Concerto for Peace

Mathieu Bonnin joined the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris in 2008 in musical culture as well as Gregorian choir. Passionate about conducting, he went on an Erasmus exchange to the Birmingham Conservatory in musicology, majoring in conducting and organ. He also sang in Birmingham Cathedral’s professional choir.

He was successively choirmaster of the Maîtrise du Conservatoire of the 6th quarter in Paris, then of the Maîtrise de la Cathédrale de Chartres. From September 2015, he became choir director of the Petits Chanteurs de Saint-Dominique and joined the Orchestra of Paris choir in residence at the Philharmonie de Paris.

In 2019, he obtained a master’s degree in conducting with distinction at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. He was assistant conductor at the Théâtre National de Bruxelles and the Opéra Royal de Wallonie.

It was in 2023 that Omar Harfouch sent him a recording of his music, to which he quickly agreed to collaborate by performing the work of Omar Harfouch with the Ensemble Sequentiae Orchestra. Sharing these strong moments led to a true friendship. This is the magic of music!

Omar Harfouch was born on 20th April 1969 in Tripoli, Lebanon. Omar is a humanist, committed philanthropist, pianist, and composer, residing in Paris since 1984.

Fascinated by the piano, which he taught himself from an early age, he perfected his art after winning a piano competition organized during Gorbachev’s era in Moscow. He studied piano with Natalia Vladimiravna Protsenko and composition at the Glinka Conservatory in Dnipro, Ukraine.

In December 2023, he was appointed Honorary President of the European NGO “Dialogue and Diversity” based in Brussels. On 24th February 2024, he was awarded the Creation Prize for “Concerto for Peace” during the CAEL Awards in Dubai. A month later, he received the “Universalism for Peace Prize” from LICRA. On 5th September, he received the Best Peace Production award from the Better World Fund at the Venice Film Festival.

On 14th November, Omar performed his “Concerto for Peace” at the Vatican Apostolic Library, opened to the public for the first time. On 16th November, he was received in a private audience by His Holiness Pope Francis, who described him as “a pilgrim of peace.”

Founded in 1980, the original band played under the name Gipsy Kings. After several successful albums, including “Bamboléo” and “Mosaique,” they became Chico & The Gypsies. More than a dozen albums followed, some going gold or platinum.

In 1994, Chico replaced the Gipsy Kings at a concert organized at UNESCO to mark the first anniversary of the peace treaty between Israel and Palestine, attended by Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat. In 1996, he was appointed UNESCO’s Special Envoy for Peace by Captain Cousteau.

In 2001, he was made Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres. In 2016, he was awarded Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur by President François Hollande for his commitment to promoting peace and tolerance.

Through their backgrounds and shared commitment to peace, Omar Harfouch composed a work that he and Chico & The Gypsies performed together for the first time at the Dubai Opera on 7th December 2024.