http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/5/33/378284/Arts–Culture/Music/Cairo-Celebration-Choir-spreads-joy-in-new-video-T.aspx

El Gran Concierto Nacional

Con “La Gota Fría” se abre la temporada 2010-2011 de la Orquesta Sinfónica de El Cairo

La Embajada de Colombia en Egipto continua la celebración del Bicentenario

“La gota fría” y “Colombia, tierra querida” piezas presentadas por laEmbajada de Colombia, fueron las obras escogidas por el Maestro Nayer Nagui, Director de la Orquesta Sinfónica de El Cairo para iniciar el Concierto ofrecido por las Embajadas latinoamericanas que conmemoran en 2010 el Bicentenario de su independencia. A decir del Maestro Nagui, su escogencia se debió a lo impactante de las obras, opinión compartida por muchos de los asistentes al Concierto, quienes al final del mismo se acercaron al Embajador Mario Iguarán para felicitarlo por la belleza de nuestra música.

El Concierto fue el fruto del deseo de las Embajadas de los 5 países de América Latina que celebran en 2010 los 200 años de su independencia,Argentina, Colombia, Chile, México y Venezuela, de festejar de manera conjunta esta importante fecha de su historia.  A ellos se sumaron Bolivia y Ecuador, que conmemoraron el año pasado el mismo aniversario.

Y, qué mejor manera de hacerlo que ofreciendo al público egipcio una muestra de su música más representativa?

Con el apoyo entusiasta del Director de la Casa de la Opera, la Gerente y el Director de la Orquesta Sinfónica esta iniciativa tomó cuerpo y, así, Colombia tuvo en un vallenato y una cumbia su mejor representación. Aunque las dos piezas gozaron desde el principio de la aceptación por parte de la orquesta, también significaron un quebradero de cabeza para su Director que se preguntaba qué es una “guacharaca” y con qué podría reemplazar una “caja vallenata”.

Superando las dificultades que supone interpretar por primera vez ritmos y obras tan diferentes como La historia del Tango, de Hector Piazzolla, con un impresionante solo de flauta de la señora INES ABEDEL DAIM, o las Diabladas de Bolivia, la Sinfónica de El Cairo logró traducir el sentir latino y cerró con Alma llanera de Venezuela, cantada magistralmente por el Tenor RAGAA EL DIN AHMED, la noche latinoamericana.

El Concierto contó con la presencia del señor Ahmer Musa, Secretario General de la Liga Arabe, de la señora Fayza Abuolnaga, Ministra de Cooperación Internacional, de la señora Moushira Khattab, Ministra para la Familia y la Población, así como de otra altas autoridades egipcias, de los Embajadores y Diplomáticos de varios países acreditados en Egipto y,  de manera muy especial de los miembros de las colonias de los  cinco países.

Como resultado del éxito del Concierto y del entusiasmo del público asistente, los Embajadores latinoamericanos expresaron su deseo de que cada año, en la temporada de la Orquesta Sinfónica, haya una noche dedicada a la música de nuestros países.

Je fais confiance à la rue Egyptienne

Published by: Fayçal Métaoui

Puccini’s ‘Tosca’ to play at Cairo Opera House

Go to the Link:

Ahram Online

The Cairo Opera Company, Cairo Opera Choir and Cairo Opera Orchestra will perform Giacomo Puccini’s “Tosca,” conducted by Nayer Nagui. Director: Abdalla Saad.

The story of Tosca revolves around two protagonists in love: Mario Cavaradossi, a Volterian Christian painter, and Floria Tosca, a soprano diva. Mario vows to save Angelott, an escaped political prisoner hiding in the church where Mario is painting. When Scarpia, the police chief, arrives to the church, he is suspicious, arrests Cavaradossi and sends him to the torture chamber. Tosca only obtains her lover’s freedom by agreeing to give herself to Scarpia.

Before this happens, however, Scarpia signs a deed granting free passage to the two lovers, promising to put Cavaradossi through a mock execution. But Tosca, unable to accept the price set by Scarpia, ends up killing the police chief. The final scene is at the execution, when Tosca and Cavaradossi expect to be reunited once it is over. When the smoke clears, Tosca hurries to her lover’s body and finds – to her horror – that she has been tricked: Cavaradossi is dead, prompting her to leap from the parapet to her death.

