Announcing the concert to the audiences, a Serbian paper quotes Scotland Herald music critic Michael Tumelti as describing the Egyptian pianist as "a deeply impressive pianist of tremendous flair and intellectual strength."

Shams is among the best known Egyptian pianists of his generation. 

A graduate of Cairo Conservatory with distinction (2004), he won first prize at the Brevard Music Festival competition (US) in 2001 and 2002, which led to an invitation to play with its orchestra, the Transylvania Symphony, in 2003. He also received a Fulbright grant to study for one year in Washington DC with renowned piano soloist and music educator Marilyn Neeley.

In 2008, Shams received a full scholarship to study in the master’s program at the Manhattan School of Music. Another scholarship, this one in 2011, sent him to the Master of Music program at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS) in Glasgow.

At the Royal Conservatoire, he won the Jock Holden Memorial Mozart Prize, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Competition, the Bamber/Galloway Competition and the Tony and Tania Webster Prize for Russian Music.

He was the recipient of the Governor’s Prize and the David Knox Memorial Prize for outstanding achievement at RCS. He was also awarded the Silver Medal by the Worshipful Company of Musicians in London and second prize at the Beethoven Competition in London.

Shams has further won first prize in Mieczyslaw Munz competition, and was awarded the Harold Bauer Award for recognition of outstanding accomplishment, cooperation and promise. As a soloist, Shams has appeared with orchestras in his home country and abroad. He has performed with the Cairo Symphony Orchestra, The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, The Royal Scottish National Orchestra, among others. In 2015, he made his debut at the prestigious Carnegie Hall in New York City.

Over the years of his growing career, Shams performed across the world, including England, Scotland, Italy, Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Tunisia, China and Hong Kong, Japan. 

The concert in Belgrade is organised by in cooperation with the association of artists "ArtLink" and under the patronage of the mayor of Belgrade.