CAIRO - When I first told this lady that I wanted to interview her, she said “I better watch what I say”. It seems I do have nasty reputation. Everyone knows I enjoy giving poor interviewees a hard time, but not this fellow music critic and brilliant writer, who has also been playing a major role in promoting classical music in Egypt. I've never seen anyone who does such a great job in this field. Tell us your story Ati Metwally. “My family is all about artists and people of literature. I was born in this field. My father is Hanaa Abdel Fattah, Professor of Theatrical Arts, theatre director and translator of Polish literature. He's my reference book on theatre and many other things. As a kid I was living at theatres, attending all rehearsals and performances. I was surrounded by art ��" mainly theatre and music. My parents used to take me to concerts all the time in Poland, where I was born and lived there till the age of 19. In Poland classical music is played everywhere and we used to travel hundreds of kilometres to attend concerts they thought were particularly interesting. Classical music was always played at home and loved by my parents and grandparents. My grandfather loved Puccini in particular. As a child it was torture at first and funnily enough I hated the sound of violins because they don't sound very smooth. Luckily Chopin was everywhere”. Wow. Were you born back in the days of Chopin? “No. His music was played even in cafes and of course last year things were crazy because it was his 200th anniversary. There is also a Chopin international competition that takes place every four years. That's probably one of the reasons I loved the piano. Besides, music education was taken very seriously at schools and my parents enrolled me in Warsaw Opera Music Club for Children, which I attended weekly for many years. We were taught how to listen to music and how to appreciate it. Carl Philip Emanuel Bach and his amazing flute concertos were the reasons I fell in love with the flute when I was 10 or 11. I was hypnotised and tried to find every piece of music for the flute. Later, I loved the cello and then the accordion. My parents bought me an accordion and I had a teacher for a while. However, I'm also a huge fan of the 1980's pop music. Another passion I had as a child/teenager was ballet. I even saw myself as a ballerina and I attended every ballet performance in Warsaw and several Polish cities. Despite this involvement in arts, I never pictured my future as an artist.” Did you prefer writing? “I always had inclinations to writing more, as possibly this was my way of expression. Linguistics and music have similar scientific logic and both have unlimited creative possibilities. Writing is an extremely creative process, like sculpting. Cultural journalism/music criticism is the best crossroad for all my passions. It allows me to be creative while expressing my thoughts about art ��" especially music. I believe that music is one of the greatest art forms and I hope I can convince others with that point. I started writing because I was interested in journalism and schools in Poland are different, so my department focused more on literature, arts, languages and the skill of writing. I studied French and Latin then graduated from Cairo University's Faculty of Arts, French Department. I think my fascination of French art made me love French culture and language. In Egypt I got involved with theatre circles ��" my dad was working on a play and as always I was attending rehearsals with him. Sherif Sobhi was working at the theatre next door on “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” with young talents and he was looking for actors so I joined.” I didn't know you're an actress as well. “In fact I was no stranger to this because in Poland I took part in many plays as a youngster. I went on and presented two more works and even won the First Prize for Best Actress in Students' Theatre Festival (French language) in 1993. It was my own adaptation of Choderlos de Laclos' “Dangerous Liaisons”, which I turned it into a monodrama told by Madame de Tourvel, the role played by Michelle Pfeiffer in the movie. It was directed by my dad. The second time I entered the competition was two years later and I also won the First Prize with another monodrama ��" “La Voix Humaine”, originally written by Jean Cocteau. The music was composed by Hisham Gabr. I also played roles in plays directed by Sherif Sobhi, my dad and Samir el Asfoury.” What about writing? “My first article was about Avignon theater festival and it was published in Arabic in Al Abdaa magazine. Then I started writing for Le Progres Egyptien before switching to Al-Ahram Hebdo. I didn't stay for long and then my sister Kamila Metwally and her friend Omar El Abd came up with an idea and asked me to join them. It was a magazine called the Art Review. Kamila was the Publisher, Omar was the Art Director and I was the Editor in Chief, but I was referred to as “Editorial Director”. There I realised I wanted to write about classical music ��" reviews, previews and information which most people didn't know much about.” Brilliant. So what happened next? “Due to financial reasons it's not published anymore but we hope to be back in the market soon. However, I was very active writing mainly about music for many publications like The Egyptian Gazette, Community Times, Daily News and Maadi Messenger. That was when theatre professor and critic Dr Nehad Seleiha recommended me to write for Al-Ahram Weekly. I've been writing my weekly music critiques there since October 2009. My experience as the Art Review Editor in Chief, Al-Ahram Weekly work and involvement in the art scene led last year to offering me the position of Editor of Arts and Culture section in Al-Ahram Online's English portal. It was still under preparation and was launched a few months ago and became one of my major passions. Apart of being in charge of Visual Art, Film, Music, Stage and Street sections, I also write about music and sometimes other art fields. I also provide data for two pages in El Beit magazine about music events planned for the month, plus short music related articles. In the past two years most of my articles revolved around music, yet I enjoy watching and reviewing theatre too. I don't go to the theatre in Egypt as much as I did in Poland. I guess this is why operas are my favourite dishes ��" it's that combination of all arts. When it's well done it's the utter delight but when it's not… it's torture.” What about promoting classical music? “I think of myself as a classical music promoter and writing about it is a part of that. It started at the Art Review. You can't just mention a work ��" you have to give readers info about it. Around four years ago I created “Classical Music Scene in Egypt” Facebook group to reach more people and the response was amazing. Many started contributing as if they just needed someone to open the door for them. People don't mind attending classical performances and even appreciate them ��" what sometimes worries them is not the work but the atmosphere and the dress code. On an international scale, classical musicians go to the youth to encourage them. I believe such performances should be held in places that youngsters like going to and a short explanation of the work could be included as well.” Tell us about the music appreciation sessions you organise. “Some of them were done in cooperation with, or even motored by, a Yahoo platform ��" Pen Temple Pilots. It has a big number of people who are interested in promoting culture. Those and several other appreciation sessions helped many in getting closer to classical music and discover that it doesn't bite. Understandably, many of those young attendees became keen to attend more classical music concerts. These sessions are conducted by my husband, maestro Hisham Gabr, who is one of my music “books”. Hisham and I are working on a new set of tools which will aim to develop better audiences and in the coming weeks we will tell you more about it. I'm happy doing what I'm doing because I love music ��" writing about it and promoting it.” Rise Lady Ati, you've been knighted… hold on, what's the time? It's too early so we better make that “you've been morninged”. Send me your art reviews to: [email protected]
