Her name is Christiane Karam, but everyone in Bulgaria calls her Christiane or Christiancheto. She loves those transcriptions. “I feel special that way, I enjoy the Bulgarian versions of my name,” she says. Christiane is a lecturer at Berkley College, a singer, a festival organizer and a leading vocal of different music formations. At the moment she is co-host of a master class in singing, at the invitation of her teacher and idol Bobby McFerrin. The summer school takes place near New York. Christiane was really glad to join the lecturer’s team of the great musician, as she used to sing in his band. “He has taught me incredibly precious things not only related to singing, but also to the attitude towards music, to the freedom of spirit. In 2009 she participated in the Music Instinct: Science and Song documentary with Bobby McFerrin and cellist Yo-Yo Ma. Christiane’s US multinational band is named ZilZALA and it has been established with the idea to unite different cultures and traditions. The band performs a mix of traditional Arab and Balkan music, strongly influenced by jazz. The word zilzala means an earthquake in Arabic.

Christiane says that her initial master class used to be in June last year and it was organized by the The Stars vocal studio. It was followed by several others in Sofia and Plovdiv. According to her the young Bulgarian musicians are very talented, eager to learn and very, very friendly. The process of learning is mutual, the singer says.

We heard a documentary recording of NAiMA – a formation of Bulgarian musicians that Christiane had a series of concerts with. The name comes from Arabic and the word is related to the qualities of God.

According to Christiane the idea occurred last summer and rehearsals and concerts kicked off as of the autumn of 2014. Both the repertoire and the essence of the project are related to the ZilZALA thing. The goal is the different musical traditions to become closer and more accessible to people around the world. Christiane finds it a pleasure to present Eastern traditions to the Western audience and is really glad whenever people show curiosity towards her music. She comes from the East and has grown up with the music of her parents – a Lebanese father and an Armenian mother, combined with classic piano and jazz, along with the passion for Indian, African traditional music and many others.

English version: Zhivko Stanchev