Oud soloist to join Awtar Quartet for the first time

CAIRO – 24 January 2018: Awtar Quartet is back after a long absence to stage the historical theater of Arabic Music Institute, with Michael Onsy, an Egyptian oud player, on February 9.

According to the official event, the concert will give the audience a special performance of recomposed Arabic music to be played in classical western arrangements. Many significant music pieces will be performed for various prominent musicians such as Sayed Darwish, Mohamed Abdelwahab, Farid El Atrash, Mahmoud El Sherif, and Baligh Hamdy among others.

“It is the first time for me to join Awtar Quartet in a concert as they never performed with a oud player before,”Onsy told Egypt Today. He added that two of the Quartet’s members played with him in his graduation ceremony from “Beit Al Oud Al Araby” (House of the Arabic Oud) founded by the prominent Iraqi oud player Naseer Shamma. It was a great artistic experience which led the quartet to invite him to play with them in their upcoming concert.

Onsy is an Egyptian oud player who graduated from “Beit Al Oud Al Araby” (House of the Arab Oud) with a degree of excellence who is incredibly inspired by Shamma’s one of a kind artistic skills in the world of oud. Onsy said that Shamma has constructed new concepts in oud learning, creating a special fusion between western and eastern music that enables any oud player to perform, even if as a soloist without an orchestra.

Onsy who is also deeply inspired by Farid Al Atrash believes that Awtar Quartet plays the kind of compositions that he always wished to perform after graduating.
Awtar String Quartet is an insightful and finely tuned group of musicians, which enables them to create their own unique atmosphere in any event or concert platform they perform in. The quartet is professional in various musical styles as their repertoire includes classical, Arabic, tango, jazz, and pop among others.

The quartet consists of violinist Yasser Ghonim, violinist Khaled Salah, Essam Abdel Hamid on viola and Mohamed Abdel Fattah on cello. They are all members of Cairo Symphony Orchestra among a variety of other proficient ensembles in Egypt. The quartet participated in several local and international festivals and workshops.