Their fingers played on the strings of their inspiring lutes, to emit mellow music that enchanted the presence and took them to the worlds of freedom and peace, sending their audience creative hymns from Palestinian youth, and messages of love to those who love peace, mixed with a taste of Palestine and its history, taking this audience to a world with love between religions, away from hate crimes, with equal respect to all souls on this earth, whether away or still witness the afflictions on earth.
This is how the Palestinian and global Le Trio Joubran and the cultural partner of Bank of Palestine, concluded their series of concerts in a number of cities and Southern France; during the period of organizing these concerts that took place in each of the cities (Bourdieu, Bogios, Cali, Angouleme and Sapizzat), the French capital, Paris, lived through difficult conditions due to the incident of killing of journalists from Charlie Hebdo Magazine, in which the band travelled to Luxembourg to conclude its series of concerts with a message of love and respect to all religions and prophets and in opposition to violence against press and media.
In spite of the incidents that took place in France, all of the concert tickets have been sold out two weeks prior to the concerts, where all the theaters had complete attendance and seats where filled to attend Le Trio Joubran’s performances; the audience was engaged with their music, as they played a number of pieces that mixed between the east and the west, which expressed human feelings, such as fear, courage, humanity and rebellion, which had an obvious impact that attracted the audience’s attention and continuous respect throughout, as they listened to the music and continuously applauded at the end of the concert.
Le Trio Joubran performed their last concert in a grand ceremony held in Luxembourg, where the band presented their work in “Philharmonic” Hall, one of the most important international halls for classical music. Over the course of one hour and a half, a large audience listened to the music of Le Trio Joubran, from their albums “Majaz, Asfar”, with long applause and demanding the return of the band to the stage three times after concert was over, to allow for two or more hours of lute music that touched the sorrow of the audience and created a beautiful atmosphere of culture and art.
In an exclusive interview with Samir Joubran, the older brother and the founder of Le Trio Joubran, he reported the history of their work since twelve years ago, during which Le Trio Joubran presented a number of concerts in the French capital, their primary residence, and the city that the band started from and established a production company, in addition to other concerts in a large number of Arab and international theaters. Throughout the twelve years, the band performed more than 500 concerts, during which the band presented music mixed with the Palestinian culture with its rich details.
Joubran indicated that the French audience takes a great credit in receiving and disseminating their music and dealing with the Palestinian identity as a prominent and wealthy culture, capable to live with and impact western societies; Joubran added that through its presence in France, the band was able to gather many French fans, where Le Trio Joubran;s albums achieved the best selling albums consecutively in France.
Joubran also revealed that the band composed music for a number of dance performers, soundtracks for films in the international cinema, as these films obtained numerous awards, including “Last Trip” staring the French actress “Mario Cottier” who won an Oscar, and the film “Adieu Gary”, which received the committee’s award in Cannes Film festival, and an award for best soundtrack, which was composed by the band. The Palestinian band received wide media coverage in most newspapers and TV channels in France and around the world.
Joubran also indicated that his band performed concerts in the most import theaters for global music, including “Odeon Theater” with the late Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, and theaters of "Shanley", UNESCO, "Segal", “Champs-Elysees" and the "Olympic" which embraced for the first time Palestinian bands throughout a historic event.
Joubran continuous to add that throughout this long journey, Palestine was strongly present, as they are a band with Palestinian culture and a global audience who they hold a message of peace and freedom for, as their statements revolved around hope for a better future for Palestine with no occupation, as Le Trio Joubran’s lutes are their only weapon to defend their freedom of speech and to express their anger towards the occupation’s practices; they delivered their people’s humanitarian causes, and provided various charitable concerts for Palestinian projects, which reflected through the liberation of their music from the pressure of identity on culture.
Regarding his opinion about the incident in the French capital of the attack on “Charlie Hebdo” Magazine, which claimed the lives of a number of French journalists after publishing cartoons offensive to Islam, Joubran affirmed his rejection and conviction to terrorist acts, stressing at the same time on the freedom of media without insulting religions, prophets and apostles. He expressed Le Tri Joubran’s condolences to the families who lost someone in the attack, emphasizing on the freedom of opinion and expression, which enhances cultural creativity around the world. In addition, Joubran thanked the French government for its support and latest stance towards Palestine in the Security Council.
Joubran concluded by thanking all those who contributed to the success of their national project, particularly president Mahmoud Abbas “Abu Mazen”, for his continuous support to culture and Palestinian creativity; he also valued the cultural relationship between Le Trio Joubran and Bank of Palestine, noting that it contributes in enhancing the band’s creative sense, and particularly thanked Mr. Hashim Shawa, Chairman and General Manager of Bank of Palestine, who praised the band’s performance, creativity and development.
La Trio Joubran received a group of local and international awards and distinctions, including the Distinction of Merit and Excellence from President Mahmoud Abbas, Arab Creativity Award from the Arab Thought Foundation, the Arab Stamp Award from Dubai Film Festival two times in a row, Palestine’s international award for Excellence and Innovation and many others.