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Abdallah El-Masri and Charbel Rouhana |
Thomas Kalb will also conduct the orchestra in Silvestre Revueltas’ Sensemayá and Reinhold Glière’s Second Symphony.
Lebanese composer Abdallah El-Masri studied in Russia and now works in Kuwait. He completed his studies in composition at Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory, where he obtained his bachelor, master and PhD degrees. He studied there with Nicolay Rakov in orchestration, Roman Ledenyov in composition and Yuri Kholopov in modern harmony. Abdalla El-Masri’s works include his first and second symphonies, the violin and piano and oud concertos, and the symphonic poem Matar along with many chamber music works.
El-Masri’s orchestral works have been played by the Lebanese Symphony Orchestra, Liverpool Philharmonic, Nancy Orchestra in France, Cairo Symphony Orchestra, Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra of Moscow Radio and Globalis Orchestra in Moscow.
El-Masri has also written songs for the Al-Jabal and Al-Wilada bands as well as some musicals. He has published several books and scientific studies about music.
Oud master Charbel Rouhana has performed live for more than a quarter century. One of his major achievements was the establishment of a new methodology for teaching the oud, which was published and adopted by the National Conservatory of Music and Holy Spirit University in Lebanon. He has won recognition from Sarasin–Alpen Dubai for his contribution to World Music, La Joconde Club–Lebanon, Murx d’Or–Musician of the Year, and first prize at the Hirayama Competition in Japan for best composition.
His releases include Doux Zen, Handmade, Dangerous, Lashou, Al Taghyir, Sourat Trait-d’Union, The Art of the Middle Eastern Oud, Mohamed Al Durrah, Mazaj Alani, Mada, Salamat and Zikra. “We’re delighted that the Qatar Philharmonic will be the first to perform Abdallah El-Masri’s Oud Concerto,” said Kurt Meister, executive director of the orchestra. “This year we also premiered Marcel Khalife’s Return Symphony and Rami Khalife’s Chaos for Piano and Orchestra. El-Masri is our neighbour, living in Kuwait. The Philharmonic is bringing music-making from this part of the world to the world at large. This is an important part of our mission.”
The next performance of the Qatar Philharmonic will be a chamber music performance of Antonin Dvorak’s Serenade for Strings on March 14. The next orchestral concert will be March 17 when the orchestra performs Richard Strauss’ tone poem, Aus Italien.