In a “World Music Concert”, the Cairo Celebration Choir (CCC), together with Dozan wa Awtar choir from Jordan, will unite on Thursday 22 March, at El-Dar, Heliopolis.
The first concert series that featured both choirs took place in February 2017, when CCC and Dozan wa Awtar performed at the Cairo Opera House and at the Alexandria Opera House in a programme that included popular compositions and folkloric songs from the Egyptian and Jordanian repertoire, many of them arranged by Nayer Nagui, Awatef Abdel Kerim, and Gamal Abdel Rahim.
The World Music Concert will feature a new selection of songs from around the globe.
The evening will be conducted by Nayer Nagui and Nedy Muna. The choirs will be accompanied by Amira Ahmed (traditional Arabic singer), Mohamed Saleh (piano), Yasser Ghoneim (violin), Shady Ishaak (cello), Sherif Elian (double bass), Saber Abdelsattar (kanoun), Andrew Maher (guitar), Diaa Badr (percussion), Ramadan Mansour (derbuka), and Nashaat Labib (req).
Founded in 2008, according to its official biography, Dozan wa Awtar “is the leading secular choir in Jordan. Its repertoire includes a wide range of sacred music, from Byzantine hymns through the chorale classics of Western music to the present day as well as Islamic anasheed. The choir also enjoys performing secular music, including folk songs from around the world, Broadway hits, and arrangements of popular, contemporary music in many languages.”
Dozan wa Awtar, from Jordan, participated in the Champions Competition of the 2016 World Choir Games, winning gold medals in two categories: Music of Spirit and Faith and Folklore with Accompaniment.
The CCC was founded in 2000 by Nayer Nagui, its principal conductor and artistic director. The choir consists of “professional amateurs,” as Nagui describes them, and “has become a vibrant element of Egypt’s cultural life.”
The CCC won the Silver Diploma in the category of Folklore with Accompaniment, one of the main awards at the ninth World Choir Games 2016. In 2012, the choir won Silver Level Diploma at the Czech Republic’s Prague Voices Festival.
