Following its annual practice, the Embassy of Poland in Cairo, the Rahn Education and the European Foundation for Education through their Rahn Education Schulen (headquartered in Leipzig with branches worldwide), together with the Cairo Opera House, organised the eighth Chopin Piano Competition for Children and Youths. The competition took place in March with the winners in each age category announced shortly after. This year, three Egyptian winners won the first prize: Ali Abdel-Razik (16), Shahd Magdy (18), and Mahmoud El-Batran (20), representing categories B, C and D respectively.

Since the establishment of the competition, the winners have been awarded a concert at the Cairo Opera House and a trip to Poland, which is an attempt to follow in Frederic Chopin’s footsteps. Joined by Seyran Tas, director of Deutsche Musikschule Kairo (German Music School in Cairo), the trip for this year’s winners took place between 23 and 30 September.

It is worth mentioning that two of the winners - Shahd Magdy and Mahmoud El-Batran - also won the competition’s seventh edition, so they had already had an opportunity to visit Poland last year, alongside their colleagues Andrew Milad and Mustafa Hassan. Last year’s trip included Warsaw, Żelazowa Wola, the small village where Chopin (1810-1849) was born, 46 km west of Warsaw, and the Tri-City of the north: Gdansk, Gdynia and Sopot.

The 2022 trip was the first time the Egyptian Chopin competition offered attractions outside the capital, supplementing the programme with components that gave the participants a broader view of Polish socio-cultural history. This year featured Warsaw, Żelazowa Wola and Zielona Góra, and included a concert staged by the Egyptian winners.

Warsaw is undeniably full of Chopin-related attractions. The country’s beloved composer catches your eye the moment you land in the airport, which actually carries his name. In the capital, the young musicians visited the Museum of Fryderyk Chopin, the Royal Park where they attended an open air concert under his famed statue, playing piano in one of the coffee shops which, again, is named after him. Their visit also took in the Old City and the Royal Castle, the Warsaw University Library’s roof garden, in addition to a few interesting museums such as the Neon Museum and the Magic Mind Museum.

The benefits that come from visiting Żelazowa Wola and Chopin’s home surrounded by marvellous gardens are self-explanatory. The area bore testimony to the formative years of Chopin in Poland, prior to his departure to France, where he settled at the age of 21. The setting of the manor house, the many memorabilia from the Chopin family, including an original Playel piano and some reconstructed furniture, all mirror the feel of the early 1800s. The Fryderyk Chopin Institute which takes care of Żelazowa Wola also organises concerts featuring Chopin’s music. One such concert took place on the day the young pianists visited the composer’s home, and they joined the listeners scattered around the house, either seated on the chairs or relaxing on the green lawns.

Including Zielona Góra in the trip’s itinerary was not accidental. The pianists benefitted from the sightseeing offered to them by Rahn Education. More importantly, however, today Zielona Góra is home to yet another branch of the Rahn Education school, where the German Curriculum of Brandenburg is taught. The school warmly welcomed the three pianists - Ali Abdel-Razik, Shahd Magdy, and Mahmoud El-Batran - allowing them to rehearse before their concert. A completely new addition to the experience offered to the winners, the concert was probably the focal event of the whole trip.  

With the concert organisation supported by the Rahn Education, the young pianists found numerous important names, music experts, academics, and heads of educational bodies in the audience of the Muzeum Ziemi Lubuskiej (Lubuska Land Museum) on 25 August.

Those included: Vladimir Grigiriev, head of the European Foundation board; Gotthard Dittrich, managing director of Rahn Education; Bozena Kempa, director of the Rahn Education School in Zielona Góra, where the pianists rehearsed before the concert; Helgeheide Schmidt from the University of Music and Theatre “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy” Leipzig and piano professor at Rahn Education; Sameh Al-Mahmoudi, a musician and member of the board of trustees of Rahn Education; Rafal Kloczko, director of Zielona Góra Philharmonic; Ahmed El-Saedi, principal conductor and music manager of the Cairo Symphony Orchestra at the Cairo Opera House, who flew to Zielona Góra especially for this event. The audience also included Marcin Grodzki from the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the Oriental Faculty, University of Warsaw, a man who accompanies the Egyptian artists on each of their visits to Poland.

