Amina Alaoui ( ar, أمينة العلوي; born 1964) is a Moroccan interpreter of Andalusian classical music. She sings in Arabic, Classic Persian, Haketia, Spanish, and Portuguese. Amina was born in 1964 in an aristocratic family in Fez, Morocco. At the age of six, she started to learn Andalusi classical music in her own family environment. She learned to play the piano and was initiated in European classical music by the conductor Mohamed Abou Drar. Amina also studied at the conservatory of Rabat from 1979 to 1981 with Ahmed Aydoun and Mohammed Ouassini and studied

modern dancing Modern dance is a broad genre of western concert or theatrical dance which included dance styles such as ballet, folk, ethnic, religious, and social dancing; and primarily arose out of Europe and the United States in the late 19th and early 20th ...

with Marie-Odile Loakira and classic dancing with Vera Likatchova. Amina went to school at Lycée Descartes and studied

philology Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as ...

and Spanish and Arabic

linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Lingu ...

at the University of Madrid and the

University of Granada The University of Granada ( es, Universidad de Granada, UGR) is a public university located in the city of Granada, Spain, and founded in 1531 by Emperor Charles V. With more than 60,000 students, it is the fourth largest university in Spain. Apar ...

Andalusian classical music

While studying in

Granada Granada (,, DIN: ; grc, Ἐλιβύργη, Elibýrgē; la, Illiberis or . ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, at the c ...

, Amina did research on Arab-Andalusian and oriental music and specialized in Andalusian classical music, specifically in the

gharnati Gharnati (Arabic: الغرناطي) refers to an Algerian variety of Andalusian classical music originating in Tlemcen. Its name is derived from the Arabic name of the city of Granada. Gharnati has also become an established tradition in other ...

(Arabic for "''of Granada''") style of music. She moved to Paris in 1986, where she continued her practical studies of gharnati music with Rachid Guerbas and Ahmed Piro. There she also studied European Medieval music with Henri Agnel and Persian classical music with Djalal Akhbari. In 2011 she released '' Arco Iris'' (ECM), which bridged musical traditions of Portuguese

fado Fado (; "destiny, fate") is a music genre that can be traced to the 1820s in Lisbon, Portugal, but probably has much earlier origins. Fado historian and scholar Rui Vieira Nery states that "the only reliable information on the history of fado wa ...

, Spanish

flamenco Flamenco (), in its strictest sense, is an art form based on the various folkloric music traditions of southern Spain, developed within the gitano subculture of the region of Andalusia, and also having historical presence in Extremadura an ...

, and Persian and Arab-Andalusi classical music.

Discography

*Gharnati:Musique arabo-andalouse du Maroc (1995) *Alcántara (1998) *Gharnati: En Concert (2009) *'' Siwan'' (ECM, 2009) with

Jon Balke Jon Georg Balke (born 7 June 1955) is a Norwegian jazz pianist who leads the Magnetic North Orchestra. He is the younger brother of saxophonist Erik Balke. Career Balke started playing classical piano but switched to blues at 12, though he ...

*'' Arco Iris'' (2011,

ECM ECM may refer to: Economics and commerce * Engineering change management * Equity capital markets * Error correction model, an econometric model * European Common Market Mathematics * Elliptic curve method * European Congress of Mathematics ...

)

Collaborations

Lluís Llach Lluís Llach i Grande (; born 7 May 1948) is a Catalan singer-songwriter, novelist and politician from Spain. He is one of the main representatives of the ''nova cançó'' genre and an outspoken advocate of the right to self-determination ...

: Un Pont de Mar Blava (1993) * Rachid Taha: Diwan (1998) *Music From The Heart of the World: Sounds True Anthology (2000) *Women's Sacred Chants (2003) * Rachid Taha: Diwan Live in Concert (2005)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alaoui, Amina 1964 births 20th-century Moroccan women singers 21st-century Moroccan women singers Living people People from Fez, Morocco