Ewart Memorial Hall, March 2ed – Downtown, Cairo (ECME, Annual concert series)
The idea of having a women composers portrait has emerged in 2015 while preparing for the project of Negmeyat that celebrated the late poet Ahmed Fouad Negm. When looking for vinrage material of his early work we came across some material and scored of Egyptian composer Matlida Abdel Messih who was very established and recognised at her time. Abdel Messih struck us not as a great composers who has written unprecedented scores but as woman composer that has been given a huge chance to shine up in times when women were not within the bigger frame!
It seemed intriguing for us to know more of such a flourishing period that certainly affected the Egyptian Women status at such time that they could be composers and even study at the Egyptian University (Fou’ad I University).
Our wish is not to confirm the rarity of women composers in such field because the whole field is marginalised and both women dn men composers are being shunned from the mainstream artistic scene. On the contrary, we aim that through our project we will be able to shed more light on the progress of the presence of women composers worldwide and in different cultures that deal with gender differently.
The EECMS believes strongly in establishing a wholesome cultural dialogue that involves other important actors in the society in order to complement the musical and performative nature of introduction of the project. That is why collaborating with other organisations such as the Women and Memory forum in Cairo http://www.wmf.org.eg/en/ is of much importance. WMF, have been involved in a process of highlighting the role of women in Oral and Written history.
the Programme will include Compositions by Kaja Saarjaho Finland, Isabel Mudry Germany, Seung – Won Oh South Korea, Tansy Davies (UK) and Yara Mekkawy (Egypt).