The pianists performed a large selection of Chopin’s works, including, among others: Walz Op. 34 in A minor and Polonaise Op. 40 no. 1 in A major (by Ali Abdel-Razik); Nocturne Op. 55 no. 1 in F minor and Scherzo Op. 31 in B-flat minor (by Shahd Magdy); and Ballade Op. 23 in G minor and Grand Valse Brillante Op. 18 in E-flat major (by Mahmoud El-Batran).

For the three artists, this was the first international appearance, and undeniably a memorable experience. Each was showered with applause with the listeners commenting on their remarkable skills and musicality.

“The concert was among the best experiences of this trip,” Magdy comments, adding that she was a little stressed prior to the performance, yet the appreciation she received after the concert remains deep in her heart. “Chopin is a very unique composer. Each time I play Chopin, I feel this strong mixture of emotions embedded in each of his compositions. He is so different from other composers in Western classical music; he is extremely accessible to all cultures.”

Magdy’s musical interests developed at a very young age and she continues to study piano with Sherif Salah at the Cairo Opera’s Talents Development Centre. She has already performed in recitals organised by the embassies of Poland, France and South Korea in Egypt.

Equally, El-Batran’s journey with music includes concerts in numerous venues across Egypt, and a few with the Cairo Symphony Orchestra. With his upcoming concert already scheduled for the orchestra’s 2023-2024 season, he might as well start looking at the international opportunities to further develop as a performer.

A student of Sherif Salah’s, El-Batran - the oldest contestant - is truly fascinated with Chopin. “Chopin is unbelievable,” he reiterates ideas expressed during his last trip, stressing the composer’s early years, which clearly forecast a musical genius in the making. “He was only six or seven years old when he began making the most beautiful compositions. It’s miraculous.”

El-Batran went on to emphasise the importance of the concert at Zielona Góra: “It was the first time for me to perform outside Egypt; it was a great feeling and an important addition to my CV. The concert gave me a lot of motivation,” the 20-year-old adds. Obviously remaining under Chopin’s spell, he concludes, “Any pianist who did not play Chopin, did not really play much. And the one who plays Chopin only, experiences at least 70 per cent of what music can offer.”

The youngest contestant and student of Dina Al-Laithy, Abdel-Razik was visiting Poland for the first time. “I was astonished by Chopin’s huge presence in the country. His music is everywhere, and his name appears in many places, even the coffee shops are named after him.”

Abdel-Razik’s strong musicality was very apparent during the concert in Zielona Góra, as he walked us through some iconic compositions. The young pianist shares Magdy’s view on the uniqueness of Chopin’s music. “He is very different from other composers. His compositions are self-explanatory; the emotions they carry are always very clearly presented to the performer and the listener,” he explains, stressing the large dosage of melancholy he finds there.

Like El-Batran and Magdy, who both pursue law studies, Abdel-Razik does not link his future with music alone. He is already thinking about IT engineering, but he says, “I love music and I will never give up playing.”

Though the young pianists might develop other careers, they all believe that music remains crucial to their development, and hope their skills will open performing opportunities.

The Chopin Piano Competition for Children and Youths held in Egypt is an important platform that encourages many young talents on their creative paths. The competition was launched by Fawzi El-Shami, the former dean of the Cairo Conservatory, who contributed to numerous musical initiatives in Egypt’s musical scene. The first round took place in 2010. The 2011 round was cancelled due to political turmoil, but the competition returned in 2012 and was held regularly until 2018, then it was suspended until 2021, when it came back with some organisational changes.

Now, due to the presence of Rahn Education in the competition, and that of maestro Ahmed El-Saedi, the event has taken on weight. Much knowledge was gained during the trip, and the concert at Zielona Góra was the cherry on top, an event that has carved a special place in the pianists’ hearts. Not only did the concert motivate them, it also gave them much needed exposure to the new audience. The connections made during such events might also turn into interesting opportunities.

The competition can now be paralleled with further expansion, one that would hopefully attract large numbers of young musicians from Egypt and other Arab countries. As Magdy noticed, Chopin’s music speaks to many cultures and hopefully we will be seeing an increasing number of contestants joining next year’s competition.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 14 September, 2023 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly