Bio : Ibrahim Maalouf

Hailed as a “virtuoso” by The New York Times, trumpet superstar Ibrahim Maalouf has spent his career crossing borders and blurring genres, mixing jazz, pop, classical, electronic, Middle Eastern, and African influences into an explosive, cross-cultural swirl. Born in the midst of a deadly civil war, Maalouf escaped Beirut with his family as a child and spent his formative years in France, where he first fell in love with music’s power to transcend geography and language. After winning a string of prestigious international trumpet competitions, Maalouf began composing his own music, releasing more than a dozen acclaimed albums and establishing himself as a household name in his adopted homeland. Over the past decade alone, he’s performed in 40 countries, sold out arenas from Paris to Istanbul, been scouted by Quincy Jones, appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, raised millions for charity, and collaborated with everyone from Wynton Marsalis and Jon Batiste to Josh Groban and Sting. In 2021, Maalouf performed in front of the Eiffel Tower on Bastille Day for an audience of six million, and in 2022, he teamed up with Angelique Kidjo for Queen Of Sheba, a seven-movement symphonic suite with lyrics sung in the Yoruba language of West Africa. Maalouf’s newest collection, Capacity To Love, finds him breaking down barriers yet again as he collaborates with a host of hip-hop and R&B artists from around the world for a revelatory exploration of identity, community, and unity.