Layale Chaker

Raised on the verge of several musical streams since her childhood, Lebanese violinist and composer Layale Chaker debuted her musical training at the National Higher Conservatory of Beirut in her native Lebanon. She later pursued her musical studies at Conservatoire de Paris and the Royal Academy of Music in London, and is currently working towards her doctoral degree at Ecole des Hautes Etudes in Paris. She has studied under professors such as Mohamed Hashem, Carmen Scripcariu, Jeanne- Marie Conquer and Nicholas Miller. Layale has appeared as a soloist, performer, improviser and composer in concerts, recitals and projects around Europe, the Middle-East, North and South America and Asia, performing in Germany, France, Greece, Italy, the UK, the US, Canada, Switzerland, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Indonesia and Argentina, as well as in several festivals, namely Alderburgh Festival, Junger Kunstler Festival Bayreuth, the Lucerne Festival for Contemporary Music, Impuls’ Festival, Beethoven Festival Bonn and Avignon Festival among others. Past season highlights include a premiere work for solo violin and orchestra with the Oxford Orchestra, the premiere of her string trio by members of New World Symphony in Miami, as well as the debut tour with her own ensemble, Sarafand, across Germany, France, the UK and the USA. She has debuted her first violin concerto with the Bayreuther Philharmoniker as the orchestra’s first-ever commissioned composer in January 2018. A recent commission from Newlands Festival has also invited her for a collaboration with Holland Baroque. Layale Chaker was also recently granted the Diaphonique 2018 Franco-British Commission Fund, along with London-based Notes Inegales ensemble and musicians of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, for a creation in May 2018. As a member of Daniel Barenboim’s West-Eastern Divan, she performs around the year in concert halls such as the Royal Albert Hall, Teatro Colon, Mozarteum Salzburg, Philharmonie de Paris, Salzburg Festspiele and der Philharmonie Berlin among others. Layale Chaker is a Ruth Anderson 2017 Competition Prize winner, the recipient of the Royal Academy of Music's 2018 Guinness Award, and a finalist of the Rolex Mentor and Protégé 2018 Prize.