| SAMSTAG
- 23 MAI 2015 - 20h
EGYPTIAN CONTEMPORARY MUSIC ENSEMBLE (ECME)
PROGRAMM Bassam HALAKA Bassam HALAKA Bassam HALAKA Bassam HALAKA
MITWIRKENDE Khaled Abdallah E.- violoncello
IN ZUSAMMENARBEIT MIT
The Egyptian Contemporary Music Ensemble (ECME). Established by the European-Egyptian Contemporary Music Society e.V in 2010, the ECME presents a series of concerts every season as Guest Artists of the Department of Performing and Visual Arts at the American University in Cairo . This gathering of some of the finest Egyptian musicians from several generations serves to foster new composition and performance. All members of the ECME have pursued their musical education in Egypt as well as abroad, and by now occupy important positions in major cultural institutions and/or other professional ensembles. There is a strong desire among these performers to share their experience and pass on their practical knowledge by exposing students to important works of contemporary music. The concert series in the Ewart Memorial Hall in Cairo explore different themes, styles, epochs and regional characteristics of contemporary music. They are preceded by open rehearsals, and completed by lectures and master classes that provide deeper insight into the respective subject. Beside its residence at the American University, the ECME has over a very short period of time become an eminent cultural ambassador for Egypt. It is the only ensemble in the country to date to perform recent national and international productions in the field of contemporary music, and the only one to work with composers from other parts of the world who wish to develop new pieces with an Egyptian ensemble. After a very successful presentation in Germany in November 2011 in collaboration with the renowned Neue Vocalsolisten from Stuttgart and other German musicians and the first appearance of the Ensemble at a national festival in the course of the Cairo Contemporary Music Days 2012, the ECME celebrated its first international prestigious appearance the Mediterranean composers presentation Festival Prsences in Aix-en-Provence, the European Capital of Culture 2013. Beside different cooperation in Egypt the ensemble is planning several European concerts in 2015-2016 and working with Egyptian, Arab and European composers such as Oscar Bianchi, Thierry pecou, Vykintas Baltakas, Amr Okba, Hassan Khan, Zaid Jabri. and others.
Bassam Halaka is a composer, producer, musician, conductor and performer. His original style, that is mainly influenced by Eastern and Western music, creates an inimitable bond between the Orient and Europe. Bassam Halaka was born in Kuwait in 1977 and grew up in Cairo. Since 2009 he is living and working in Austria where he composed pieces for orchestra, chamber ensemble, choir and piano as well as sound installations and electronic music that have been performed in 14 countries. He finished his studies at the Helwan University in 2002 and the degree program in composition and conducting at the Cairo Conservatory in 2007. In 2012 he received his diploma in composition from the Joseph Haydn Conservatory Eisenstadt, Austria. He is currently finishing a Master degree in composition and computer music at the Institute for Electronic Music and Acoustics in Graz, Austria. His compositions are a search for an art that combines “two souls in one musical body” and that aims to make the art, which everyone of us has inside himself – the tradition of our own culture – understandable to people from other cultures. In his search Bassam Halaka discovers mental borders even in a globalized world.
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