Johnny Hachem or the upsurge of a gifted composer: Johnny has performed his compositions as a soloist at several concerts and international festivals in Ukraine, Lebanon, Switzerland, France, Austria, Germany, England, Spain, Poland, Romania, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Belarus, South Korea, Jordan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar. He has also 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. Find more details at Johnny Hachem.

As music theory, can you explain for other artists why it is advantageous to discover classical chord progressions and harmonies and apply them into any genre? Johnny Hachem: Of course, it’s advantageous to discover classical chord progressions and harmonies because they are the basic of almost all the music genres or let’s say they will enrich their musical thoughts even if they won’t be used the classical school way they can affect them unconsciously. It’s well needed to study all these things but at the end, when you compose, you must not to be making just a harmony exercise: you should really have the talent to add your own thoughts…

As for learning piano and music composition, Johnny got his training from the Lebanese higher Conservatory of Music and earned a master’s degree with distinction. Since then, there has been no looking back for him. In fact, Johnny has been composing for more than 20 years and has produced music for orchestras and chamber music. Moreover, many symphony orchestras have been playing his compositions on the stages in various countries across the world.

Johnny Hachem: If you ask any modern composer, the answer will be simple: because most people have untrained ears. But as for me, there is a different simple answer: most people doesn’t like the contemporary music and art at all. Even the majority of musicians don’t like it! You know, it’s great to have modernistic elements in music and art, but going to the extreme and producing only bizarre things under the title of “contemporary” that most of people can’t digest, is not something I can agree with!

Johnny has performed his compositions world-wide in countries including, Lebanon, Jordan, Bahrain, Egypt, Qatar, France, Switzerland, Germany, England, Spain, Poland, Belarus and Ukraine. His most notable work include his composition for the documentary film I Knocked on the Temple’s Door by Carmen Labaki, and also for composing “The Fourth Watch”, which was performed by the Lebanese Philharmonic Orchestra in December 2014 and “The Battle of Siddim” performed by the Lebanese Philharmonic Orchestra in May 2017 and by “Lublin Philharmonic orchestra”, Poland in October 2017.

Classical music these days more of a sub-niche with rigid frames and for many it is boring and full with repetitions. It is true, even Verdi became quite “pop” in some of his works, not to mention Chopin or Donizetti. Ok, maybe Bartok was a different league and an exception; however, there is a trend to “lighten up” the classical pieces to make it more acceptable for the masses. As a composer and performer, how do you see this, what are your experiences? Johnny HachemJohnny Hachem: I will divide my answer into two parts: First, I believe that people listen to classical music more than ever, but that is through movies and video games, however, most of them don’t like listening to it in a concert hall and that’s because of the strict etiquette rules there; you can’t clap between the movements of the musical piece even if you were very excited, you can’t cough now, you can’t move… in other words, you can’t express your emotions as you do in pop or rock concerts… To tell you the truth, it wasn’t like that before. Joseph Horowitz, in his wonderful new book, Moral Fire, describes audiences “screaming” and “standing on chairs” during classical concerts in the 1890s. The New York Times records an audience that “wept and shouted, strung banners across the orchestra pit over the heads of the audience and flapped unrestrainedly” when listening to their favorite opera singer at the Met in the 1920s. And the strict rules started in 1960.