The twenty-second session of the Arab Music Festival and Conference in Egypt began on Friday, and is dedicated to the musician Sayed Darwish, on the occasion of the centenary of his death.
At the opening, the festival showed a short documentary film about the life of the late artist, while the Egyptian Mohamed Hassan, Syrian Lina Chamamian, and Tunisian Lotfi Bouchnak sang excerpts from his heritage with modern arrangements , and his grandson, Ahmed Darwish, sang alone. on the violin with the band.
The second part of the concert, held on the Fountain Theater in the Cairo Opera House, was performed by the Egyptian singer Medhat Saleh, who played, over an hour and a half, a bouquet of his personal songs, and some songs sung by giants such as Umm Kulhum, Abdel Halim, and Mohamed Qandil.
The program of the festival, which lasts until October 24, is full of evenings of singing performed by a group of Egyptian and Arab artists, including the Jordanian Nidaa Sharara, the Syrian Waad Al-Bahri, the Iraqi Hammam Ibrahim, the Egyptian Ali Al-Hajjar, and the Egyptian Reham Abdel-Hakim, while the Lebanese Wael Jassar and Assi Al-Halani announced their apologies because of the situation in their country.
Also participating in the festival are 33 musical bands, including the Sayed Darwish Heritage Ensemble, the Arab Heritage Music Ensemble, the Umm Kulthum Ensemble for Arabic Music, and the Alexandria Opera Ensemble for Arabic Music and Singing.
The festival’s performances are spread over the theaters of the Egyptian Opera in Cairo, the Alexandria Opera, the Damanhour Opera, the Arab Music Institute Theater, and the Republic Theater.
At the opening, the festival honored 19 famous names in the field of music, including the Moroccan singer Fouad Zabadi, the Egyptian writer Salah Al-Sharnoubi, the Saudi musician Mamdouh Saif, the Omani musician Khalid bin Hamad Al-Busaidi, Egyptian singer Muhammad Mounir, and Lebanese Composer Ziad Rahbani.
In parallel with the singing and music performances presented by the festival, an Arab Music Conference will be held, which will discuss in this session the topic “Arabic music between influence and influence, ” with the participation of researchers and experts from 20 countries.
The festival will also organize four competitions of acting, singing and musical arrangement, with the name of Ratiba Al-Hafny, the first woman to assume the leadership of the Egyptian Opera House, as well as an exhibition of art Arabic calligraphy, featuring works by Egyptian Artists Khalifa Al-Shimi and Mohamed Hassan Ahmed Atta.
