I can tell that Hisham Gabr is not an ordinary conductor. His job on the bus… Hold on, I think he's not that kind of conductor. I believe his job is somehow related to orchestras. Sorry about that, but you can't even imagine what the traffic was like on the evening I met Hisham to "conduct" this interview. It was a very cold evening and since we were sitting in an open air place, we both got sick, again. One of the things I like about him is that he is very knowledgeable in pop and rock as well. This 38-year-old man told me his story, as I was eating pizza like a pig with one hand and recording the interview in the other. Never mind the food-dropping details, and let's go straight to the artist, who is on a diet! "My dad tells me that when I was very young, I used to stand on a chair and sing Abd Al-Haleem's classical song "Qare'at Al-Fengan". I can't remember this but by the time I was five he enrolled me in Arabic Music Institute's Children Choir. Two years later, he told me that there's a place that teaches music and I was happy to study there. It's called the Cairo Conservatoire. “For the first six years, I studied the violin and didn't really like it, so I decided to switch to the flute, which I was always fascinated with. Many people said it would be a shame to waste all those years, but I knew I was going to develop quickly. I always envied flute students because it was easy for them to play the notes they wanted to, instead of taking chances on producing the right sounds on a fretless instrument like the violin. Although a bow instrument is totally different from a wind one, I picked up very fast and even wondered why I wasted time on another instrument! While studying I auditioned to join the Cairo Symphony Orchestra and passes. “I was the youngest member and sat next to my doctors and professors at the conservatoire and I had to be careful not to provoke anyone in any way. When I was in high school I was asked by a friend, actor Ahmed Mokhtar, to compose music for a play he was directing about Julius Caesar and I did. It was well-received by all and so far I've written scores for about 30 plays. At first I used to use keyboards and computers but being an orchestra member taught me so much about orchestration – when you play a different symphony every week you learn from the best. I've been mainly making music that is associated with drama – plays, movies and docudrama. It inspires me. You see, as a youngster I looked up to my sound engineer brother who was surrounded by people who work in the filed of making movies. “It was only natural to be interested in drama. In the year 2000 my friend Sherif Mandour was working on his first movie ‘The Mediterranean Man' and asked me to write the score and it was my debut film as well. Then I worked on the graduation projects of numerous Institute of Cinema students and I love these short movies they make. The main difference between making music for plays and movies is that in the first case they move to the score but in the second the music has to based on their moves. While composing for theatre requires imagination, movie scores require precision. One of the good things about films is that you get to keep a copy of it and people can watch it anytime unlike plays that the audience go and watch while it's being performed." Conducting must have been a major change in his life and it started when Maestro Ahmed El Saedi organised a Master Class for conducting and I've always envied conductors because no matter how talented you are as a composer; you could never compare that to conducting timeless epics. Maestros might have a vision of something more important than any of the orchestra members and can really apply it, which gives an incomparable satisfaction. I was accepted in South Korea, France, Germany, Belgium, Hungary, Greece, Cyprus, England, the States and Russia. It wasn't for beginners because it was with the orchestra and they chose the best participants to play in the closing ceremony and I was among them. Then I attended many Master Classes in France then studied with Christoph Mueller. Then young conductors who wanted to lead the Cairo Symphony Orchestra were auditioned. Seven applied and I was chosen along with another colleague. That was in 2005 and we performed Beethoven's 5th, then his 3rd (the "Eroica"), Schumann's 3rd, Tchaikovsky's 4th, Brahms 1st and may more. Both the orchestra and the audience were happy. The orchestra's administration and members encouraged me to continue. I would really want to do Brahms 3rd, Tchaikovsky's 6th and Mahler's 4th. “I would love to do that in the next season but of course the administration has to decide what is suitable for its schedule. Conducting bigger, deeper and more complicated is more challenging. I love all the symphonies I mentioned and a friend recently drew my attention to the fact that they all have softer ends, which made me realise that I'm somehow interested in that kind of symphonies. Sometimes, we present works that are not well-known by everyone here and still the concert would be a sold out one, which proves that when you promote concerts properly it pays off. Soon I should be working with the Cairo Opera Orchestra as well – its Managing Director, Nader Abbassi, attended Tchaikovsky's 4th, which I conducted last October and was very happy with; so there might be a collaboration soon. Since I'm talking about last year, one of my most important achievements throughout the year was "Praxa," which is the first real Arabic musical. It's not a play with songs inserted in the middle. I composed the 52 minutes of orchestrated music and the duration of the entire work is 80 minutes. It was liked by all even people who don't usually go to the opera. The lyrics were written by Theatre Director Nader Salah Al-Deen and it was our first collaboration after 12 years of working together and believing in each other's talents." From violin to flute and then to composing before moving to conducting, this is very interesting. But did Hisham forget, about the flute now? "I'm still playing with the orchestra but I feel much better when I conduct – it comes more natural to me. Stage fright attacks me when I play but while conducting every cell of the body is being used which doesn't give room for stage fright! Still, unlike orchestra members, conductors get no remarks from anyone so the best thing to do is to keep on participating in Master Classes. Music is the most abstract form of art and a conductor should have a vision and also to maintain the original work. You start by dividing the work into pieces and see how it should be performed. The interpretations of phrases sometimes change – you could stress on a particular note and although this might be liked by some, others might not approve of it but both ways are applicable. These differences might be minor, but they make all the difference. In the late 1990s more space was given in handling original works because it is more important to realise what music needs rather than what the composer wants. For instance, Brahms works are now played slower than he wanted them to be because many things are happening at the same time and you will miss some of them if the work is played as fast as he wanted it to be. Now I would like to dedicate more of my time and effort to conducting and composing. I would also love to raise the awareness of classical music in Egypt. “I try to reach people and make it interesting to them. I also organise music appreciation sessions during which we listen to works and analyze them. The number of attendees is increasing and they are mainly young people who are absolutely interested in classical music. The session could be about a specific composer or a theme like nationalism." That's very impressive Hisham. Now I'll finish my pizza! Send me napkins to: [email protected]
