13th Cairo International Jazz Festival kicks off on October 28

CAIRO – 26 October 2021: The 13th edition of the Cairo International Jazz Festival is set to kick off on October 28.

Reviving a tradition adopted by the Cairo International Jazz Festival since its inception in 2009 to honor the symbols of music in Egypt and the world, the festival’s management has recently announced the honorees of this edition in recognition of their contributions over decades of distinguished artwork.

In its 13th edition, the festival will honor musician Hani Shenouda, a composer and music distributor, who discovered many Egyptian talents, and formed the Egyptian Ensemble in 1977 in addition to other bands.

Shenouda graduated from the Faculty of Music in 1966; he then joined the Higher Institute of Music [Conservatoire].

Moreover, Shenouda presented for the first time the now well-known singer Mohammed Mounir and composed four songs in his first albums.

Shenouda also discovered the mega-star Amr Diab at one of the Egyptian Ensemble's concerts in Port Said, and convinced him to move to Cairo and study music.

Furthermore, Shenouda composed songs for great singers such as Nagat al-Saghira and Fayza Ahmed; and composed many soundtracks for Egyptian films.

Another distinguished musician the festival will honor is Magdy Baghdadi.

Baghdadi graduated from Cairo Conservatory in 1982 and received a diploma in playing the trumpet, and a doctorate from the High School of Music and Art Production in Germany. 

Since 1990, he has been a professor at the Cairo Conservatory. He was the first trumpeter to play in the Cairo Symphony Orchestra from 1983 to 1997. Baghdadi led the orchestra of instruments in the Conservatoire between 1997 and 2003. 

Baghdadi established his band in 1996. It is the first Egyptian group to specialize in presenting Western music from the 1920s to the 1940s. The band includes a group of the most outstanding musicians on various musical instruments and participated in many international festivals. 

Baghdadi and his band presented a series of successful concerts in various cultural venues in Egypt, receiving the appraisal of the public and critics. 

In 2019, Minister of Culture Inas Abdel Dayem agreed to accept UNESCO's invitation to celebrate the International Day of Jazz. Consequently, Cairo Opera House, headed by Magdy Saber,  organized a concert for Baghdadi Big Band led by maestro Baghdadi on April 30, 2019 on the Open Theatre. 

It is well-known that the Cairo International Jazz Festival has honored many icons of art in Egypt and the Arab world.

The festival honored the late artist Salah Ragab, a pioneer of jazz music in Egypt, in the festival’s first edition, in addition to artists Yahya Khalil, Ziad el-Rahbani, Omar Khairat, Spanish musician Carles Benavent, the former Brazilian Minister of Culture, as well as Amer Barakat, and Hani el-Azhari, a member of the Egyptians Ensemble.