Today we’d like to introduce you to Lina Malshy
Hi Lina, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Thank you Voyage LA for having me! I am a Palestinian film and media scoring composer and Arabic vIolin player. I moved to the United States to study at Berklee College of Music, where I currently serve as Screen Scoring Department Assistant and Head Librarian for the Film Scoring Session Orchestra. My work also included orchestrating for acclaimed composers, that visited Berklee, like Mike Post and Nainita Desai.
As a violinist, I played with the New York Arabic Orchestra in the recording of the newest Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed video game soundtrack “Mirage” by composer Brendon Angelis at Berklee Power Station Studio and participated in numerous fundraising events for Syria, Lebanon and Turkey; including performing with Simon Shaheen and ANERA’s concert in support of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
As a composer, I have written music for various short films including “Old Decorations” by Palestinian film director Rami Fahel. In addition, I worked as composer’s assistant for Anne-Marie Keane on short film “Beyond Doubt” as well as the “ART that MOVES” ballet performed by Artistic Ventures In Dance at The Theatre NYC.
Through musical and visual storytelling, I seek to shed light on the untold stories of resilience and resistance. My ultimate goal is to collaborate on documentaries that challenge dominant narratives and offer a platform for marginalized voices to be heard.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Moving to the United States was a decision I made knowing it will not be a smooth road, and definitely as much as someone could prepare for big life changes, there are challenges that come in their way they didn’t anticipate. That was the biggest lesson I learned right away. Flexibility is key to moving forward; to be open and to constantly adapt and adjust in order to achieve one’s goals.
One of the obvious challenges I faced was the language barrier. This is a challenge I did not think I would face. Especially when it came to explaining to people about my background and culture. Living in your home country your whole life you don’t really need to explain your beliefs, traditions, culture, ways of thinking and actions to your people, so that was a skill I had to develop to know how to best represent my culture and background especially as a Palestinian living in the United States.
I liked the idea of independence and living in an apartment with roommates away from my parents’ rules and restrictions but then I quickly realized how lonely it gets. As it is wonderful to come to a new place and make friends from around the world and learn about so many new cultures as ,at the same time, I had an under layer of feeling homesick, craving my grandma’s food, my mother’s hugs, my dad’s jokes and my brother’s fun company. Learning a lot of new genres of music and what it is to be a film and media composer was my main focus but sometimes I missed playing middle eastern music with my friends from back home.
For someone with big dreams and passion for music creation, it gets overwhelming; especially in a competitive field such as film and media composing and the music industry in general, you get the feeling of needing to know everything from composition to music technology, filmmaking, directors, composers etc.. That got me to pause and look at what I really want, and ask myself, what am I really good at as a musician? and what am most I curious about?
While I was asking myself these questions the war back home started again, October 7th, and it affected me and the world around me while being away from family. I had this constant urge to do something about all those thoughts and feelings which I felt like no words can express, so I wrote a piece called Sarab, meaning mirage in Arabic, portraying the dark feelings of confusion that accompanies my perception of reality and disbelief whether it is real or an illusion. Having this piece created with sounds of the Middle East and elements of the western orchestra come to life, made me realize that this is the kind of music I am most passionate about writing and wanting to write music for film and documentaries that make an impact on reality, that “challenge dominant narratives and offer a platform for marginalized voices to be heard”.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
As a student, in addition to working as a Screen Scoring department assistant, head librarian of the Film Scoring Session Orchestra and Stage Crew supervisor at Berklee College of Music, I have interned for Whole Tone Music Academy and Center of Arabic Culture as a violin instructor, assistant composer for Anne Marie Keane, studio assistant and social media management for record label inRage Entertainment.
As I previously mentioned, I am honored to have played the Arabic violin in various events for benefit concerts to support humanitarian aid for Gaza, Syria, Lebanon and Turkey with Boston Arabic Music Ensemble, Astaza, and the acclaimed oud and violin player and composer Simon Shaheen.
Currently I am so happy to be composing for a documentary filmed and directed by Annette Demirjian.
My speciality as a composer is writing orchestral middle eastern music for film and media. I am known for writing dramatic emotive scores that has middle eastern fusion which I think is what sets me apart from other film and media composers. Coming from the Middle East and being trained classical Arabic music has rooted the elements of Arabic music in my composer brain, and I am always curious about how I can incorporate that in my compositions.
How can people work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
You can best support me by following and sharing my music account where I update the world on my work @linamalshymusic and you can contact me through instagram or my website lina-malshy-music.com where you can find my music and for anything related to scoring music for films and media and Arabic violin lessons and performances.
I am very excited to work with people from all around the world and create beautiful music together!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.lina-malshy-music.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/linamalshymusic/
Image Credits
Mai K. Alsewaify
Eric@SeedMusicandArt
