| Tony Kaldas طونى قلدس |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Antoine Kaldas |
| Born | January 20, 1984 |
| Genres | Pop music Jazz Oriental Classic Chanson |
| Occupations | Singer, songwriter , composer |
| Years active | 2004 - Present |
| Website | www.tonykaldas.com |
Tony Kaldas (in Arabic طونى قلدس ) is a young Egyptian singer, trained for both opera and Arabic, classical and light singing. He was featured in concerts in Egypt.
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Antoine Kaldas, famous as Tony, was born in Cairo, Egypt 1984, in the heart of Cairo in Al Zaher, to a Greek-Egyptian mother and an Egyptian-Palestinian father. Since childhood, the family was keen to educate the children about famous singers and musicians from around the Arab world; voices of Asmahan, Um Kalthoum, Abdel Wahab, Fairouz and Farid al-Atrash were constantly heard in the house. The father was an engineer who loved art and enjoyed painting at home, but also admired various families of music, movies and theatre and filled his library with collections of books and records. The father's passion for poetry and reading also reflected in full collections of poetry for Ahmed Shawky, Hafez Ibrahim, Nizar Kabbani and el Khayyam. The mother was a dedicated housewife, and mother of three who tended the children with good education. Her knowledge of many languages also introduced the English, French and Greek music and poetry to the house.
Tony was the last child, after an older brother and sister. During his early childhood his favorite activity was dancing to music and waking up early to play his favorite records, which helped him decide his own taste and favorites from the vast genres available at home. His father encouraged this talent by enrolling him in violin classes. Violin training was the critical element to learning to read scores; a key enabler for entry into professional singing later on.
French schooling was the standard in the family, and Tony joined the College des Frères. School enabled Tony to join a young Choir since early years, which was the first start into singing. Quickly, Tony's talent showed in the Choir and eventually he was assigned solo singing. His mentors encouraged him to seek ways to develop this talent further.
After finishing high school, Tony went to studying engineering, reducing the study of music to a part-time activity temporarily. Graduating with honors.
Tony decided to take his music education to a professional level, and was able to do that through joining the independent Open Course at the Cairo Opera House; following in the footsteps of his favorite singer Asmahan who used her Opera training as a unique capacity in Arabic singing unequalled till today. His first teacher Dr. Taheya Shams el Din discovered his special talent and gave him special attention and complex arias and operas to practice using his unique voice, which she identified to be bari-tenor or dramatic tenor – a voice that combines the high range of musical notes of a tenor, yet with the depth of a baritone voice. She supported him further by introducing him to various pieces of music and presenting him at the Opera House Open Course recitals and which led to his first public performance at Ghouri House as part of the Charles Aznavour celebration sponsored by the Ministry of Culture.
Dr. Iman Moustafa took Tony under her auspices following Dr. Taheya, and started helping him discover new ranges in his voice, including exploration of his extreme upper range – the counter-tenor – which gave him stronger control over his voice range. Eventually, she gave him full support during his first public performances. Tony’s favorite singing style, however, tended away from opera and more towards classical Arabic and light which dominated his latest performances at the Opera House Gomhoreya Theatre and the Bibliotheca Alexandrina.[1]
Besides singing, Tony learnt to play the guitar. He was able to demonstrate strong skill to both sing and play the guitar during one of his recent concerts.
Tony is also a big fan of literature. His library features a collection of classical literature books such as Homer, Dante and Shakespeare full works. Tony also reads in Sufism, poetry and philosophy, which all shaped his choice of singing lyrics and topics of his concerts. Gibran Khalil Gibran’s Sufi poems were of particular interest as featured in his concerts.
Tony sang cover versions of songs sung by the Arabic Super-stars :Fairuz, Abdel Halim Hafez, Mohamed Abdel Wahab, Umm Kulthum, Nour el Hoda etc... and from the Worldwide he used to sing for Charles Aznavour, Édith Piaf, Mireille Mathieu, Frédéric François, Jacques Brel, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, etc..
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