“Its fields are full of good things and it has provision for every day. Its granaries overflow, they reach the sky. Its ponds are full of fishes and its lakes of birds. Its fields are green with grass and its banks bear dates. He who lives there is happy and the poor man is like the great elsewhere." Don't worry I didn't write that. It is an Ancient Egyptian text. The reason why I am writing this is that it will be performed TONIGHT. This is very interesting and, if I were you, I wouldn't miss it, despite the short notice, but, if I were you, then you might be me and then I would love to meet you. How does it feel to be me? You are one lucky person. I got to know about this performance from one of the artists who is not only going to take part in the concert, but also commissioned Egyptian-American composer Ryan Francis to make this special work. He is American pianist Kimball Gallagher, who is both a classical and a rock musician. This of course is an exception in the music business. I realised the man is talented after checking out some of his classical performances on Youtube. We had a talk about his background and also about the work itself. Kimball had an interesting story to start the conversation with. “My father – who had been an amateur pianist and also a piano teacher – forced me to practise the piano at the age of five and I hated it. He was very strict and wanted me to practise every day. I learned lots of things from him like how to read music. “When I was ten, I quit and took up the electric guitar. I took some lessons and also practised a lot, which meant that I was able to progress very quickly on my own. After a year or two, I returned to playing the piano on my own. Then, for the next five years, my father tried to convince me not to be a musician." Excuse me? Why the sudden change of mind? “I think it was one of those parental things, when you want your kids to have a profession that could provide them with money. He was convinced that musicians don't make money, so for years he used to ask me all the time about my future plans and I didn't have a clear answer. I had no real plans, but I did have faith. “I have been to 20 countries in the past two years and the main thing I've been doing is playing concerts in private homes. I've found many homes with grand pianos where concerts could be held. That would give a lot of musicians a good opportunity to perform and have their own audience. “Although I have only been giving small concerts, they give me the chance to interact with my audience and of course I get paid as well – sometimes the money is very good. I have done this a lot in different countries." This is new to me and it seems to be nice. Still, if I were you, I'd focus on playing at bigger venues like opera houses or wherever. “I am not sure if there are many homes where I could play here, but it's my fourth time in Egypt and I have given many performances at the American University and El-Sawy Culture Centre. “On a larger scale, I performed with a group of Egyptian musicians as a project called ‘Musical Koshari', in collaboration with ‘Cultures in Harmony', which is sponsoring this week's concerts. “As you can tell from the name, Musical Koshari presented various styles of world music and I played the guitar and even included one of my rock songs in the shows. [In case you didn't know, koshari is an Egyptian dish made of rice, lentils, noodles and many other things]. I will be playing at the Cairo Opera House in October." I read that you have performed in Afghanistan as well. I don't think Americans are popular there, so why did you go there and where did you get the courage from? “Taliban banned music completely and, after they were removed, a man named Ahmed Sarmast founded the Afghanistan National Institute of Music. He wanted to rebuild the infrastructure of music by teaching Western music, in addition to Indian and Afghani music. “Faculty members include expatriates and I was invited as a guest three times. Each time, I spent a week or two teaching and also collaborating with the faculty and playing concerts. “So the courage came from the invitations and the school provided a place for me to stay and everything. There was security everywhere. I was motivated to change the lives of students and I am still in touch with some of them." How did this idea of making this Ancient Egyptian concerto start? “I told Shady Abdel-Salam, Manager of the Alexandrina Bibliotheca Chamber Orchestra, that I would like to collaborate with them and he said that they would like to play an American chamber concerto, but I couldn't find an appropriate one, so I commissioned this. “Ryan and I talked about it and we searched round till he found this text. We thought that doing something ancient in a modern context would be interesting – a purely unifying idea sung in Arabic with some of the words in Ancient Egyptian." Kimball has a lot on his mind like recording new albums, touring more countries and... coming back to Egypt in October. As for Ryan Francis, he is an accomplished composer and his new piano concerto ‘Anket' (Horizon), will premier in Egypt, tonight at 8:00 in El-Sawy Culture Centre's Wisdom Hall. There will also be a second concert on Sunday, March 24 in the Great Hall at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. Guess what... this will also be at 8pm. The work will feature my good friend Neveen Allouba (who, in addition to being lovely, is also a soprano) and El-Sakia String Orchestra. A great man (myself) once said, “An orchestra is like a bus – they both need conductors," and, in this case, the Maestro will be Mohamed Saad Basha. Other works on the programme include Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Minor, Op. 21, by Frederic Chopin, also with Kimball on the piano, unless they provide a seat for him! If you would like to contact Kimball and listen to his works then check out www.kimballgallagher.com and www.pianokey.net for more information, but, if you are feeling suicidal and want to contact me, then... Send me to: [email protected]
