Ehdeniyat Festival 2013
Fahed El Abdallah
Saturday August 03
Fahd Abdallah is one of the gracious men who dedicated himself, he who enjoys a great talent, to transfer the body arts or the folk dance from the traditional stagnant status preserved in the conscience and the memory to a dynamic status that inspires imagination and pleases the eyes and the ears.
In 1978, he founded his own troupe for folk arts that participated in various local, Arab and international festivals with several shows. Since that date, he was keen to offer a flexible traditional art open to modernization. He is still running this unique Arab troupe that is seeking to generalize folklore by adapting it to the requirements of the modern artistic savoring. Fahd Abdallah knows how to travel smoothly with his audience from one Arab state to another starting with the Lebanese folklore, passing though the Gulf, Mesopotamia and Syria and ending at the banks of the Nile. With one move of a skilled jeweler, he makes from scattered various folkloric sections one collar of pearl, an uninterrupted sequence of beads, with perfect artistic characteristics, vivid colors and a magnificent melody, the composer, the author and the exhibitor being all one. As if folklore is being reinvented.
Fahd Abdallah studied in Beirut Arab University where he got a bachelor degree in philosophy and psychology. Then, he continued his higher studies at the Saint Joseph University where he got a diploma of higher studies in psychology. In order to combine eastern and western arts, he travelled to London and studied at the Martha Graham Center for Contemporary and Classical Dance where he got a diploma in these two arts. In 1978, he returned to Lebanon and established Fahd Abdallah Lebanese Folk Dance Troupe.
Since he founded his troupe, Fahd Abdallah was keen to offer a flexible traditional art that is open to modernization. He is running this unique Arab troupe that seeks to generalize folklore by adapting it to the requirements of the modern artistic savoring. He worked hard to prove that the Lebanese folklore is not just a folklore that is seen or heard but it is a collective knowledge that draws its core from the past, adapts this core to the present and uses it as yeast for the future.
For thirty years, Fahd Abdallah Lebanese Folk Dance Troupe has been performing at the local and the international levels moving the Lebanese Folklore from stagnancy to a dynamism that inspires imagination and please the eyes and the ears
Ehdeniyat Kids
Wednesday August 07
Ghinwa Super Show
Sunday August 18
Alice aux pays des merveilles
Wednesday August 21
Louna Summer Musical
Emma Shapplin
Friday August 09
The young and talented phenomenon, Emma Shapplin has been attracting fans all over the world with her operatic pop and dramatic performances. Emma has evolved through many styles and has recently created her own unique style of music that became a combination of archaic opera and modern trance or pop music.
Emma Shapplin began her music career in the classical tradition, before moving to rock. She discovered that although rock gave her a certain artistic freedom and brought her to an exploration of the lower range of her voice, she was still not entirely satisfied. She then moved back to classical, studying opera with various teachers, harmony and piano in Paris and then later cello as well as starting exploring new vocal possibilities and directions.
Consequently, Emma decided to create her own style where she can express freely her musical experiences and more generally her artistic orientations. With the help of great musicians from a wide array of genres of the industry, this very personnal style evolved into a combination of diverse influences including opera, lyric poetry, modern trance, rock and synth-pop.
Her first album Carmine Meo (1998) represents her debut step as a professional artist, and sold over two million copies around the world and became multi-platinum many times, which introduced her work to more than 25 countries.
A few years later, Emma was invited by composer Graeme Revell to sing three original and graceful tracks based on poetry of Dante from his score for the Hollywood movie Red Planet - a soundtrack that she shared with Peter Gabriel, William Orbit and Sting.
For her second album Etterna (2003), Emma, a great lover of poetry and literature, wrote all the lyrics directly in medieval Italian, playing with time and styles using, as she says, many "carefully chosen archaic words and expressions" in order to evoke the great ancient poets, playwrights and their works, even including, in order to evoke her love for Greek culture, fragments of Sappho's poetry. In terms of the music itself, Emma was interested in developing some of Etterna's compositions with another artist as well and consequently invited Graeme Revell to join her. As Emma likes to explain, "He brought his maturity and the smoothness of his orchestration."
One of Emma's most extraordinary collaborations occurred during Etterna's recording sessions at Abbey Road Studio, when the London Philharmonic Orchestra accompanied her, playing her and Revell's composition scores, and with the London Philharmonic Choir singing her words, Emma was absolutely in heaven. The experience was a very special moment that was truly unforgettable and magical. At the same period, she created her own production company "Nimue Music". Etterna led Emma to experience remarkable and bewitching stage performances, which she produced and staged herself.
Emma most recently wrote and composed her new album Macadam Flower, released in 2010, which is an exquisite journey through electro-pop-rock, a new approach of singing, of sensuality, poetry and drama.
Demis Roussos
Saturday August 10
The legendary Greek singer and performer, Demis Roussos, known for his dramatic, operatic vocal stylings, was born in Egypt, on June 15, 1946, to Greek expatriate parents. In the early '60s, the family decided to return to their homeland, and once there, the young Roussos, who had studied trumpet and sung in the church choir in Egypt, began playing in local bands. One of these was Aphrodite's Child, which also featured Vangelis and Lucas Sideras. A huge hit in Europe, especially France, the band released a handful of albums before breaking up in 1971.With his label contacts in place, Roussos was able to secure a deal as a solo recording artist, and later that same year issued the single "We Shall Dance," also included on the album On the Greek Side of My Mind. The 1970s were a prolific time for Roussos, and he released a number of singles and albums that charted highly on the European and Latin American charts such as "Goodbye My Love Goodbye" and "Forever and Ever".