Programme:

8, 9, 11, 12 and 13 March (no performance on 10 March)

All performances begin at 8pm

Cairo Opera House, Main Hall

Hi Weekly “In the eye of beauty”

Published by: Dr. Patricia Groves.

Sultanate of Oman.

“Hi Weekly” February 24, 2012

Soundscapes was a very good opportunity for Omani musicians to experiment with a different kind of music and Omar Khairat was so pleased with this collaboration that he expressed the desire for future engagements, not only in Egypt but beyond the region.

Omar Khairat & Nayer Nagui, Royal Symphony Orchestra of Oman

Meet the Cairo Opera Orchestra’s new artistic director

Go to the link:

Posted by: Ati Metwaly.

With the opening of its new season, the Cairo Opera House announced the appointment of Nayer Nagui as principal conductor and artistic director of the Cairo Opera Orchestra.

To many musicians and administrators as well as concerned audience members the appointment of Nayer Nagui as Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of the Cairo Opera Orchestra constitutes “the right person in the right place.” Nagui’s dedication to the field is reflected in his many accomplishments of previous years; as much as it is exciting, the new position is also filled with challenges.

Born in Alexandria in 1970, Nayer Nagui comes from a home where music played a crucial role in the family life. “My parents were ‘professional amateurs’ singing at a Protestant Church since 1960s. I would listen to them practicing Bach cantatas, Handel’s Messiah etc.” Nagui explains. He adds that he too joined the church choir, and sang solo as a boy soprano in the school choir.

At the age of 16, Nagui formed Good News, a band performing Christian pop music. Graduating from the faculty of commerce, he also joined the Alexandria Conservatory, and started playing organ at the St Marc Church in Alexandria. In 1992, he moved to Cairo and joined the Talents Development Centre at the Cairo Opera House.

As much as music had by then become Nagui’s principal passion, he was not sure what he wanted to do in the field. “At this stage I was pretty good at piano, and some people thought I’d do well as a pianist if I studied more. However, becoming a concert pianist didn’t sound like an appealing career to me,” Nagui refers to conductor Sayed Awad, who had helped him find his way. “Dr. Awad suggested that I should work as an accompanist for singers in the Talents Development Centre.” He was put in touch with Sobhi Bedair, the Egyptian tenor, known for his operatic as well as pop abilities.

The encounter with Bedair opened many new doors to Nagui. Not only did they join forces to do music performed by Sobhi and Friends, but they also came up with the idea of the Christmas Choir, launched during Bedair’s directorship of the Cairo Opera Company. “It was an instant success. The first Christmas concert was conducted by Ivan Filev, who accepted my arrangement of many Christmas works,” Nagui recalls.

The Christmas Choir soon evolved into the Cairo Celebration Choir whose repertoire was no linger limited to Christmas. To date the choir has performed many major choral works, with Nagui conducting concerts. “Today the choir performs a few times a year; we have a remarkable administrative backbone which helps with the logistics.”

During his seven years of work as accompanist at the Talents Development Centre, then the Cairo Conservatory and the Cairo Opera House, Nagui got to know the entire operatic repertoire performed in Egypt, witnessing the artistic developments of numerous artists. “I also watched many conductors at work during preparations for opera and ballet performances. I was privileged to choose my teacher.”

Nagui’s choice was to pursue his studies at l’Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris, in the class of Dominique Ruits. A year later, in 2001, he obtained his diploma in conducting. “I returned to Egypt full of enthusiasm and wanted to form an orchestra consisting of young people. I wanted to conduct a regular repertoire as well as my own compositions.” Lack of support from the field did not allow Nagui to realise this plan, yet it was in 2003 that he conducted the Cairo Opera Orchestra for the first time, during the Rossini Opera Festival, performing one-act comic operas. His own compositions would not see the light until a few years later.

In the following years, Nagui conducted the Cairo Opera Orchestra on many occasions, in addition to conducting the Bibliotheca Alexandrina Orchestra, the Cairo Festival Orchestra, and Cairo Symphony Orchestra starting in 2004. He was also invited to conduct internationally: Lecce Symphony Orchestra and Calabria Chamber Orchestra from Italy, European Camerata from UK, Ensemble Georges Solti from Hungary, the Bonner Vokalisten from Germany, as well as the Moroccan Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Algerian Symphony Orchestra.

