Art Alert: Oud master Charbel Rouhana and Karkade band to open Cairo's Hayy Festival
Ahram Online, , Monday 6 Jun 2016
The four-day festival includes a lineup of six performances


The 11th edition of the annual Hayy Festival is scheduled to run between 12 and 25 June at the open-air El-Genaina Theatre at Al-Azhar Park, opening with Lebanese musician, singer and oud master Charbel Rouhana, followed by Egyptian oriental music band Karkade.

Rouhana, who will be accompanied by his band, the World Music Ensemble, is considered one of the foremost masters of the oud.

His new methods of playing the instrument were published in seven volumes and adopted in practice by the National Conservatory of Music and the Faculty of Music at the Holy Spirit University in Lebanon, where Rouhana has been teaching since 1986.

His 2007 album titled El-Muwashahat won Album of the Year at the BBC3 World Music Awards, and in 2011 Rouhana was selected to participate in the Babel Med Musical Forum.

He also created numerous compositions for the dance group Caracalla, and across his career has performed with a number of renowned artists including Fairouz, Marcel Khalife, Magida El-Roumi, and Hariprasad Chaurasia.

Founded in December 2015, Karkade's line-up comprises Mohamed Farag (ney), Loutfi Abaza (violin), Medhat Mamdouh (dohol), Hani Bedair (req) and founding member Mohamed Abo Zekry (oud).

Abo Zekry is a composer and musician who studied at Beit El-Oud and was a member of El-Sharq Orchestra, led by the famed Nassier Shama.

He graduated in 2014with a Bachelor's degree in music composition from Université Lumière Lyon 2 in France. He has been part of numerous projects and bands, in addition to composing film scores.

"In keeping with El-Genaina's aims to support artistic creativity and foster cultural exchange, Hayy Festival 2016 features music that reflects the multi-layered identities of Egyptian and Arab cultural heritage and will include oriental, African, Sufi and tarab musical performances,” adds the press release.

Check thefull programme for the festival here.

Programme:
Sunday 12 June, 9.30pm
Al Azhar Park, Salah Salem Road, Darassa, Cairo

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