Prince Charles meets Alexandra Shenouda, a young cellist from the Qatar Music Academy, recounting his former days as a cello student in the UK. PICTURE: Lydia Shaw

Visiting scholars from the Royal College of Music (RCM), London, led by its artistic director, performed at the Katara Cultural Village to mark the visit of Prince Charles and his wife Camilla to Qatar. The celebration also commemorated the Qatar-UK Year of Culture-2013.
At the royal concert, the audience and visitors witnessed a musical and cultural collaboration between young students from the Qatar Music Academy (QMA) and scholars from the RCM.
Founded in 1882 by the then Prince of Wales (Edward VII), the RCM is one of the world’s great conservatoires, training gifted musicians from all over the world for international careers as performers, conductors and composers. In collaboration with the British embassy, British Council, Yamaha, QMA and Katara, Qatar Music & Arts (Qanas Productions) brought together - for the first time - students from the famous college and local musicians for the unique performance.
The musicians played an assortment of pieces from Mendelssohn, Henry Purcell and Dmitri Shostakovich to traditional Arabic composers, conducted by Stephen Johns, RCM’s artistic director.
RCM alumnus and Qatar resident Amira Fouad (piano) accompanied the scholars, Joseph Devalle (violin) and Sarah Joyce (cello).
Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra violinists Alie and Lilya Bekirova trained more than 20 students from the QMA. Issa Boulos, head of Arab music at the QMA, directed an Arabic ensemble consisting of four teachers and five young musicians.
“We are overwhelmed by the warm welcome we have received in Qatar this week and the generosity of our hosts. At the Royal College of Music, we are committed to the pursuit of musical excellence and endeavour by all our students and alumni.
“With this wonderful concert, in the presence of our president, the Prince of Wales, and through our outreach activities here, we have contributed to our vision to engage, educate and entertain while building stronger cultural bridges through music,” said Johns.
Fouad, who is also the artistic director of Qanas Productions, said: “Qanas Productions was delighted to host and present the wonderful young scholars from the Royal College of Music at Katara, Doha’s beautiful classical music hub.
“It was an incredible, atmospheric concert in the presence of the esteemed British royalty and the performance gave international students of the Qatar Music Academy the opportunity to appreciate and learn from the talented musicians of this prestigious conservatoire.”