"The Aga Khan Music Award in Performance is presented to Mustafa Said," David Harrington, one of the jury members (and a founding member and violinist of the Kronos Quartet) read the Master Jury's decision on Saturday evening, 30 March, shortly after all the finalists took the stage to perform the best of their repertoire at the Calouste Gulbenkian Centre in Lisbon, Portugal.

Said was the only Egyptian musician among 14 finalists in the inaugural Aga Khan Music Awards (in the Performance category), from different countries and cultures of the Middle East, North Africa and Asia.

The Aga Khan Music Awards were established by His Highness the Aga Khan in 2018 and aim to "recognise exceptional creativity, promise, and enterprise in music performance, creation, education, preservation and revitalisation in societies across the world in which Muslims have a significant presence," reveals the Aga Khan Music Awards brochure.

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