Traveling with Chester has received tonight one of the most important artists in current music, the Lebanese violinist Ara Malikian, who has opened up on the channel with Risto talking about the ups and downs of his career, his childhood in a country at war or his arrival to Spain.
Thanks to the instrument, Malikian obtained a passport to get away from the conflict and thus be able to earn a living in other lands. Her unorthodox look full of tattoos and her curly hair in the wind are her hallmark, and her sensitivity and connection with the public form the key to her success.
The musician has recounted that the violin is a symbol of union in his family, since it literally saved his grandfather’s life: “He lost his entire family in the Armenian genocide, but a Turkish man gave him a violin and told him to pretend to be a musician from a group, which he did and was saved. Then my father fell in love with the instrument, when he was older, and then there’s me,” he explains.
The violinist does not remember his life without the instrument: ”The violin was always there” and he is not able to tell Risto when he started playing it. In addition, he has recognized that his father almost imposed it on him, so it’s a good thing he fell in love with the string instrument and was able to lead an exciting life.
Raised in Beirut, Malikian admits that he currently hates fireworks because they remind him of the bombings: “They scare me, I think even the bombings were prettier.” The interpreter narrates the reality that he lived in his childhood with incredible serenity: ”One day a bomb fell on us. I lived it, but I did not see it. My cousin saw how the bomb fell on top of my cousin and suddenly she was no longer there, there were only pieces,” he explains.
”One day the militias entered our house. I was alone with my parents, and they beat up my father, they pointed the gun at his head. That has marked me ”, he narrates. Years later, thanks to his skill with the violin, he managed to leave the territory and settle in Germany to study music, something that saved him and ensured him a future.
”I dressed up because I was ashamed of myself. I plucked my eyebrows, ironed my hair… Then I found my personality, but the classical world is so small that if someone stands out it’s frowned upon,” explains Ara. He assures that he did not feel well in that environment and dared to leave this type of music.
”Playing in an orchestra took away all my creativity. You have no personality, you can’t do what you want. I always compared it to a flock of sheep.” Now, with a career behind him where he has been able to experiment and play the violin the way he wanted, he sees from afar those days where he rehearsed up to 14 hours a day, obsessed with becoming someone. Ara Malikian acknowledges that when he plays ”he goes into a trance in which he feels the energy of the public”, a sensation that is difficult to define, but very exciting and enriching.
Risto asked him curiously why the artist chose Spain to live. He explained that he got to know the country on a tour and liked it a lot, but that he returned to Germany, which is where he lived at the time: “But then my apartment burned down. Only my violin was saved, like a miracle. There was a short circuit and the entire floor burned, I had nothing left, only the instrument”.
Due to this event, he decided to move to Spain since he had loved it. He began living in the Madrid neighborhood of Lavapiés and frequenting flamenco bars, where he met Joaquín Cortés’ uncle, who offered him a job. He has also taken advantage of the television space to tell that, after 15 years living in the country, his nationality was denied: “I had a permanent job, I had paid taxes for many years, and despite the fact that the orchestra told me that if I wanted help through sockets, I refused and they denied it to me”. At the moment, Risto asked him if he finally opted for the plug method, and the violinist said that he did and that after two months he got nationality.
