- published: 13 Sep 2010
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Marcel Khalife (Arabic: مرسيل خليفة; b. June 10, 1950, Amchit, Mount Lebanon Governorate, Lebanon) is a Lebanese composer, singer and oud player. From 1970 to 1975, he taught at the conservatory in Beirut. In 1976, he created Al Mayadeen Ensemble and became famous all over the world for songs like Ummi (My Mother), Rita w'al-Bunduqiya (Rita and the Rifle) and Jawaz al-Safar (Passport), based on Mahmoud Darwish's poetry.
In 1999 he was granted the Palestine Award for Music. In turn, he contributed the financial portion of the award to the National Conservatory of Music at Birzeit University in Palestine. In 2005, Khalife was named UNESCO Artist for Peace. He lives in Paris, France.
One son, Bachar Khalife, is a percussionist; the other, Rami Khalife [1], is a virtuoso pianist and an accomplished composer who graduated from the Juilliard School.
Marcel Khalife was born in 1950 in Amchit, a small coastal village north of Beirut. His grandfather was a fisherman.
His first lessons in music was with a retired military man, a teacher in his village, Hanna Karam, who advised the parents of the young boy to let him continue learning music. His mother died of cancer when he was 16 years old. He studied the oud at the National Academy of Music in Beirut and contributed to the expansion of the possibilities of the oud.