In 2007, Nagui was finally contracted as conductor of the Cairo Opera House. Today Nagui’s repertoire includes a large number of operatic, ballet and choral works, such as Verdi’s Rigoletto, Puccini’s La Boheme, highlights from Aida, La Traviata and Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Prokofiev’s ballet Romeo and Juliet, Requiems by Mozart, Brahms, and Faure, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle, Schubert’s Stabat Mater, along with a number of symphonic works.

Appointment as artistic director and principal conductor at the Cairo Opera Orchestra is a new chapter in Nagui’s career. The Cairo Opera Orchestra was formed 1994 with the aim of performing a number of celebrated classic ballets and famous operas or operettas, in collaboration with the Cairo Opera Ballet Company or the Cairo Opera Company. Since the end of last season and the departure of Nader Abbassi, the orchestra had no principal conductor.

For Nagui, the Cairo Opera Orchestra appointment is the perfect culmination of the hard work exerted through the years; it is also the beginning of a new challenge.

Nagui assesses the orchestra as having reached its peak in the years 2000-2004 while the following years were marked by the systematic deterioration in artistic output.

“Today, we have a strange situation which is an imbalance in the skills of the members. In the past few years, the orchestra lost around 60 experienced musicians who were replaced by students needing a lot of experience and development to meet the required artistic standards. This created significant imbalance, eventually reducing the artistic standard and the basic repertoire of the orchestra. Today, the orchestra has serious gaps in its repertoire. There is a lot of work needed and internal changes may take place in the next period of time,” Nagui explains.

Nagui has developed a clear artistic plan which covers three seasons. The plan was presented to the Minister of Culture prior to Nagui’s appointment. In fact, the minister’s blessing was among the elements that helped Nagui assume the position. “The assigned committee at the opera house has taken my suggestions into further study, but the important step was when the majority of the orchestra voted in my favor, choosing me over conductors from Italy, Spain and Germany.”

Nagui’s plan aims for major artistic improvements in the orchestra, bringing it back to its years of glory. One of the main challenges that he sees is the implementation of discipline. “In many cases, the Cairo Opera House’s artistic companies, including the Cairo Opera Orchestra, are subject to two extremes and I’ve seen them both: on the one hand there are people who enforce discipline by harsh and electrifying methods, which will eventually kill the music; and on the other hand, those who turn a blind eye to all artistic challenges.”

Nagui finds that at this stage musicians of the Cairo Opera Orchestra are demotivated. As a way of reaching to them, Nagui gives individual time to each musician, listening to their hopes and fears. “I’ve already held individual meetings with over 20 members of the orchestra. I had expected to hear complaints over financial issues or reports on internal fights. In fact, all expressed concerns regarding the artistic standard and hope to find a better work environment.”

With all the challenges ahead, one of Nagui’s priorities is “to have the orchestra ready to play the whole standard repertoire, at any moment without excessive rehearsing. This is possible through boosting the musicians’ artistic practice.” Nagui plans to initiate chamber formations, such as trios, quartets etc from orchestra members to perform regularly at the Small Hall of the Cairo Opera House. A number of gala concerts are also in the offing, with Nagui adding guest conductors from France (Dominique Ruits), Spain and Denmark in addition to Hisham Gabr, contracted conductor at the Cairo Opera House, who will be working with the orchestra in the upcoming season.

“My plans and projects are clear but we are strongly linked to the Cairo Opera Company and the Cairo Opera Ballet Company, whose planning is not always clear and involves many unexpected changes. We need to find a way towards solid cooperation and common ground in our understanding of artistic values.” Nagui adds that he is nevertheless privileged to have strong administrative personnel dedicated to the Cairo Opera Orchestra.

Nagui believes that a human approach to the orchestra will allow him to introduce a healthy and balanced atmosphere which will eventually bring to an end dozens of internal conflicts tearing the orchestra apart. He is hoping to add a social spirit to the orchestra as well, through events organized together. “An orchestra is like a fragile plant. In order for it to flourish, it needs a lot of care: on artistic, organizational and social level. Synergy of all the elements, as well as support from other companies, will help the orchestra grow and retrieve its time of glory.”

