Guitar and rubab : strings passion
Born in 1965 in Kaboul, Khaled Arman is one of the most famous player of Afghan lute, the rubab. He introduced the instrument to the Persian, Indian and European sophisticated music (ancient, classical and contemporary music) when it was strictly associated with the folk repertoire. Luc Breton, lute maker in Morges, Switzerland, designed for him an instrument with enlarged capacities. Khaled Arman recorded several CD as a soloist and with his own group, The Kaboul Ensemble.
Invited to participate to numerous festivals in the world, he collaborated with viola da gamba players such as Jordi Savall and Vittorio Gielmi. He performed with the Grand Eustache Orchestra in Lausanne and with the Quatuor Barbaroque in France and also with singers like Alain Bashing and Rodolphe Burger. He created contemporary pieces of music written for his instrument (Eric Gaudibert ; Fabien Tehericsen)
Khaled Arman graduated at Prague’s Higher Musical School in classical guitar and won the First Prize at the International Competition of Radio France. Many students benefit from his double musical culture in several European schools.He wrote a rubab tutor and fights for the survival of this instrument in his country.
He writes new compositions and orchestrations for the Kaboul Ensemble, works inspired by the Afghan tradition and his musical experience while living in France.
Khaled Arman lives in Geneva.
From Kaboul to Geneva
Khaled was born in Kaboul, in a family of musicians where he was initiated to Indian and Persian music by his uncle. He also learnt to play the tabla with a master percussionist from Kharabab, the famous musicians’ suburb in Kaboul. His father, Hossein Arman, a well known singer in Afghanistan but who was trained in Europe, started to teach him classical guitar. But soon, Khaled became a virtuoso.
Talent scouts from Czechoslovakia spotted him and he entered the Prague’s Higher Musical School in classical guitar under Jiri Jirmal. Selected for the International Guitar Competition of Radio France in Paris, he won the First Prize in 1986. Then, he spent several years giving recitals.
In the 1990’s, Khaled gradually returned to Afghan music and started to play the rubab, the Afghan lute. Once in Geneva, he founded Ensemble
Kaboul , a traditional Afghan music ensemble, featuring his father as singer. With the support of ethnomusicological workshops of Geneva, the ensemble has become a world reference in Afghan music. The group is invited to give concerts and to go on tour in Europe, Asia, USA and North Africa.
Since 2014, Ensemble Kaboul has appeared on stage with new musicians (Marshal Arman singing) and new ambitions.