Illya Amar studied classical percussion in the Paris superior conservatory and then chose the Vibraphone and marimba as his main instrument which he study with David Friedman in Berlin to be able to play jazz, classical chamber music or folk songs.
Illya developed his jazz career collaborating tightly with the guitar player Nguyên Lê in many project: Songs of Freedom (award winner of many prizes), Dark Side 9 (Pink Floyd tribute), and currently with Sreams 4tet (CD to be released in March 2019).He plays in the large ensemble of Regis Huby: The Ellipse with many great musicians as Marc Ducret, Claudes Tchamitchan...
During a long stay in India, Illya has discovered the tablas and traditional instruments of Rajasthan where he has studied with Maesh Dalvi and Gazi Khan Manganyar and decided, at his return in France, to collaborate with traditional musicians: brazil an singer Aline de Lima, vietnamese singer Huong Thanh and léa Sarfati in the duo Lame Vocale :prizewinners of Fondation CIMA in 2007 and recipient of the prestigious « Coup de cœur » award from the FNAPEC competition. The duo perform around the globe, including France, Italy, Germany,USA, Poland, Afghanistan...
With the Argentinian Kena flute player matias Marcipar, and the Slovak cello player Ladislav Szathmary, he creates the Dos Soles trio. There debut CD, produced by ICI Label, was released in october 2006.
He meet the great tabla player Prabhu Edouard with whom he start a collaboration with Keyvan Chemirani (zarb) or also Magic Malik at the prestigious Abbaye de Royaumont.
Illya has played with the ensemble Carpe Diem (chamber music) and has been involved in the association Esperenz'art, playing with the great violinist Alexandra Soumm (concert in London, Berlin, Wien, Rome, Bruxelles, Cambodgia...)
Illya is an award winner of the italian competition: Strade del Cinema (music on silent movie) in 2010, and has been working on film’s scoring since then.
Along his career, he has been working with many great artists as: Leila Martial, Organic 5tet, Céline Bonacina, Stéphane Galland, Linley Marthe, Chris Jennings, Anne Paceo, Sylvain Rifflet...