Nagui believes that the orchestra needs three seasons to the achieve goals he has set, becoming a source of pride for Egypt’s music scene, locally and internationally. Once this happens, Nagui will consider his mission accomplished.

“My plan covers three years during which I hope to accomplish what this orchestra stands for. I will be ready to leave after this happens. I never planned to become an orchestra director. It is a huge responsibility which I am willing to take on only for a period of time and for specific reasons. Egypt is going through many changes; it needs improvements in many sectors. Change will come from the bottom of the pyramid up and I hope that my contribution to the improvement of the Cairo Opera Orchestra will be my small share in the whole. I hope that other companies at the Cairo Opera House will join us with similar missions.”

http://atimetwaly.wordpress.com/2011/10/13/meet-the-cairo-opera-orchestras-new-artistic-director/

Cairo Opera Orchestra welcomes its new principal conductor

Alexandria-born Nayer Nagui joins orchestra as artistic director and principal conductor

Ahram Online, Wednesday 28 Sep 2011

Nayer Nagui has been appointed artistic director and principal conductor at the Cairo Opera Orchestra.

Born in Alexandria in 1970, Nayer Nagui attended the Alexandria Conservatoire, where he studied piano under the Italian Professor Herta Pappo, and obtained an advanced certificate in piano performance and the theory of music from the Royal School of Music in 1996. He studied conducting with Professor Maestro Dominique at the Rouits at L’Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris where he obtained a diploma in conducting in 2001.

Nagui’s resume includes many concerts conducted with the Cairo Symphony Orchestra, Cairo Opera Orchestra and Bibliotheca Alexandrina Orchestra. He also shared the baton with a French conductor, Michel Piquemal, in the yearly International Festival of Coro de Tres Culturas in Morocco. His assignments outside Egypt include conducting the Lecce Symphony Orchestra and Calabria Chamber Orchestra in Italy, the European Camerata in the UK, the Ensemble Georges Solti in Hungary, the Bonner Vokalisten in Germany, as well as the Moroccan Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Algerian Symphony Orchestra.

Nagui is the founder and musical director of the Cairo Celebration Choir, consisting of 120 amateur singers performing famous choral works in Egypt. He wrote a number of compositions and arrangements for choirs, orchestras and soloists. He also works as a musical director of Disney’s dubbing animation into Arabic.

Cairo Opera Orchestra is one of the many companies operating under the umbrella of the Cairo Opera House. The orchestra was formed 1994 and its repertoire includes a vast number of celebrated classic ballets and famous operas or operettas performed in collaboration with the Cairo Opera Ballet Company or the Cairo Opera Company.

Sherif Mohie El-Din was appointed conductor of the orchestra in 1995. Later, the orchestra was headed by various Egyptian and international conductors. In 2002, Nader Abbassi was appointed principal conductor and artistic director of the Cairo Opera Orchestra, a post which he held until the end of last season.

Cairo Celebration Choir pays homage to Egyptian composers

By: Heba Habib.

For nearly eleven years, the Cairo Celebration Choir (CCC) has led listeners down seldom-travelled paths of choral music in a variety of musical traditions. Their repertoire, from religious music to modern secular accapella fare is varied, constantly fresh and exciting. Their performances are always impressive and perhaps to the average Egyptian listener unaccustomed to this form of music, somewhat revelatory.

CCC owes its existence to the hard work of Nayer Nagui, an Egyptian pianist, composer and conductor who has been striving since 2000 to constantly push the choir consisting of amateur singers into the limelight.The choir actually began as an idea in 1999 when Nagui, who has been involved in ecclesiastical choirs for most of his life, decided to showcase this music to a wider audience. He brought together a group of 70 amateur singers to sing with the soloists of the Cairo Opera Company, and accompany the Cairo Opera Orchestra on its first Christmas concert, performing a list of the most well-known Christmas songs, which he had arranged.

