Yinon Muallem

Changing Moments Yinon Muallem

Through his music, Yinon Muallem uniquely combines his abilities as a composer along with his rich experience as a percussionist. He creates music which distinctively combines rhythms and melodies from an array of musical genres. Yinon was born in Israel in 1968 to parents of Iraqi origin. He began his musical career playing latin percussion but was drawn to Middle Eastern music - going back to his roots. Through his career he has developed his own unique style, playing Middle Eastern percussion instruments such as the darbuka, the def, the bendir, the Iranian zarb, the kanjira and the gatham (the south Indian tamborine). In 1998 he began playing the oud and later went to Istanbul to study with Yurdal Tokcan - one of Turkey's foremost oud players. Later, Yinon joined Istanbul Sazendeleri, a Turkish instrumental group which is made up of some of the leading virtuosos of Turkish music. Yinon has performed with Ross Daly (Greece), Yair Dalal (Israel), Omer Faruk Tekbilek (Turkey, USA), Alim Gasimov (Azerbaijan), Piris Eliyahu (Israel), Eyal Sela (Israel), Sam Rozbahan (Iran), Zhubin Kalhor (Iran), Muhammed Alnuma (Iraq) and Sheldon Sands (US). Yinon's music is not limited to one specific style. This can be seen through his collaberations with such artists as the accomplished Turkish classical harpist Sirin Pancaroglu and through his participation with the Turkish Tekfen Philharmonic Orchestra and the Israeli Andalusian Orchestra. Yinon has performed in various festivals and has given concerts in Japan, Turkey, Estonia, Spain, the USA, Belgium, England, Holland, Greece, Switzerland, France, Bosnia, Cyprus and Israel. In 2003 Yinon released his first original album Changing Moments (Magda Records), in which his talents as a composer and arranger were exposed for the first time. He released his second album Klezmer for the Sultan in 2005 (Oriente Muzik). In addition to composing, performing and recording, Yinon conducts percussion workshops and has released an Instructional D.V.D on Middle Eastern percussion. Yinon currently lives in Istanbul, where he continues to create, develop and perform his music.