[MusicTlk] Egypt's Orchestra of Light and Hope for Blind Women: Sharing a Unique Performance

[Ella Yu]

Hey everyone,
I don't normally make posts like this, but the performance I'm going to
link below really stuck out to me, so I just had to share it.

Exactly a year ago, I found out via a curiosity-driven google search on
blind orchestral musicians that there is a symphonic orchestra in Egypt
made up entirely of blind female musicians, which I have posted to this
list about. Well, at their most recent concert, which happened just a few
days ago, they did something very interesting and perhaps a little unique,
they performed a Sinfonia Concertante for flute, bassoon, and strings by
Breval, a Baroque-era composer. (Yes, Breval isn't that well known compared
to, say, Bach, Handel, Telemann, and Vivaldi). As a blind amateur musician
who plays violin and viola in a nice community orchestra, I find their
story very intriguing and inspiring. While I must admit that they do not
perform at the level of a western professional orchestra,  they have
overcome many barriers to get to where they are today, including
significant socioeconomic challenges and limited access to high quality
resources, and they also learn braille music on top of that. Still, I am
quite impressed with how well they performed this Sinfonia Concertante. The
flutist in particular did a commendable job on the running 16ths.

The reason I find this performance unique is that a. it features two
soloists, and b. more significantly, one of the soloists is a bassoon
player. As many of you know, the bassoon is one of the least commonly
learned band/orchestra instruments among today's youth. It gets
significantly less attention in popular media compared to most other
instruments, which means relatively few people know about it, and it is
also one of the most expensive orchestral instruments to acquire for a
complete beginner, so relatively few youngsters take it up. To see a blind
bassoonist performing a concerto with an orchestra (albeit in a unique
context) in a part of the world not known for classical music or a wealth
of economic resources, is quite something in my book. I don't mean to play
the blind card here, as I'm sure there are blind players on almost all of
the orchestral instruments, but double reeds are definitely a special
breed, which is why I feel it is quite noteworthy.

Here's the link to the performance video. Enjoy.
https://www.facebook.com/alnourwalamalaorchestra/videos/1306422834034198
(Note: You do not need a Facebook account to view the video).
The translation of the text in the Facebook post (courtesy of ChatGPT) is
as follows:
#Playing_with_Vision_of_Insight_Not_Sight
#Al-Nour_Wal_Amal_Chamber_Orchestra hosted by the Egyptian Academy in Rome
The creativity of the Al-Nour Wal Amal Chamber Orchestra lights up Rome.
The Italian audience was mesmerized during the concert at Sapienza
University in Rome.
Sinfonia Concertante per flauto, basso archi by Jean-Baptiste Bréval
Concerto for flute, bassoon, and strings by Jean-Baptiste Bréval
Bassoon solo: Mariz Makram
Flute solo: Basma Ahmed
Conducted by Maestro Tamer Fahmy
#Playing_with_Vision_of_Insight_Not_Sight

Additional information:
Here's an article of sorts I wrote describing the orchestra's background,
how they function, and relating it to my own personal experiences as a
braille music reading orchestral violinist and violist (albeit at the
amateur level). Also contains links to additional articles and information.
I posted this to the list last year, but it is most readily available on
Reddit.
https://www.reddit.com/r/classicalmusic/comments/19bi6p2/interesting_and_unique_a_blind_orchestra_from/
In the reddit post, I also linked to a 2002 documentary about the orchestra
located on YouTube. It is in Arabic, but it has on-screen subtitles in
English, which I have extracted for the benefit of blind individuals who
wish to watch the documentary:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CPoTYWC5RkhvFOYYOiYJFKfXgkNoHZoakleMqDZF-84/edit?usp=drive_link
I also have a 300+ page document containing all the video interviews and
articles I translated into English from Arabic via ChatGPT in order to
learn more about the orchestra:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BnQugmXcXhit-L-WDljFVLyhvakdh0J2/edit?usp=drive_link&ouid=107220353015084697485&rtpof=true&sd=true