Sakia's adult Choir - Ahl El Maghna

Choire Members:

• Vocals:

Ezzat Ramadan, Refaat Abdoush, Raafat Shenouda, Tarek Nasaar, Waheed Shenouda, AbdelHamid Farid, Nabil AbdelMenem, Nabil Yousef, Wael Sobhy, Mahmoud Hegazy, Mohab Hossam, Wael AbdelHay, Gamal El Saeed, Gamal Ismael, Gamal El Sabagh, Mohamed Mare'e, Amr Nassar, Ashraf Ahmed, Ayman Mohamed, Khaled Fawzy, Wael Helmy, Ehab Fahmy, Mahmoud AbdelWahab, AbdelMenem El Leithy, Reda Al Anwar, Mohamed AbdelAziz, Sayed Mohamed, Ahmed Hassan, