Lebanese singer Oumeima El-Khalil’s performance as part of this year's Hayy Festival
At Hayy Festival, on 11 July, Oumeima Khalil was joined by Hani Siblini on the piano, a prominent Lebanese musician, composer and El-Khalil's husband. The duo played some of Khalil’s classic hits and some songs played for the first time in Egypt.
From the Lebanese village of Al-Fakiha in the Bekaa Valley, Khalil’s music career began at the age of 12. She went on to start a duo with Lebanese oud master and musician Marcel Khalife in 1979 -- who was then her tutor and mentor -- as well as joining his first band Al-Mayadeen as a soloist.
Read Ahram Online’s interview with Oumeima El-Khalil here.
Lebanese musician Oumeima El Khalil (Photo: Courtesy of Oumeima El Khalil)
‘The Story of Arabic Calligraphy' exhibition brought a modern twist to the traditional art form
'The Story of Arabic Calligraphy' features the work of 14 artists who have been inspired by the Islamic and Arab heritage of calligraphic art. Their works draw on the elegant curves of the Arabic text in order to create new artistic pieces with a modern flavour. The exhibition opened on 2 July and ran until 24 July.
The exhibition featured 14 artists: Doaa Abdel-Hadi, Ahmed Ramadan, Randa Zaid, Zeinab Mahmoud, Doaa Orabi, Walid El-Deeb, Nahed Shaker, Heba El-Sayed, Hanan Yousef, Mohammed El-Shall, Mohammed Abdul-Hadi, Mahmoud Atef, Adel El-Jamal, and Essam Kamal.
Read Ahram Online’s interview with some of the participating artists here.
Mahmoud Atef's painting in Art Corner gallery in Cairo's Zamalek district, Egypt (Photo: Hala Safwat)
Teslam we Teeish, a poetry and music evening
Poet Ahmad Haddad and Egyptian Singer Dalia El-Guindy lead a tribute to Salah Jaheen and Fouad Haddad, where they read their poetry, along with the poems of Beiram Al-Tonsi, Badie Khairy, Amin Haddad, Ahmed Haddad and Bahaa Jaheen. The event took place on 11 July.
The poems were coupled with the music of Yussef El-Shereai, musician and vocalist Hassan El-Manialawy, musicians Hussein El-Melegi, Ahmed El Mougy and Karim Hassan, resulting in a special Ramadan evening reviving and honouring poetry.
Read our review of the poetry and music evening here.
From left to right: Egyptian singer Dalia El-Guindy, Poet Ahmed Hadadd, Hassan El Manialawe, Yussif El-Shereey and Hussien El-Meligy performing in El-Sawy Culturewheel in Cairo's Zamalek district, Egypt, Saturday 11 July 2015 (Photo: Hala Safwat)
Egyptian online music radio Gramafoon reopens
After a period of being shut down, July saw the return of music website Gramafoon.com. It resumed its online streaming of rare and contemporary music recordings.
Founded by Ahmed Kamal, Gramafoon launched in May 2011, and was born out of his grandfather’s rare music collection from the 1940’s as well as Kamal’s own collection of CDs. The site has expanded to include over 750,000 tracks.
With one main station and four genre-specific stations -- rock, jazz, oldies, and Arabic classics -- Gramafoon offers not only rare historic gems such as special concerts by Om Kalthoum, Sayed Mekkawi and Warda, but also new contemporary music such as instrumental tracks by Mohamed Mounir, songs by Mashrou’ Leila and Amel Mathlouthi, as well as international music.
Read Ahram Online’s interview with Ahmed Kamal here.
Screenshot from Gramafoon's website
Graduation of El-Warsha's latest workshop
27 July marked the graduation of El-Warsha's latest workshop dedicated to storytelling at El-Warsha theatre troupe premises in downtown. The workshop was run by Ahmed Shoukry, one of the troupe's leading young story tellers, and was the result of a new boom in the art of storytelling that flourished during the past few years in Egypt, as a means of self- expression and sharing of life experiences.
The performance ran for an hour. It was 60 minutes of enchantment as the talented storytellers managed to visualise their tales and take us to other places, by mere body gestures and voice tones.
Read more about El-Warsha here.
Photo from El-Warsha performance in Ramadan 2015. (Photo: Amira Noshokaty)
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