Since then, the choir has grown in number and comprises more than 120 members from different walks of life and musical backgrounds, and has undergone a transformation from a Christmas choir into one performing a much wider repertoire. Nagui told Ahram Online how much he “likes to see different people working and creating something together.” And indubitably the eclectic mix of singers from more than seven nations, with many joining the choir through churches, cultural centres, music academies and music societies around Cairo, greatly enriches the listening experience.Over the past decade, CCC have given a large number of concerts on a variety of stages in Cairo and Alexandria. They often perform at the Sekem Academy, cultural centres, Cairo Opera House Main Hall, Gomhoria Theatre and the Open Air Theatre, as well as at the lobby of the Opera House.The lobby has served as an original location for a number of concerts which always attract wide audiences. Amongst the most memorable are Rossini’s Petite Messe (2007) and Schubert’s Stabat Mater (2009).

An important highlight for the choir was the Gabriel Fauré Requiem, performed at the Basilique church and the Gomhoria Theatre in Cairo in 2006.In October 2010, CCC played an important role in the Choral-Percussion Celebration, a concert conducted by Michel Piquemal and Nagui, which brought Egyptian and French artists together, with Ensemble Symblema percussions from France. The choir’s appearances are not limited to Egypt only, and in collaboration with Coro de Tres Culturas, the choir have performed in Morocco at the Mohamed VII Theatre, the Marrakech Royal Theatre and Dar Souiri.The first Aghani bel Arabi (Songs in Arabic) concert in 2008 met with a remarkable reception by the audience. The exciting line-up of Arabic songs features compositions by Sayed Darwish, as well as Gamal Abdel Reheim and Awatef Abdel Kerim.

“People can come and see what can be done with our [Egyptian] music. It is not just divided into pop or our oriental heritage, there’s so much more to it than that.” Nagui commented. “We have academic composers and international standard music, but sadly they are not supported by our cultural institutions. For example, Gamal Abdel Reheim often had to debut his work in Berlin because our own opera house was not interested in producing his work. It really saddens me that so few people know of the work of these composers, unless they happen to be specialists. Aghani bel Arabi is a homage to their work,” he maintains.

Nagui is to be lauded for his efforts to bring to light the hidden treasures of the Egyptian music scene and for the arduous task of arranging these works, especially those of Sayed Darwish.

“Rearranging Darwish’s music was very special to me because he  actually wanted to learn about harmony, through being exposed to classical Western music through his foreign friends and he had even booked a place on a ship to Italy in order to go and study it, but sadly he died before he could go. I am sure had he gone, Egyptian music today would be very different. In a way I feel like I’m fulfilling his dream,” Nagui concluded.

———–
Cairo Celebration Choir, conductor Nayer Nagui
Soloists: Marwa Nagui (traditional singer), Dina Iskander (soprano) and Jolie Faizy (mezzo soprano)
with Greig Martin (piano), Ramadan Mansour (tabla) and Nashaat Yehia (req)

Entrevista a NAYER NAGUI

La revista F3C ha entrevistado a Nayer Nagui, codirector del Coro Tres Culturas, con motivo de la VII edición
de este proyecto de la Fundación. El maestro Nagui habla de lo que supone participar en esta iniciativa
tanto a nivel personal como profesional.

F3C A título personal, ¿cómo valora el papel de esta iniciativa musical a la hora de despertar el interés entre el público por conocer más sobre las otras culturas del Mediterráneo?
Nuestra cultura mediterránea es muy rica y extensa, de hecho, es la más antigua del mundo; es amplia en cuanto a religiones, colores y nacionalidades.
Hay dos modos de hacer que el público se interese por ella, los deportes y la música. Creo que nuestra iniciativa musical de reunir a jóvenes para que canten en distintas lenguas es una acción perfecta para conseguir este objetivo.
F3C ¿Cómo cree que le ha enriquecido personalmente participar en este proyecto de Tres Culturas?
Muchísimo. Durante los últimos siete años he estado preparando un programa nuevo y especial que ha enriquecido mi repertorio y mi experiencia musical en distintas escuelas de música y con distintos músicos. Es un momento perfecto para colaborar, compartir y entablar amistad.
F3C ¿Existe algún nexo común entre las piezas clásicas cristianas, judías y árabes o se trata de composiciones de estilos diferentes?
Quizás sean de estilos diferentes pero todas envían el mismo mensaje de amor y paz a todo el mundo.

