Marouan Benabdallah was born in Rabat to a Hungarian musician mother and a Moroccan physicist father. With a musical heritage deeply rooted in the Hungarian tradition, Marouan Benabdallah received his formal training at the Béla Bartók Conservatory (class of Gábor Eckhardt) and the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, Hungary (classes of Sándor Falvai and Kálmán Dráfi). In parallel, he was mentored for more than 10 years by the legendary Ferenc Rados.
He first attracted international attention in 2003, following his successes at the Hungarian Radio Piano Competition and the Andorra Grand Prize. He was a prizewinner also in international competitions in Portugal (Viseu), in France (Paris), in Italy (Naples, Gorizia), at the Hilton Head Piano Competition (US) and the Arthur Rubinstein Master Competition in Tel-Aviv.
Marouan Benabdallah has been praised for his “miraculous” playing (Maariv, Israel), “stunning natural virtuosity” (Nice-Matin), “delicate stylishness” (Cleveland Plain Dealer), "compelling sense of momentum" (Washington Post) and "resourceful pianism, lyrical instincts and thoughtfulness" (New York Times). He has been invited as guest soloist by numerous orchestras in Europe, Asia, America and Africa, and has collaborated with conductors such as Lorin Maazel, Charles Dutoit, Zoltan Kocsis, Renato Palumbo, Tan Lihua, Iván Fischer and many others.
He has performed on major stages around the world, among them the Great Hall of the Liszt Academy and MÜPA in Budapest, the Salle Cortot and the Invalides in Paris, the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg, the Konzerthaus in Berlin, the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing, the Oriental Art Centre in Shanghai, numerous Grand Theatres across China (Hangzhou, Ningbo, Fuzhou, Sanming, Tianjin, Chongqin), the Teatro Comunale di Bologna, the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, the Teatro Mayor in Bogotá, the Maison Symphonique in Montreal, the NCPA in Bombay, the Cairo Opera House, Carnegie Hall in New York, the Kennedy Center and the Library of Congress in Washington, the Aspen Music Festival, the Gstaad Music Festival, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Wigmore Hall in London and many more.
In 2014, he initiated the Arabæsque Music Project, a pioneering artistic and research initiative dedicated to uncovering and performing works by classical composers from the Arab world. Now in its second decade, the project has brought to light over 120 composers whose works often blend Western classical forms with Arab musical traditions.
He is a “Yamaha Artist” and serves on the piano faculty at the Budapest Liszt Academy [University] of Music since 2021.
FB: @marouan.piano
IG: @marouan_benabdallah
Email: mba.lfze[at]gmail.com
Communication (written and spoken): Hungarian, English, French, Arabic, Mandarin