The Cairo Opera House hosted the first Arab Oud Forum last week, featuring a series of workshops, seminars and concerts which explored and showcased the oud’s contemporary and historical importance to Arab culture and identity.
The forum was conceptualized by celebrated Iraqi oud master Naseer Shamma to bring “the whole world of oud” — including musicians, craftsmen and researchers at various levels in their careers — together in one event. By bridging the gap between the “oud generations,” the forum aimed at enabling participants to develop the art and science of oud performance and production through creative exchange.
The forum — which was held with support from the Egyptian Ministry of Culture, the Abu Dhabi Festival, SOLO International, the Bassmat Advertising Services Group, and Egyptian daily Al-Youm Al-Saba’a — presented solo performances by prominent musicians from the Arab world and beyond. Artists included Issa Mourad (Palestine), Sami Nassim (Iraq), Hussein Sabsaby (Syria), Bashar Al Hassan (Syria), Dina Abdel Hamid (Egypt), Ghassan Al-Youssef (Egypt), Hazem Chahine (Egypt), Mehmet Bitmez (Turkey) and Charbel Rouhana (Lebanon).
In addition to well-established artists, the event featured a performance by the Arab Oud House ensemble and staged experimental “Trials” program of late afternoon performances to introduce up-and-coming graduates of the Arab Oud House. Performers included Bahr Ghazy (Syria), Sherine Tohamy (Egypt), Bassem Al Youssefy (Tunisia) Mustafa Saeid (Egypt) Karim Sami (Egypt), Alaa Shahin (Jordan), Faisal Al Sarry (UAE), Ahmed El Naqeib, Youssef Abbas (Iraq), Ashraf Awad (Sudan), Periklis Tsoukalas (Greece), and Mohammed Abu Zekry (Egypt).
In with the old, in with the new
For organizers as well as participants, an important function of the forum was not only to celebrate the instrument’s significance for Arab culture but also usher it into a new era of prominence.
Despite the oud’s long and rich heritage, said Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni, “the passage of time has gradually faded the importance of this instrument amongst the developing Arab generations.”
The ministry had the same motivation for supporting the forum as it did for its continued support of the Arab Oud House, said Hosni: reviving the oud’s central place in Arab heritage after decades of marginalization.
For Syrian oud player Hussein Sabsaby, events like this one are key to the preservation and renewal of the region’s heritage.
“The oud has been played in Syria for over 3,000 years,” he told Daily News Egypt. “We say that the person who plays the oud is the bearer of the oldest and deepest part of our culture: the oud player understands and lives our heritage. The oud is present in the memory and mind of every Arab and we preserve and expand this love through events like this one.”
Syrian musician Bashar Al Hassan noted that the oud is capable of preserving the region’s rich traditions and at the same time expressing the region’s contemporary challenges.
“In the West, they say our music is sad,” explained Al Hassan. “Why is it sad? Because music is an expression of self and of emotions, and thus the problems we see in the world today are also expressed here.”
For Lebanese performer, composer and teacher Charbel Rouhana, too, a central function of this age-old instrument is sounding off on modern issues and challenges.
“Through music, I try to improve myself. If I can influence the society around me positively, I will,” he said, describing a song he composed to express his frustration at being denied entry to the US at the border (in the airport) though he had a visa.
For Rouhana, the space this exchange provides for experimentation, innovation and artistic growth is essential for the craft to flourish in years to come.
“What I like is the courage to try new things and new ideas using the oud,” he said. He described the Arab Oud House ensemble itself an example of such innovation. “No one has created an oud orchestra of this size before,” he explained, “and it is very clever of Naseer Shamma to do so. It is an interesting innovation and also gives young oud players a forum to play that is more inclusive than the opportunity afforded for solo artists to perform.”
In 1998, Shamma established the Arab Oud House with support from Egyptian Ministry of Culture to promote the teaching of oud music. Quartered in the historical Al-Harawy Mansion in El-Hussein district, the Arab Oud House cultivates young talent and advances the field of oud performance, conferring the degree of “Oud Soloist Performer” to graduates, many of whom go on to become instructors and established artists who host own concerts, master classes and workshops on a global scale.
Buoyed by the momentum the Arab Oud House’s year-round activity and enthusiasm of this year’s supporters, organizers are hopeful that the festival will continue in years to come.
“I would aspire that the forum would become an annual tradition,” said Cairo Opera House Director Abdel Moneim Kamel, adding that the Cairo Opera House would extend the sponsorship of the event to further years.
