Cairo Symphony Orchestra

The Cairo Symphony Orchestra, (Arabic: اوركسترا القاهرة السيمفونى‎; Orkestra el-Qāhera el-Semfōni), is an orchestra based in Cairo, Egypt. It was founded in 1959 by its first music director and conductor, Franz Litschauer. Its current principal conductor is Jiří Petrdlík.^[1]

History

The Orchestra was founded in 1959 under its first music director and conductor, Franz Litschauer, and from mid-1959 to 1963 it was conducted by the Yugoslavian Serbs Gika Zdravkovitch (1959-1960) and Dushan Miladinovitch (1960-1963) (Serbian: Живојин Здравковић, Živojin Zdravković; Душан Миладиновић, Dušan Miladinović). Two Egyptian conductors, Ahmed Ebeid and Youssef Elsisi, succeeded Litschauer as conductors of the Cairo Symphony Orchestra. Performing in the former Khedivial Opera House, the orchestra gave symphonic concerts, and accompanied opera and ballet performances including both local and foreign companies among which were the Bolshoi, the Kirov, and the Royal Ballet of London.

Recent development and works

Since the beginning of the Cairo Symphony Orchestra's residence at the new Cairo Opera House in 1990 and with Maestro Ahmed El Saedi as its music director and principal conductor, the orchestra has restricted its activities to symphonic concerts. This has enabled the orchestra to forge new horizons in both repertoire and number of concerts. Works by Bruckner, Mahler, Ravel, Debussy, Schoenberg, Bartok, Hindemith, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, and others have become an integral part of the orchestra's repertoire.

Steven Lloyd was the orchestra's music director and principal conductor from 2005-2007, who was succeeded by Marcello Mottadell in 2008. Currently, Jiří Petrdlík is the artistic director and principal conductor. Since the integration of the A Cappella Choir into the Cairo Symphony Orchestra both have performed together major works for chorus and orchestra such as Handel’s “Messiah”, Mozart’s Requiem, Verdi’s Requiem, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and the “Missa Solemnis”, Mahler’s Second Symphony and Brahms' “A German Requiem”.

The Cairo Symphony Orchestra has played a crucial role in the development of Egyptian contemporary music and in the inspiration of Egyptian musicians-soloists and conductors alike. Among the successful highlights organized and performed during the past seasons was the “Beethoven Festival’ celebrating the 175th anniversary of his death, the “Twentieth Century Music Festival,” and the “Arab Perspectives Festival.” The latter festival was founded by Ahmed El Saedi and first held in February 2002, and except for 2008 has been held each February since.

Guest conductors and soloists

Many international guest conductors such as Charles Munch, Yehudi Menuhin, Alexander Frey, Patrick Fournillier, Carlo Zecchi, Otakar Trhlik, Ole Schmidt, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Janos Kukla, Alain Pâris, Felix Carrasco, and others have led the Cairo Symphony Orchestra. In April 2009, Israeli-Argentinean conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim played Beethoven's piano sonata no.8 (known as "Sonata Pathétique"), and conducted the Cairo Symphony Orchestra in a performance of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.^[2]

Among the soloists who have performed with the Cairo Symphony Orchestra are Rudolf Buchbinder, Joerg Demus, Mstislav Rostropovich, Alexander Frey, Viktoria Postnikova, Abdel Rahman El-Basha, Ramzy Yassa, André Navarra, Yekaterina Lebedeva, Stefan Vladar and Christian Altenburger. During the past several years the Cairo Symphony Orchestra has regularly toured many European countries and China with great success.

References

External links

• Official Cairo Symphony Orchestra website

See also

• Cairo Opera House
• Cairo Conservatoire
• El Sawy culturewheel Center