Ahmed El-Saedi

Ahmed El-Saedi began private music studies in 1963 and studied philosophy at Alexandria University from 1966 to 1968. He studied music formally in Cairo from 1968 to 1971 before further training in Moscow and Vienna. Born in Rosetta in 1947, he has worked between Cairo and Austria since 1976, composing for orchestra, chamber ensemble and voice. His later compositions bring elements of Middle Eastern musical traditions into Western classical forms. He founded and chaired the Egyptian Philharmonic Society, and at the Cairo Symphony Orchestra he held the posts of music director and principal conductor, using them to programme Egyptian composers beside the European standard repertoire. His own works have been played across Europe and the Middle East. He trained at the Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts with Othmar Suitner in conducting, Friedrich Cerha in composition and Franz Eibner in Schenkerian theory, and later studied conducting and musical phenomenology with Sergiu Celibidache. His 1982 debut abroad was with the Slovak Sinfonietta at the Wiener Konzerthaus, and he has conducted in the Musikverein, the Philharmonie Berlin and the Queen Elizabeth Hall, returning to the Cairo Symphony Orchestra for a second term in 2014. Among his distinctions are the Villa-Lobos Centennial Medal of 1988, Egyptian state prizes in 1995 and 2000, and the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art in 2004.