By Mursi Saad El-Din I always admire people who are productive but shun publicity. You know about their achievements only when you have direct contact with them. One such figure is Nazih Girgis, whom I got to know because of an interest we share: children's culture. By culture I mean all those artistic works produced specifically for children: books, plays, films and games. But Nazih has come up with an original idea, introducing Egyptian and Arab children to the world of Western classical music. I'd like to quote him to explain: "Music is communication, music is education; music is a medium to lift and join the minds and hearts of all peoples; music inspires mutual understanding, cultural sensitivity, commercial ties, trade and investment; music directs and orchestrates all the different instruments of international friendship..." Nazih set himself the task of proving this. Starting with the beautiful work, Carnival of Animals, composed by Camille Saint-Saens in 1886, he went on to present Handel's The Water Music -- in the form of a prose poem he wrote in honour of Handel's . He called it Queen Waters, and with it he tries to spread awareness of water and its resources worldwide. Nazih Girgis does not only introduce works of classical music, he also produces texts about them, in both English and Arabic, which he publishes in book form. For his first work, Carnival of Animals, he won a top prize in the Suzanne Mubarak Competition for Children's Literature. Furthermore the book and the audio recording accompaning it have been used in 6,700 Egyptian schools in several provinces. The book was also chosen by Mrs Mubarak to be read by her to a group of children in a nationwide television programme called Read to Your Child. In his rendering of Saint-Saen's music, Girgis takes a group of children on a journey to experience how the great composer's music portrays animals and birds. The book and tape have been distributed to 500 schools, by British Petroleum. It has also resulted in 50 workshops conducted by Nazih Girgis, which took him to many cities and towns. Carnival of the Animals has been produced as a ballet and a theatrical production, and was premiered in 1999 at the Cairo International Conference Centre. The show was sponsored by Shell Egypt. In 2000 the play was part of the Friends of the Environment Festival in Egypt and Syria, where thousands of children watched it. What really impresses me is how Nazih Girgis links his musical activities with the national environmental campaign. In Carnival of the Animals, for example, he stresses the importance of cleaning up by showing the animals collecting garbage. He also shows the danger of noise, chemicals, air and water pollution. And he does this in a simple and humorous way that greatly appeals to the children. Another successful project of Girgis is that related to the water. Based on Handel's music and the Music for the Royal Fireworks, he produced Queen Waters in the form of a ballet, which was performed for the first time under the auspices of Mahmoud Abu-Zeid, Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation. A book and and audio recording were published by Nazih Girgis, his prose poem by him accompanied by colourful illustrations by Dalia Kamal. The book is, as Abu- Zeid's says in his introduction to it, a message from the heart of our beloved Egypt to preserve water and its resources so that the following generations will not suffer water shortages. On the back cover of the book, there is a display of the musical instruments used in Handel's works; in this way children can learn about the violin, viola, cello, counter bass, drums, French horn, clarinet etc. It is a kind of introduction to the orchestra. In a simple style Nazih presents his hroines -- Miss water, Miss Rain, Miss Wells, Miss Rivers, Miss Oceans as well as Miss Africa, America, Australia, Asia and Europe. Nazih Girgis has now published a book containing all the works he has so far produced. This week he received yet another prize as the best publisher of children's books -- a special prize, for it was given to an individual, not a publishing house.
