Johnny Hachem or the upsurge of a gifted pianist: 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 even more details on 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.
While sharing his experiences, Johnny revealed, “My mom used to play the piano while my dad played the violin. They were my biggest influence. I remember very well how touching it was to hear them play together when I was a child.” Besides his parents, other renowned names in the industry have deeply impacted him, including Richard Wagner and John Williams. “Richard’s music affected me a lot when I was young, and it used to take me to another world. I felt that I could live my best feelings while listening to it. I wanted to be a composer like him and compose music that affects people and makes them feel better,” explained the piano genius. Fast forward to the present, he added, “I believe John Williams is the best composer in today’s time and age. His music is breathtaking. He is a wonderful conductor and pianist as well. I learn a lot from him.”
Let’s have some fun: Douglas Adams said Bach invented blues. I tend to agree with him. What about you? Johnny Hachem: I definitely agree! For example, the American Jazz composer and pianist, the founder of the “Modern Jazz Quartet” was heavily influenced by Bach. He did a Jazz album of Bach compositions “Blues on Bach” and The American Jazz saxophonist, violinist, trumpeter & composer Ornette Coleman did many solos on Bach’s Prelude in C major. For me, Bach is the father of all music genres.
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.
I was born into a musical family. My dad, who passed away 10 months ago, used to play violin and my mom the piano. I remember very well how beautiful it was to listen to them playing music together at home and in church. And I was influenced by them a lot. But when I was a child, we had war in Lebanon and it was difficult to attend the music school, so I put a lot of time into piano improvising and trying to make my own music. My mom started to help me and after that, when the war stopped, I started studying music officialy.