When Dr Ibrahim Baltagi announced that he wanted to study music, his father had other ideas. Despite the fact that he was already making his way as a professional musician, having played the clarinet with the renowned Lebanese singer Fairuz and the Ziad Rahbani Orchestra from the age of 18, Ibrahim’s father saw the law as a more reliable career.
“We reached a compromise where I finished my Bachelor’s degree in Business Management,” he explains. “And then I received a full scholarship to go to Hungary and study music.”
Ibrahim’s passion for music had begun at the age of 11, when he was steered by his teachers towards the clarinet.
“I was tiny and skinny, and they said ‘well, clarinet fits you well.’ So I started playing the clarinet and it was kind of an emotional release for me because my mother and father were divorced, and I fell in love with it.”
In Hungary he studied the Kodály method, a philosophy of musical education linked to child development, before completing his Master’s and PhD in Music Education in the United States.
“At a certain point in my life, I had to decide whether I wanted to be an educator or a performer,” says Ibrahim. “You cannot fully be both—though every educator should be a performer, not every performer an educator.”
His multifaceted career does, in fact, combine both performance and education, as well as writing and conducting. But it’s his belief in the importance of music in children’s lives that has driven it. As a Professor of Music Education at Lebanon’s Antonine University he equips future music teachers with the skills to foster creativity, while he is also the Head of Music at Al-Makassed school in Beirut. He leads choirs, including on a voluntary basis, and is the author of a series of books for primary children, Let’s Read and Write Music, published in English, French and Arabic.
“Lebanon is a multilingual nation,” he explains. “So in my lecture you’re going to hear songs from three different cultures, and I’m going to juggle through them and talk about the differences. For every level, from infancy to adolescence, I’ll show three different examples, one English, one French, one Arabic, and we’re going to talk about it and its effect.”
This is not a theoretical exercise to Ibrahim, who sees music as utterly integral to the way humanity experiences the world.
“I believe that music is life. Even when you sleep your heartbeat is music. And worship is full of music – no matter what culture you belong or what religion you belong to. So to me, music is life and it runs in my blood. And I believe we need to start music as early as possible – not only with children, but even before they are born.”
The developmental benefit of music is, for Ibrahim, intertwined with its cultural significance and its ability to create a sense of connection down the generations.
“Music is deeply embedded in Lebanese culture but we’re not using it and we’re losing it. This region is very rich, but we’re not using the richness in it, unfortunately. So that’s why my job is to train teachers. We need to start with the teachers and have our own curricula so that we can rebuild that culture again through music.”
His belief in the power of music extends far beyond the classroom. While his family are based in the US, Ibrahim remains in Beirut, determined to use music as a response to unrest and turbulence.
“My mission is to spread music, because music is peace and music is life. Where there’s music, there is love. We need to look at things that reunite us, not the other way. We are humans, after all.”
Join us for Ibrahim’s lecture, Songs We Grow By at 5.30pm on Friday 6th February.