F3C Jóvenes de lugares dispares, de contextos culturales tan diferentes pero rodeados de un lenguaje universal como es la música. ¿Qué aspectos positivos destacan de la convivencia organizada por la Fundación Tres Culturas?
El mensaje y la iniciativa de la Fundación Tres Culturas son magníficos, ya que unen a diferentes personas, especialmente, a jóvenes, para cultivarles en la idea de unidad y respeto hacia los demás sin importar sus diferencias. La música y el trabajo juntos para alcanzar un objetivo es el camino.
F3C ¿Inspira Marruecos a los jóvenes a la hora de animarlos a participar del coro y la convivencia?
Por supuesto. Solamente Marruecos contiene las tres culturas; es un país libre, tranquilo y con una cultura maravillosa. Los conciertos que se organizan son estupendos y el público los espera ansiosamente cada año. No es fácil encontrar un teatro, como el de Mohammed V en Rabat o incluso el de Essaouira, completamente lleno con un público tan amable.

F3C Tras semanas de vida en común, ¿nota como director la complicidad y la armonía sobre el escenario de los jóvenes músicos?
La calidad y nivel de la actuación del Coro de Tres Culturas es el mismo, o incluso mayor, al de otros muchos conciertos en los que he trabajado con profesionales. Algo que existe en él y no en los demás es el espíritu de trabajo entre sus componentes.
Me encantaría poder encontrar una pequeña parte de ese espíritu en las grandes producciones que hago alrededor del mundo.
F3C ¿Cómo se puede trabajar desde la música para mejorar la convivencia entre los pueblos y la comprensión intercultural?
La música en sí es una nueva experiencia para muchas personas. El conocer la historia de la obra que ejecutamos, sobre su compositor, sobre el poeta, las circunstancias que han rodeado a su creación enriquecen la comprensión y musicalidad de todos los jóvenes que componen el coro.

Cairo Celebration Choir goes oriental at the opera entrance

The Art Review

Posted by: Rawan El Shimi.

The Choir, conducted by Nayer Nagui, played a selection of traditional Arabic songs in the Lobby of the main hall at the Cairo Opera house on Friday, June 6th.

Although they usually specialise in classical Choral works, they managed to give an excellent performance of Arabic songs by famous composers such as Sayed Darwish, as well as traditional Egyptian songs such as “El Henna” and “El wed Deh Meloh”.
The fusion of traditional Egyptian songs and a classical music approach gave the audience a whole new experience with the music even though they are songs that have been preformed and remixed several times before.

Not only was the music played highly original but also the location and time. The concert took place in the middle of the day on Friday, in the Lobby of the main hall of the Opera house. The choir stood on both the right and left stair cases with the pianist, the percussionists, conductor and solo singers in the middle. The setting was very original and gave the whole experience a very casual and personal feel to it.

The whole performance was of very high standard, with excellent conduction by conductor Nayer Nagui. Another highlight was traditional singer Marwa Nagui with her solo performance of “Aho Dah Elli Sar”, as well as her performance with the rest of the choir of a fusion of Sayed Darwish’s classics “El Helwa Dih” and “Zourouni”, which was received extremely well by the audience.

The concert ended with “El Werd Ele Fol’lew Yasmine”, performed by the whole choir, leaving the audience at the edge of their seat by not knowing how they would end it.

The audience were more than pleased with the performance, and demanded an encore at the end.

Voces de tres culturas para la integración

CULTURA Y OCIO
Diario de Sevilla  LU. 29. 5. 2006

Conciertos. Rabat acoge cada año un encuentro entre jóvenes sevillanos, franceses, marroquíes y egipcios en el que
se preparan obras corales hebreras, cristianas e islámicas como una forma de fomentar el entendimiento cultural

Nayer Nagui ha armonizado obras clásicas árabes a cuatro voces, el egipcioNayerNagui es compositor ydirect or del Cairo Opera House ylleva tres años acudiendoaesta cita conlas tres culturas. Para esta edición ha armonizado a cuatro voces canciones tradicionales del folclore popular árabe yel año pasado se interpretó Piezas árabes, una composición suya en la que narraba lahistoriadeMacedonia.

NayerNagui tiene el privilegio de poder escuchar con voces internacionales obras que el mismoha creado. “Es un sueño para todo compositor escuchar su música cantada por personas de tantos lugares del mundo, es una canto al entendimiento”.