Le Trio Joubran (Samir Joubran)
الثلاثي جبران (سمير جبران)
Born: Nazareth, Israel
Domain: Music
Recognition: GLOBAL
Biography
Le Trio Joubran is a Palestinian oud ensemble formed by three brothers from Nazareth, Samir, Wissam, and Adnan Joubran, the first and most celebrated oud trio in the world. They descend from four generations of oud makers and players; their father is among the most renowned stringed-instrument makers in Palestine and the Arab world, and their mother sang the muwashshahat of Andalusia. Samir, the eldest, was born in 1973 and took up the oud at the age of five. Samir launched a solo career in 1996 with the acclaimed album Taqaseem, followed by Sou'fahm in 2001. For his third album, Tamaas, he invited his brother Wissam to join, and in August 2004, in the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris, Le Trio Joubran was born when the youngest brother, Adnan, completed the ensemble. The combination of three ouds, an arrangement with no real precedent, created a dense, polyphonic, almost orchestral sound that transformed the perception of what the instrument could do. Since their Paris debut, the Trio has achieved extraordinary international acclaim, performing at the world's most prestigious venues including Carnegie Hall in New York, the Olympia and the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, and major festivals across the globe. Backed by percussionist Youssef Hbeish, they have released a series of influential albums and built a devoted worldwide audience, becoming arguably the most internationally recognized Palestinian instrumentalists of their era. Their art is deeply intertwined with Palestinian identity and the work of Mahmoud Darwish; they composed and performed music for and with the great poet, and their concerts often serve as acts of cultural assertion, carrying the Palestinian story to global stages through the wordless eloquence of the oud. In 2019 they reached a vast new audience by collaborating with the British rock band Coldplay on the track 'Arabesque.' Wissam is also a master luthier, having trained at the prestigious violin-making school in Cremona, Italy, and he builds the very instruments the Trio plays, sustaining the family craft into a new century. This unity of making and performing gives the ensemble a singular authenticity. Le Trio Joubran's achievement has been to take a traditional Arabic instrument and, without abandoning its roots, place it at the heart of contemporary world music, redefining Palestinian instrumental music for a global audience while remaining unmistakably rooted in Nazareth.
Why This Person Matters
The world's first oud trio, they reinvented Palestinian instrumental music for global stages from Carnegie Hall to Coldplay, while remaining heirs to four generations of Nazareth oud-making.