In 1978 the singer decided to retire, and moved to Malibu Beach, where he kept a lower profile. Eventually he moved back to Greece, and it was there from which he boarded a flight to Rome in 1985. The plane was hijacked and Roussos and his wife, along with the other passengers, were held captive for a few days. This experience changed his life, and he decided the best way he could help others and promote understanding in the world was by returning to music. He recorded twenty other songs and compiled an album called "the story of Demis Roussos". With this album, he started to world tour again and found a nostalgic audience who had missed his magic voice.
Demis's voice is beyond comprehension, he embodies the Meditareanian feeling in the best of ways. He was awarded more than a hundred golden, platinum, and diamond albums and cassettes and he has sold over 60 million albums worldwide.
Moscow Ballet RFB
Friday August 16
One of the most prestigious dance companies in the world, Moscow Ballet RFB is coming to Ehden for one single performance at Ehdeniyat International Festival to perform works of legendary Russian composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky.
The Moscow Ballet RFB was founded by Timur Fayziev in 1989. After having toured much of the world and retired from the stage, Timur founded his own academy of dancers. In 1989 he fulfilled the need to give professional continuity to the students of his academy. With only a few years of tours, the Company carried out numerous tours throughout Japan, England, Spain, Ireland, Germany, Thailand, Switzerland, and other countries. Nowadays and throughout its history, the Moscow Ballet RFB has exhibited a repertoire of the best pieces of classical ballet, among which one finds: "Sleeping Beauty", "Swan Lake", "Nutcracker", "Giselle", "Don Quixote", "Romeo and Juliet", "A Midsummer Night's Dream", or "Carmen".
The international renown and prestige that the Company enjoys has not stopped growing. Because of this, as a result of the relevancy, rigor and
professionalism that were forged as the years went by, in 1991 the RFB Moscow Ballet was the only one in the whole of Russia invited to participate in the legendary dancer and choreographer Rudolf Nureyev's last tour through England, Norway and Sweden.
professionalism that were forged as the years went by, in 1991 the RFB Moscow Ballet was the only one in the whole of Russia invited to participate in the legendary dancer and choreographer Rudolf Nureyev's last tour through England, Norway and Sweden.
In 2003 the company received from its country the honorific diploma for the effort made by the whole company on having carried out a thousand performances. To be one of the most important companies in the country is for the RFB Moscow Ballet the best proof and guarantee of the excellence that it has been exporting to half the world for 20 years.
Hanine Y son Cubano
Saturday August 17
Hanine Y Son Cubano was formed by avant-garde artist and producer Michel Elefteriades as a groundbreaking project of Arabo-Cuban fusion. Hanine, the lead singer, has a voice that vehicles all the Arabic Tarab tradition, while her musicians, who are the best of their generation in Cuba, were especially gathered for this cultural venture.
Hanine's musical career started in 2000 with a fusion album of oriental melodies sang in Arabic, mixed with Cuban harmonies and rhythms. This Warner album was a best seller in the Middle East and Latin America. She then performed in several European capitals and in Brazil. After the release of her second album in 2004, Hanine toured around the world with successful concerts in the great capitals confirming the triumph of this new musical style. Her latest opus, the Festivals Album was released in August 2010.
Luis Gonzalez, the International Cuban singer, is accompanied by the musicians of Son Cubano who are all graduates of the High Conservatory of Music in Havana/Cuba. They formed the band a few years ago and participated in international festivals around Europe, Latin America, Japan and in international events such as Miss Europe, the IV Mercado Cultural do Bahia in Brazil… The band plays all styles of Cuban music from classical old Boleros to modern "Salsa Fuerte", passing by Cha-cha-cha, Son, Guajira, Afro-Cuban…besides other Latin American styles. The group has created its own personalized choreographies that they also perform on stage.
Kadim AL Sahir
Friday August 23, Saturday 24
Kadim Al Sahir is an Iraqi singer, composer, and poet who has established himself as one of the most successful singers in the history of the Arab World, since the start of his career; ranging from big romantic ballads to more political work, from pop to Arab classical music.
Born in 1957, to a simple family, Kadim grew up fueled by passion for creativity. After exploring various forms of art including sculpting, painting, drawing, fashion, poetry, and others, he decided to specialize in music. Soon after he became a multi- instrumentalist, started composing his own music, and sometimes even writing and arranging them.
Kadim then after went on to re-define Arabic music with his genius compositions of Arabic poetry, especially that of legendary Syrian romantic poet Nizar Qabbani who hailed Kadim as "The Caesar of Arabic music", and went on to build a groundbreaking, substantial and enormously popular body of work with huge hits including "Zidini ishqan", "Quolee ahibuka", & "Ahibini".
Kadim pioneered Arabic-International collaborations with various artists including Sarah Brightman on "The war is over", Lenny Kravitz on "We want peace", Paula Cole, One Giant Leap, TGU, & Quincy Jones & REDone on "Tomorrow". Along with Italian Andrea Bocelli, and Spanish Julio Iglesias, Arabian Kadim Al Sahir is a "romantic world music legend".
The no.1 Arabic legend has gained numerous artistic awards including the much respected BBC Radio 3 World Music Awards for "Best Middle Eastern/North African Artist" and "Audience Award", Jordan Awards for "The Best Arabic Artist", & Murex d'or for "Lifetime Achievement Legend Award". His song "Ana Wa Leila" is the only Arabic song listed and ranks 6th among the ten best songs in the world on BBC.
As a genuine humanitarian, with much recognition including a "First Class Accolades Honor" by The Arab League, and a "Goodwill Ambassador" by the UNICEF, Kadim continues in striving to spread love through his music across the universe.
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