The weather may be hot, but the Spring Festival brings a breath of fresh air that makes the heat a little more bearable, reports Rania Khallaf The Spring Festival held by the Mawred Culture Resource Centre opened last week at the Prince Taz Palace. This year the festival is co-sponsored by the Egyptian Ministry of Culture, and many of the performances are taking place at the Prince Taz Palace and the Samaakhana; two of the most beautiful houses in Islamic Cairo. The festival's various events are taking place simultaneously from 6 to 26 May in three Arab cities: Cairo, Alexandria and Beirut. This year for the first time the events include plastic arts installations, documentary films, plays and music concerts. The opening ceremony, which was held last Thursday, hosted a concert by Nodira Primatov and musicians from Afghanistan and Uzbekistan. Nodira Primatova is one of the best-known performers of traditional classical music in Uzbekistan, which lies at the centre of Central Asia. Primatova studied both traditional music and opera in the rigorous conservatory-style educational system that developed in Central Asia during the Soviet era to merge Eastern and Western musical approaches. Accompanying herself on the dutar, Nodira brings exquisite vocal control and intensity to her performance of classical songs. In the inaugural concert, Pirmatova sang energetic examples of katta ashula, a traditionally a cappella vocal genre closely identified with Ferghana Valley in the east of Uzbekistan. Once performed at Sufi gatherings, katta ashula has in more recent times become popular in a secular context at outdoor festive gatherings. The musical world of Central Asia comprises a vast repertoire of songs and instrumental pieces that encompass the entire spectrum of civic life, from devotion and prayer to festivities and celebrations. Thanks to the Mawred, we have the opportunity to learn and enjoy Asian music, which is for the most part completely foreign to our ears. Born into a musical family, Abbos Kasimov, a musician from Uzbekistan, is a professional percussionist who plays on the doyra, a traditional and popular type of a drum in Kazakhstan. Kasimov graduated from the College of Culture and Music, where he studied with Mamurjon Vahabov, at Tashkent State Institute of Culture, to become a university professor in one of the most prestigious universities in his country. In 2005 he moved to the United States where he currently lives in California. During his time in the US he played with famous groups and singers including Stevie Wonder, Adam Rodolf and Zakir Hussein from India, and Salah Nader from Afghanistan. Kasimov believes there are some common features in Ozbek and Arab music, "especially because 80 per cent of his people are Muslim, and Arab music is very popular there," he told Al-Ahram Weekly. Kasimov is producing a DVD on the doyra with Octagonal Madness, an online radio channel. Serajjeddin Djhuraev from Tajikistan who plays the tambour, a traditional instrument, was among those musicians who performed at the inaugural concert. He graduated from the Institute of Traditional Music before studying art at the Academy of Makamat. "There is so much resemblance between our music and Arab music because of these makams." Djhuraev told the Weekly on the eve of the first show. "I believe that the rhythms are almost the same. The main oriental sound is the tambour. I admire Arab music very much, and I am so thrilled to be a part of this festival." Djhuraev is a member of a group affiliated to the States called Sheesh Makam. "We present concerts everywhere in my country and we have presented a number of concerts in India, Iran, and Europe. We celebrate the day of sheesh makam and Al-Falak on 12 May with folk music." At the opening ceremony, Afghan rubab virtuoso Homayun Sakhi teamed up with percussionists Salar Nader on tabla and Abbos Kosimov on doyra -- the Central Asian frame drum -- for a performance devoted to the traditional Kabuli style of the Indian raga performance of which Sakhi is arguably the greatest living exponent. The metaphor of this unprecedented music as language is nowhere clearer than in the discursive "question and answer" (sawol-jawop) played out between drums and melody instrument that is a hallmark of the North Indian, and also Kabuli, classical performance tradition. Throughout the performance, Nader and Kosimov rendered "answers" to Sakhi's "questions" by transferring the rhythmic patterns of his rubab to their individual drums. Sakhi is a musician from Afghanistan who currently lives in the US. He lived in Pakistan for some years before immigrating to the US in 2001. "Thank God, my music is very popular nowadays in the States," he says. He has played with several famous musicians, and has so far produced three albums. Sakhi believes that global music does no harm to local music. "On the contrary, when I played only Afghani music I got more of an audience. People in the US prefer listening to new, traditional, and slightly eccentric music like ours. I believe that mixing different styles of international music is good enough. "This is the first time I have visited the Middle East," he told the Weekly. "And I am very enthusiastic about this experience, and wish to come again next time." "Tomorrow" is a sub-activity running for the first time this year at Rawabet theatre. The Tomorrow programme presents performances by young Arab people who gained financial support from the Mawred to produce their artistic works. In the framework of this programme, two short plays were presented: Sqeeck by Kholoud Nasser from Lebanon, and Haki yegor bateekh or a Narration that yields watermelon by Roaa Bazeih, who is also from Lebanon. A number of plastic art exhibitions were opened, including The First Bra by Diala Khasaona from Jordan; and scenes of light and darkness by Yazan El-Khalyli from Palestine. The production-support programme was launched in 2004 with the aim of supporting creative artistic projects among Arab young artists and writers. Basma El-Husseini, manager of the Mawred, says the number of scholarships has increased from six in 2004 to 14 in 2010. "The Tomorrow programme aims at celebrating the creative and distinguished projects by young Arab artists, and providing them an excellent platform where they meet critics and audience alike," she added. On Friday 14 May the Genena Theatre at Al-Azhar Park will host the master of arts and one of the pioneers of the Lebanese modern theatrical movement: Roget Assaf's City of Mirrors. The play is based on works of the late painter Paul Giragosian, a Lebanese-Armenian artist who died in 1993, and on documents on the city of Jerusalem before 1948. My advice is: if you have already missed some of the festival's events, make sure not to miss this unique theatrical performance.
