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Johnny Hachem or the climb of a talented composer: Johnny Hachem composed the music of many films, most notably the documentary film by Carmen Labaki: “I Knocked on the Temple’s Door”. To his name, he has a piano concerto, clarinet concerto, Violin concerto and a large variety of instrumental and orchestral compositions that have been performed in Europe & the Middle East. His music was broadcasted on different Radio stations in the Middle East, The United Kingdom, Brazil, Central America and The Caribbean. Hachem was a professor at the Lebanese National Higher Conservatory of Music. He has achieved a Masters degree in composition with distinction. See more info on https://soundcloud.com/johnny-hachem.

Some of your works are artistic storytelling of war drama, like “The Battle of Siddim” or biblical themes, like “The Fall of Jericho” or your award-winning “Jacob & Rachel, The Love Story” others are more of standalone pieces like “Dawn”. How do you choose your themes? Is there a constant composing process like Haydn had or you go with improvisations to hone your pieces? Johnny Hachem: My musical compositions often talk about specific events that happened in the past or about certain circumstances that I lived or I dream of living. But when I am playing my own compositions in a piano recital, I always like to have a space to improvise according to how I feel at the time. Improvisation is an essential part of composition. The great composer Rachmaninov did this at several concerts when he was performing his own compositions.

He also composed a very successful orchestral piece, ‘The Battle of Siddim’, now known as ‘The Valley of the Dead Sea.’ This composition has been chosen and performed by The Lebanese Philharmonic, Lebanon, Lublin Philharmonic, Koshalin Symphony & Torun Symphony orchestra in Poland in just one year. Oriental Piano Project is one of the most uniquely composed tunes he has worked on. For that, he chose a good number of old traditional songs from the Orient that had never been written for the piano before. The project became extremely successful as these arrangements were performed in more than 15 countries in the last 12 years and were greatly admired by the audience.

How can one make ends meet from composing in this era? Johnny Hachem: To keep the beauty in anything modern he/she composes. And the biggest proof for me is “Jacob & Rachel, The Love Story” it has won the 3rd prize among hundreds of contemporary compositions… Is it important as a classical musician to “be out there” and “sell yourself”? Johnny Hachem: Not at all! Have you ever thought of writing a piece with bel canto vocals in it? Johnny Hachem: Sure I did that before…

Johnny Hachem composer and pianist, was born in Beirut. He is a live performer, as well as a film composer. He holds two international awards including the 2009 international award for the Music Composition from the The International Composition Conference (Cergy-pontoise, France). The music industry in the US is huge. With a lot of mainstream and underground musicians trying to make it big in the industry, it is only a handful of extremely talented individuals who shine bright in the crowd.

How does it feel these days living in Ukraine, a tinderbox in the world, a multi-ethnic country, one famous for art and creativity? Johnny Hachem: I love Ukraine so much, it is my second country by all meanings. First, this country is very beautiful and so are its people. I got to know my wife Tetiania (Ukrainian) when I was giving a concert here nine years ago and I fell in love with the Ukrainian culture. The people of this country love music and art and they are pioneers in all artistic fields.