Egyptian conductor Hisham Gabr led the Plovdiv Philharmonic Orchestra in a concert on 13 January in Bulgaria. The concert programme included Brahms' Symphony No. 3 in F major and Schumann Piano Concerto in A minor performed by Maria-Desislava Stoycheva, winner of the "Young musician of the year 2015" award. The orchestra also performed Gabr's own composition — highlights from the music he composed for El Shoq (Lust), a 2011 film directed by Khaled El-Hagar. Gabr expressed appreciation for the orchestra, saying that with El-Shoq "the orchestra was open to the different nature of the composition and was very cooperative in playing it the way that I hoped for." This is not the first cooperation between Gabr and Bulgarian musicians. In 2015, Gabr conducted the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra at the Bulgaria Hall in Sofia. The composer is also a conductor at the Cairo Opera House and director of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina Arts Centre (where he is also principal conductor and artistic director of the BA Orchestra). He has conducted numerous international orchestras, including Gottingen Symphony Orchestra (Germany), Macedonian Philharmonic Orchestra, Wroclaw Philharmonic (Poland), Astana Philharmonic Orchestra (Kazakhstan), Kiev Kamerata (Ukraine), National Symphony Orchestra of Mexico, among others. For more arts and culture news and updates, follow Ahram Online Arts and Culture on Twitter at @AhramOnlineArts and on Facebook at Ahram Online: Arts & Culture
