Rami Khalifé (25/09/1981) is a French-Lebanese composer and pianist. Khalifé was born in Beirut, Lebanon, into a family of musicians. His father is musician Marcel Khalifé and his mother is vocalist Yolla Khalifé. His brother is the percussionist Bachar Mar-Khalifé. Khalifé lived in Beirut until the age of eight when his family moved to Paris as part of a large wave of Lebanese people emigrating to France during the Lebanese Civil War. He eventually got French citizenship. In Paris, Khalifé attended the Conservatoire National de Région de Boulogne-Billancourt where he studied piano with Louis-Claude Thirion and Marie-Paule Siruguet, and later with Lebanese pianist Abd El Rahman El Bacha. Khalifé was awarded first place on piano and a degree in music theory. In 2000, Khalifé moved to New York City to study piano with Hungarian pianist Gyorgy Sandor at the Juilliard School of Music. He graduated in 2003.