Joelle Khoury is a Lebanese-American pianist and composer of jazz and contemporary classical music.
Background
Born in Beirut, Joelle Khoury left Lebanon for the United States after the beginning of the Lebanese Civil War. She obtained a degree in Economics and Musicology at George Mason University in Virginia. Returning to Lebanon several years later, she received a Master's Degree in Philosophy from Saint Joseph University and a piano diploma from the Lebanese Higher Conservatory of Music.
She has been invited on Extra-muros residencies in France (2002 and 2004), the Czech Republic (2006), Switzerland (2011, through Pro Helvetia) and the United States (2013) as a MacDowell Colony fellow, where she worked on her multimedia performance Palais de femmes.
For almost two decades, she has composed contemporary classical music pieces and concertos for chamber and philharmonic orchestras, as well as pieces for her own jazz quintet. Her idea of composition, not restricted to specific standard styles, eras, geographical spaces or music categories stricto sensu, led her toward contemporary music within complex jazz forms and non-traditional classical music structures. Rather than "orientalizing" her music – as a Lebanese composer – she always thought that, "A true composition is the fruit of a unique idea, developed into a concept, based in what the composer has heard, aiming at expressing an individual point of view, a certain personality. Therefore it is neither 'western' nor 'oriental,' taking into account the fact that we have all heard numerous styles of music." In the same spirit, Khoury says: "I just like music that represents who I am right now, and I use any means I possess to create it. I am mainly a composer. I am as much into contemporary classical music as I am into jazz and electronics."
Her interest in philosophy led her, after years of musical production, to obtain a PhD. Her doctoral thesis on Gilles Deleuze is entitled Théâtralité et Désir de mort créateur chez Gilles Deleuze.
Notable works
In 1995, Khoury founded In-Version, a jazz quintet performing original compositions that combine a contemporary bebop style with complex counterpoint lines. Songs such as "Circles, Is it so!, Just when you least expect" (from the album Is it so!) are typical examples of how melodies evolve on backing composite lines, which are as fundamental as the melody itself. The same concept is also encountered in some of Khoury's classical contemporary arrangements. They feature very complex and intricate backing lines, though smoothly supporting the simplest melodies. An Arabic opera monodrama for woman's voice (sung by Fadia Tomb El Hage), composed in 2008 and first played in Beirut by the Belgian chamber orchestra Ensemble Fragments, was also performed on May 4, 2012, at Esterházy Palace, Eisenstadt, Austria, by Kremerata Baltica and in Switzerland by the TaG ensemble.
Her "Variations on Imaginary Folk Dances" for string orchestra and voice rearranged traditional Middle Eastern songs on a contemporary classical music basis. It was commissioned by Kremerata Baltica for their 2012 concert, Arab-Baltic Spring, at Esterházy Palace, Eisenstadt, Austria. The piece was performed again on May 29, 2014, in Fürth and in Würzburg, Germany, by the Kremerata, along with the piece "Of Memories, Folks and I" for string orchestra, percussion and voice. Both pieces, conducted by Andris Veismanis, are based on Middle Eastern folk music, and yet expressed in contemporary style, rendered by the Lebanese alto Fadia Tomb El Hage. The 2014 concert was live-streamed by the Bayerischer Rundfunk. A symphonic version of these two pieces was also performed in May 2013 by the Lebanese National Symphony Orchestra at Saint Joseph University Church, Beirut.
"Morning Star" is a Syriac traditional church song, rearranged for brass quintet and commissioned by the Italian organization Donne in Musica for a Christmas concert (Natale in Musica 2006). Donne in Musica also commissioned "Getting Along," a concerto for two marimbas and string orchestra, performed May 2008 in Bari, Italy.
Multimedia performances include a number of performances and recordings of poems coupled with music (Music and poetry, recorded live in May 2003) or played in contemporary performances, which gather poetry, acting, music and painting. Examples include Senghor, Électroésie, Les poètes témoignent, and Palais de femmes.