No room for jokes today. Soprano Dina Iskander has a lot to say, so I'll be quiet. Over the past few years I've attended some of Dina's performances and I know she has gone a long way. One of her most memorable moments was when she participated in Chopin's 200th birthday concert and she excelled. “My dad used to play us classical and soft music in the morning and when I was 10 I joined the choir of my school, “Deutsche Schule der Borromäerinnen” in Alexandria. My first performance was during the school's 100th Jubilee and although I was calm throughout the audition and rehearsals, I was sacred during the performance, which was very crowded and successful. This motivated me and I kept singing with that choir till I finished school, but I also joined our church choir at the age of 12 and Choir Master Farid Wissa played a major role in what became my career. We used to sing works like Bach's cantatas and Farid trained us properly. He even had each member lead the choir, which taught us a lot about tempo, dynamics and so on. Those who played an instrument were asked to accompany the choir as well. Farid was also my piano coach for a year. I first studied the piano at the Alexandria Conservatoire for almost two years and my coach was Madam Onsy. That was after my dad bought me and my sister Dalia a piano, which was around the same time I joined the church choir, but after almost two years I stopped my piano lessons because I didn't want to study. Later I had an American coach named Jay and finally Farid, who helped me even in buying my flute, which I played for about two years while studying at the university. I've always loved the flute and believe it sounds like my character. I decided to play it and took lessons with Mohsen Abd Rabou at the Conservatoire. However, I quit because I was too busy doing other things like joining the church band and this is how I met Nayer Nagui, my husband. He was the band leader and although we specialised in religious songs, the instruments included guitars, bass, keyboard and drums. I went on with the band till I was engaged.” I have to separate paragraphs. Can I joke now? I guess not! Go on Dina. “Nayer moved from Alex to Cairo and became an accompanying pianist at the Cairo Opera House. To spend time with him I had to come frequently to Cairo and attend singing lessons all day long. I was shocked when I attended the first lesson, because I wasn't aware that such techniques existed to teach singers how to produce their voices in that way. I was only used to the softer kind of church singing, which doesn't require such power. I immediately wanted to learn that style, only to apply it in church. I studied with different Professors including Sobhi Bedeir, Violette Makkar, Raouf Zidan and Mona Rafla, as well as French Professor Caroline Dumas and in Belgium with Catharina Moesen and recently George Wanis. It was good to make the best out of the different techniques I learned from them. Despite all that, singing was only meant for the church and I never considered taking it as a profession. I had many jobs – worked for an airline company, a gas company, tried my own private small business making gift baskets, catering and many more (Needless to say, when Dina mentioned food I asked her to have mercy and stop giving me details). I couldn't relate to any job and couldn't go on. Finally I decided to focus on singing as a career because this is who I am. Since I was studying with these doctors, I was asked to participate in the Cairo Opera House's Talents Development Centre concerts at the Small Hall. My debut performance was recorded and shown on T. V. I sang Schubert's “Ständchen” and people liked it. I also sang in concerts that represented the Evangelical Church during the Bibliotheca Alexandrina inauguration. Nayer composed that work and I took part in singing. I later sang in a concert he conducted, which featured his rearrangements of Sayed Darwish music.” What about music teaching? “Pianist Samir Bayoumi was looking for someone to teach music at the Modern English School and I went for it, but on the first day I wasn't sure I could simultaneously play the piano and coach the students. However, I changed my mind on the following day. I kept practicing daily in the evenings for three years till I reached a completely different standard. Then when the American University in Cairo was working on a production of the musical “Guys and Dolls” performers were needed. After the audition Director of the Music Program, John Baboukis, told me I was over qualified and asked me to teach there. Eventually I had to leave the school and focus on singing and teaching at the AUC, where I also sang in Mozart's “Requiem” and later Fauré's “Requiem” with the Cairo Choral Society and the orchestra conducted by Baboukis at Ewart Hall. Then I also took part in Beethoven's “Choral Fantasy”. That's very interesting. You sing, play music and teach. What else do you do? “I do Arabic dubbing for Disney animated movies, which was done in Egypt for the first time in 1997 and I took part in the debut one. My biggest role so far is Ariel in “The Little Mermaid III”.” From Beethoven to cartoon… quite remarkable! What about your own recitals? “I've given a couple in the past two years at the Foreign Diplomats Centre and the AUC I also participated in the Cairo Opera Company Gala Concert with the Cairo Opera House Orchestra and the Christmas Concert with the Cairo Symphony Orchestra. Amajor step in my career was taken when I worked with Georgian pianist Elena Dzamashvili, who is a very active performer. I have so much respect for this dedicated, knowledgeable, professional hard-working lady. After attending one of my performances she asked me to participate in her concerts, which I gladly accepted. She has a vast repertoire, which includes Chopin's songs. The first collaboration was on the first of March and she chose that date because it is Chopin's birthday. Our music guru friend Michael Ghali and the wonderful music critic Ati Metwaly contacted the Polish Embassy, which was so excited about the event and supportive too. Being half Polish, Ati helped me a lot in pronouncing the Polish words properly. It was hard because some words are pronounced in more than one way. Then Poland was commemorating Chopin's anniversary worldwide and the embassy chose me to be the only Egyptian performer in the concert held by the Pyramids.” And you did an excellent job. Go on please. “Thanks you. Lately, to celebrate Schumann's birthday I sang his most famous cycle for a female voice “A Woman's Love and Life”. I've also sung early music concerts with John Baboukis. It was before notes were being written as we know them, no measures no scales. It was totally different. I also participated in productions of operas at the Cairo Conservatoireand enjoyed each one. I would like to take part in more operas and of course to keep improving.”Due to space limitation, I couldn't include the names of the numerous vocalists Dina sang with. Sorry. Happy Eid to you and all your loved ones. Send Dina your lasagna orders to: thisisamrhussien@ gmail. com
