Adam Maalouf
“As musicians, it is important to be disciplined and have a daily routine with your instrument!”
Have you ever seen street performers play on a steel metal UFO looking instrument? A sound that might remind you of beats in the Caribbean or South America?
That UFO looking steel instrument is called a “Pan-tam” also known as the flying saucer. We had the privilege to meet a Pantam musician, Adam Maalouf in New York City performing in a yoga class and recently connected with him again to learn more about him, his music and foundation!
Adam Maalouf is from South Carolina son of a Lebanese immigrant and American mother from Ohio. Adam grew up in a home filled with musical talents. Adam’s grandma was a local choir instructor and his mom a piano teacher. Some of his earliest memories of music was the variety of musical instruments that he had the opportunity to explore with. Growing up Adam and his older brother both experimented with musical instruments. Adam started playing the piano at the age of 3 and picked up the cello at 6 and drumming shortly after. The Maalouf brothers played in school bands, orchestras and when he got more serious about drumming, he realized when he was drumming that was when he was smiling the most. Drumming ignited happiness for Adam. He had a knack for it and his talent would eventually lead him to study percussion performance at Eastman School of Music in Rochester.
During his time at Eastman Adam took an interest in Indian percussion and after graduating he took a trip to India in 2016 to study tabla with Anindo Chatterjee, a world renowned tabla musician in Calcutta. One of the more profound influences during his time in Calcutta was attending the Dover Lane Music Conference . A 4 night cultural program held every January that runs from 7pm to 7am, which includes drama and music that began in 1952. You listen to music all night long and go back home to sleep and come back the next day for more music. This music festival inspired Adam to partake in hosting a 24hr Global PAN-demic Music Festival in collaboration with Pantam Collective earlier in April this year, gathering 27 artist from 16 different countries (Japan, Korea, Russia, Romania, France, Italy, Brazil, US, Hungary to name a few). Each artist performed an hour set and since covid really affected professional musicians this was a great way to host a concert and encourage the community to come together. Adam believes that in the next 50 years we will see more established artists with a wide variety of styles come together and play handpans.
Adam was first introduced to the handpan in 2013 by Rusty Jame and Peter Levitov. Rusty Jame and Peter Levitov are some of the earlier handpan masters that taught him the foundations, terminologies and how handpans are built. The handpan was invented in 2000 by Felix Rohner and Sabina Scharer in Bern, Switzerland. The couple’s company PANArt originally made steel drums and they began exploring how to combine steel drums and clay pot pan together and that was how various versions of what we know now as handpan was invented. In the world of percussion, this was great to merge the two together.
When you learn from traditional musicians from all over the world where you need to be traditional but sometimes you play in groups where you can play more in your style and you start to bring those influences to the table. On the handpan everything becomes an integration, and from Adam’s background and education, it is what informs him of his playing versus coming up with musical ideas out of thin air, up the river without a paddle. When learning in a traditional style of music there is a beginning and progression in place. The handpan is still so new, where are you getting your influence as someone who wants to learn so there is lots of room for creativity, each artist is bringing their own touch, flavor, and cultural influence, and style. As players as we get older, the level of playing is getting more established and sophisticated.
As a musician Adam chose to begin his musical career in NYC, it was where he produced his album Future Tribe (2017), Path of Time (2019) and East River Session (2020). It is a great city for learning, grow and network with many other established and talented artists. These days, however, Adam’s tips for artists and musicians is that you don’t necessarily have to be in a particular city since social media has a huge effect and influence on how artists and projects are taking place. Maybe because of social media one doesn’t have to be in a specific place to build collections and work on collaborations. But as musicians, it is important to be disciplined and have a daily routine with your instrument!
If you are trying to be productive as a creative artist, people are expecting it from you. When you stop putting things out then people start thinking of other things. In order to get opportunities, you have to be front of mind.
Adam takes pride in working closely with his handpan makers in the US and Israel. Saras Handpan in Asheville has custom made Adam’s handpan sets over the years. The Yishana Handpan company in Israel, in Adam’s opinion makes some of the most high-grade instruments in the world, the best sound quality. When reflecting on his musical career as a cross cultural musician and composer Adam gives credits to other amazing artists he admires and some he has had the privilege to work with. Check out a few he mentioned below in this interview with us to learn more about this amazing community of handpan artists around the world.
In light of the current pandemic we are in, Adam’s mentor and friend, Ehren Hanson created Viewcy an online ticketing platform for any events, festivals, or concerts to create a community for artists and artists merchandise from online video hosting and streaming. Because of this platform, Adam was able to curate a 24hr handpan live concert early April, you can learn more about this concert here. Professional musicians globally have really been affected during time of covid and Ehren’s Viewcy platform is a solution to allow artists to continue to earn a living and perform even though technology still can’t replace the synergy and energy produced at a live concert!
Back in 2018 Adam began working closely with many other handpan artist in NYC to grow a community where artists can conduct workshops offer classes and mentorship to other musicians and this quickly grew into what is now established as the Pantam Collective. The goal of the Pantam Collective, is to be at the forefront of encouraging people to pursue this instrument so they can continue their growth as musicians and artists. To be able to have a place to nurture and guide musicians right off the bat will make a huge difference. We are very excited to see how this community of musicians continue to grow and this instrument continues to become more mainstream! Thanks for sharing your journey and story behind this modern percussion instrument with us Adam! To learn more, follow Adam on his FB, IG, Spotify and his website and watch his performances with other artists on youtube to learn more about his work, teachings and live performances!
First published on August 7, 2020