When the great trumpet player Ibrahim Maalouf celebrates the diva Oum Kalthoum, whose voice irrigated Middle Eastern imagery, it will be a meeting of two worlds: folklore and modernity.
An icon of Egyptian music, Oum Kalthoum was capable of performing eight-hour concerts, captivating the crowds with her vocal depth. It was in honour of this emblematic singer and political and feminist figure, whose heritage still resonates strongly, that Ibrahim Maalouf created in 2016 the album Kalthoum. This is a contemporary and instrumental interpretation of Mille et Une Nuits, one of the masterpieces in the singer’s repertoire.
“Kalthoum is a celebration of the women who have made their mark in history. I wanted to pay homage to a voice that shaped my childhood and remains a monument for Arab people,” explains Ibrahim Maalouf, who was born in Beirut and spotted in 2017 by Quincy Jones for the richness of his improvisations.
To mark the 50th anniversary of the Middle Eastern star’s passing, the musician, who has won major classical trumpet competitions and is a jazz devotee, will put on a rare concert: a new Kalthoum, with a virtuoso jazz quintet.
After touring such prestigious venues as the Victoria Hall in Geneva, the Luxembourg Philharmonic and the Femina Theatre in Bordeaux, he will return to the Opéra de Monte-Carlo. This is a setting he knows well, and where he played for the first time in 2019.
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Free and passionate, Gabi Hartmann composes her music according to the cultures and rhythms she encounters.
Born in Paris in 1991, the singer, guitarist and songwriter is part of a new generation of nomadic artists, who intertwine languages and sounds.
Her first album that came out in 2023 – simply titled Gabi Hartmann – introduced her to the general public: more than twenty million streams worldwide, a Japan Gold Disc Award as a new international artist, and appearances in major festivals in Montreal, Marciac and Vienna, accompanied by jazz musicians.
With her gentle, enveloping voice, Gabi is captivating.
What is her story?
Born to open-minded doctors, she began piano lessons at 8 and wrote her first songs at 16. After completing her studies in political science and ethnomusicology, it was during an Erasmus stay in Brazil that she realised she was going to devote her life to music, so she returned to study jazz at the Paris Conservatoire. Performing sold-out concerts in the capital’s clubs, she told the story of her journey in her first opus as if through a collection of photos.
This season, she is coming to Monaco for the first time with her second album, La femme aux yeux de sel, lulled by the waves of an imaginary island. The single Into My World, co-written with Jesse Harris, is its front door.
