Meet Johnny Hachem and some of his piano play achievements: Johnny Hachem is a Switzerland based composer and pianist, who was born in Lebanon to parents of musical backgrounds. His father played Violin while his mother had a great talent for Piano. He developed an impeccable ear refined over time listening carefully to his mom’s music. He grew up surrounded by sounds, music sheets as well chords which served an important role during his childhood years due to war-torn country’s complicated politics. However, whenever fire ceased he would play piano left handed even if it meant practicing alone! See extra details on Johnny Hachem.
Simplicity. In some cases less is more and silence can be the loudest instrument. Yet, it feels many can’t bear the idea of multi-layered compositions where there is a dialogue and sometimes unisound other times cacophonic togetherness. Instead, blunt overspeaking and emphasizes rule both contemporary pop/rock and easy listening compositions. Where and how can we find the true resonance in a musical piece? Johnny HachemJohnny Hachem: This is a very interesting question and can’t be answered shortly but what I want to say, for me, it always depends on the beauty of the music. You can listen to a very complicated musical composition which can easily enter into the ears of the audience due to its beauty. I will also talk about Rachmaninov here who composed the most difficult piano concertos in history, but everyone loves those concertos because they are amazingly beautiful. As for myself, every piece must be unique and must reflect a certain story – and it can be very simple but beautiful and deep at the same time. Jacob & Rachel is not a complicated orchestral piece and you can always hear the beautiful love melodies inside. Also, it has won an international award because I could make the combination between the simplicity and uniqueness at the same time.
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.
He is a very talented musician who has composed music for several films, including the award-winning documentary by Carmen Labaki: “I Knocked on The Temple’s Door”. To name just some of his work he also wrote piano concertos as well clarinet and violin pieces among others that have been performed around Europe & the Middle East. Johnny Hachem’s music is like a window to his soul. The way he sees things, the feelings that are evoked in people by his compositions – it all comes through so clearly and with such honesty of expression because Johnny himself has been there before you know.