several prominent female singers before coming to fame through his duet with Toumani Diabaté in 1981. In 2000, he formed the trio Mande Tabolo with an n’goni player and a balafon player.

His 2005 album, Tomora, features Toumani Diabaté on kora, singers Alboulkadri Barry and Rokia Traoré and Fanga Diawara, violin soloist of the Mali National Instrumental Ensemble.

His latest record Chamber Music released in October 2009 is the result of a collaboration with Vincent Segal, a classical cellist known for his work with bumcello, and was released by French label No Format! and the U.S. label Six Degrees Records.