Yinon Muallem was born in Israel in 1968 to parents of Iraqi origin. After earning his bachelor's degree from the University of Tel Aviv, he found himself drawn to the world of music. Starting with Middle Eastern percussion, he then began learning the oud and composing his own music.
His exposure to the beauty of Ottoman Turkish music moved him to study the Turkish oud with master Yurdal Tokcan, and in 2002 he moved to Istanbul and joined the Istanbul Sazendeleri ensemble. Under the sponsorship of the Turkish Ministry of Culture, the group is composed of some of the leading virtuosi in Turkish music. Muallem played with the group throughout Turkey and abroad, including special concerts in Japan and the Czech Republic. While in Istanbul, he conducted a host of intercultural music projects, taking part in concerts with his group in Israel and arranging joint concerts by Israeli and Turkish musicians. In 2010, he produced a concert project, 'Meetings and Music in Istanbul', which brought together musicians from different countries who were living and creating music in Istanbul.
His versatility and curiosity have brought him into collaboration with musicians including Ross Daly (Greece); Omer Faruk Tekbilek (Turkey-United States); the Tekfen Philarmonic Orchestra, İstanbul Sazendeleri, Akin Eldes, Anjelika Akbar, Sirin Pancaroglu (Turkey), Alim Gasimov (Azerbaijan); Ganesh Kumar, Subash Chandran (India) and many more.
Yinon has his own world music program in Acik Radio Istanbul and has performed in a variety of festivals and concerts in Japan, Turkey, Estonia, Spain, the USA, Belgium, England, Holland, Greece, Switzerland, France, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Morocco, Bosnia, Cyprus, Israel and Azerbaijan. He has written scores for films that have been released in Turkey, Israel, Germany and Italy. Yinon has released six albums of his compositions; his most recent in 2013 entitled Funky Dervish.
