…The man behind those illustrious words remains, to this day, famous for the madness guiding his pen. And yet, Nietzsche’s rupture with socially delineated sanity has brought him much closer/has made him all the closer to a world where sanity and insanity often intertwine, for he was a devoted disciple of music.

Hanine, on a much humbler scale according to her own words, is just such a disciple. What this versatile artist owes to music transpires beyond mere indebtedness…

Music, and the violin in particular, have forged this self-made musician into an independent woman aspiring to severe all ties with an immutably patriarchal society, and impose the long-denigrated model of the emancipated female upon the rigid bigotry of the environment she was raised in.

In spite of having been denied the right to ambition, on account of potential “physical” impediments along the line of “stunted fingers”, her innate sense of revolt against prejudice and patriarchy propelled her high on the echelon as she honed her craft at the Lebanese Conservatory and graduated against all odds, and against all hindrances.

What Hanine seeks to convey through her music, as well as her dancing (for dance and music cannot but be brought into unison), is freedom and emancipation from mental, societal, and traditional shackles. Her ultimate purpose is for her performances to prompt her audience, especially the women who have been brought up in a prim society, to understand and work towards evolving into the crucial element they were born to be.

As she begun her career as a professional violinist, her horizons soon widened, allowing her to meet with and learn from various cultures across the globe, which translated into transcontinental tunes, and a spontaneous-albeit well structured-incorporation of every energy she’s been acquainted with during her voyages, into her dancing. This knitting together of cultures into art brought her closer to her own public, be it at home, or abroad.

While assiduity and determination to communicate her passion for music to her audience are the primary driving forces upon which her engrossing performance essentially rests, Hanine’s success as violinist stems not from sheer luck, but from a lifelong dedication to an instrument that shaped her identity with every cord her bow struck…

What begun as a tale of love between a young girl and her instrument soon transpired and soared to heights she had never dared conceived of.