Art Alert: From Bach to Ravel with Cairo's Awtar Quartet
Ahram Online, Tuesday 6 Mar 2018
The quartet's upcoming concert will feature Mohamed Ahmed, winner of the 2017 Nicolas Latif Strings Competition


On Friday 7 March, Awtar Quartet will be joined by cellist Mohamed Ahmed in a concert that will include the 17th century works of Matteis, Vivaldi and Bach, in addition to those of 20th century composer Ravel, hence the event's thematic title, Baroque & Impressionist Music.

The concert will take place at the Bridges Cultural Centre at the All Saints' Cathedral in Cairo, and is free to the public.

Member of the Cairo Symphony Orchestra, Mohamed Ahmed, is the winner of the 2017Nicolas Latif Strings Competition for violin and cello, which was held in Cairo's Osiris Cultural Centre.

The competition's page explains thatNicolas Latif, for whom the competition was named, was "an Egyptian patriot and businessman who left behind poetry writings, paintings, sculptures, and who was a wonderful oud player."

Awtar Quartet was established in December 2012 and consists of Cairo Conservatory graduates Yasser Ghoneim on first violin, Khaled Saleh on second violin, Essam Abdel-Hamid on viola and Mohamed Abdel-Fattah on cello.

The upcoming concert will includeYasser Ghoneim, Khaled Saleh, Mohamed Abdel-Fattah in addition toMohamed Ahmed.

Since its founding, the Awtar Quartet has established itself as one of the most dynamic music ensembles in the Egyptian scene, providing a variety of music genres, from Arabic to easy listening compilations, as well as western classical gems, targeting audiences that represent different ages and social strata.

The ensemble also organised and participated in numerous events that aimed to bring classical music to young listeners and fuse storytelling with music.

The Awtar Quartet has cooperated with numerous Egyptian musicians and performed at many events and festivals.

The quartet also established the Osiris orchestra, a first-of-its-kind in Egypt ensemble consisting of amateur musicians who are trained by the Awtar's core members in the Osiris arts space.

The musicians are then given an opportunity to showcase their talent in a concert.

The Baroque & Impressionist Music concert will take place in the Bridges Cultural Centre, a cultural space established in 2013 which operates inside the All Saints' Cathedral.

Programme:
Friday 7 March, 7pm
Gusour Cultural Center, Michel Lotf Allah Street (inside All Saint's Cathedral), Zamalek, Cairo
Free entry

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