THE Fourth Edition of the Finnish- Egyptian Musical Bridge started at the Cairo Opera House this week with a show performed by seven young and talented Egyptian singers, who have been trained by world-renowned Finnish musical teachers and experts. "The Musical Bridge programme, which is moving ahead according to plan, has started its fourth edition with a plan to get more Middle Eastern countries involved," Ambassador of Finland to Egypt Roberto Tanzi-Albi told The Gazette after the show. The Egyptian singers sang elaborate operatic works by Offenbach, Verdi, Mozart, Donizetti, Puccini, Strauss, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov and Rossini. Ambassador Tanzi-Albi said he was very encouraged by the performance of the Egyptian singers, who are very talented and have benefited considerably from the whole project. He added that there are proposals to widen the project's scope to include more Arab countries as well as other arts next year. Ambassador Tanzi-Albi explained that four talented Egyptian artists, two singers and two instrumentalists, will travel to Finland in the summer to join the Opera Festival and continue with their training at the Savonlinna Music Academy. "This training in Finland is part of the project," he said, confirming that the global economic crisis would not have any negative impact on the activities of the Finnish Egyptian Musical Bridge, which is being financed by NGOs. He thanked the Cairo Opera House for all the sincere assistance and the co-operation it has given to this project. Ralf Gothóni, a famous Finnish pianist and one of the project's founders, said that the Egyptian artists will stay in Finland during the summer, where they will give concerts and attend an extensive training course. "The course aims to further improve their skills in terms of singing and playing music," Mr Gothóni stressed, adding that the whole idea is to enrich the musical life in Egypt and help its artists. Meanwhile, Professor Tom Krause, who has been here for nine days, said that he enjoys training Egyptian singers, because they are extremely talented and willing to learn operatic singing. "Working in Egypt is a very rich experience, because it has shown me that the young Egyptian musicians are very enthusiastic and quick to learn even the most difficult works by classical composers," he said. Famous Finnish opera singer Eija Tolpo, who is also one of the project's founders, commented that she is very happy to be in Egypt again, meeting with the Egyptian singers and instrumentalists.
