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Donna Khalife
She starts her first piano lessons at an early age. In 2003, she moves to Paris to continue her music studies: piano, orchestration, harmony … Her conducting classes with Nicolas Brochot and her jazz and improvisation classes with Guillaume Roy contribute a lot in shaping her musical sensibilities. Under Roy's guidance, she perfects her jazz singing, composing, arranging and improvisation, as well as her piano and double bass playing .
As part of her education, she receives a 1st prize in orchestration at the Conservatoire Regional de Paris, a diploma in harmony and counterpoint, and she graduates in Jazz from the Conservatoire d'Evry.
Her eclecticism leads her to take part in different projects today, in Europe and Lebanon both as leader and side woman.
She released her first album “ Heavy Dance” featuring her quintet, in March 2017 and her second “ Hope is the thing with feathers” in November 2019.
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Donna Khalife: Hope is the Thing with Feathers
by Ian Patterson
Two-and-a-half years after her powerful debut, Heavy Dance (Self- Produced, 2017), Lebanese double bassist and singer Donna Khalifé returns with another sparkling statement. It is not an especially long time between releases, but there are significant differences between the two recordings. Heavy Dance, with guitar and saxophone to the fore, was a frequently stormy affair of edgy dissonances, odd metres and punchy angularity. Hope Is The Thing With Feathers, by contrast, is a more melodious experience. Its colors are brighter ...
read moreDonna Khalifé: On The Silent Wings Of Hope
by Ian Patterson
Ask any jazz musician in Beirut who stands out on the scene, who is doing something adventurous, something different, and the first name that comes to everyone's lips is Donna Khalifé. Classically trained in Beirut and Paris, double bassist/singer Khalifé turned her back on that world to dedicate herself completely to jazz and improvisation. Her debut album, Heavy Dance (Self-Produced, 2017), was a feisty, odd-metred affair of strikingly original compositions and bold improvisations where angularity and beauty went ...
read moreDonna Khalifé: Hope is the Thing with Feathers
by Hrayr Attarian
Lebanese vocalist and bassist Donna Khalifé is a consummate jazz artist. In addition to mastering singing in all its aspects, including scatting, she is a distinctive composer and an accomplished instrumentalist. On her second release Hope Is the Thing with Feathers she leads her quintet on intriguing interpretations of standards and her own originals. This stimulating album opens with a unique take on Rodgers and Hammerstein's My Favorite Things." After Khalifé's chant-like vocals, which the group's expectant refrains ...
read moreLebanon: Jazz And The Revolution
by Ian Patterson
When people's anger and frustration spill onto Beirut's streets, music is one of the first things to suffer. Every few years, it seems, roads are blocked, and crowds swell the downtown areaangry at Syrian intervention or political assassination, enraged by Israeli attack, sick to the teeth of inadequate garbage collection. There's always something to arouse the ire of the Lebanese people. In such times of unrest, when explosions of violence are always a possibility, gigs inevitably, ...
read moreDonna Khalife Quintet: Heavy Dance
by Hrayr Attarian
Lebanese bassist and vocalist Donna Khalife is an accomplished and prize winning musician. A child prodigy she received a premier education both in Lebanon and France and has forged lasting relations with musicians from both countries. Her quintet's debut release, Heavy Dance, is a testament to her multi-pronged talent as it showcases Khalife leading the band through a series of intriguing original compositions and improvisations. The various pieces do not abide by a single motif and often evolve ...
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