LAYALE CHAKER
Violinist
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, with collaborations and commissions with Oxford Orchestra, West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, Holland Baroque, Babylon Orchestra, Avignon Festival, Lucerne Festival, National Sawdust, London Jazz Festival, Wigmore Hall, and New World Symphony among others.
She is also the founder and leader of Sarafand, with whom she has released the album "Inner Rhyme" that received features in the New York Times, The Strad, Songlines as Top of The World in March 2019 with a 5-star review, NPR'S #2 of 10 Best Releases of January 2019, and was #1 for weeks on the World Charts of iTunes and Amazon Music. Layale is a Ruth Anderson 2017 Competition Prize winner, the recipient of the Royal Academy of Music's 2018 Guinness Award and the Nadia & Lili Boulanger 2019 Scheme, and a finalist of the Rolex Mentor and Protégé 2018 Prize.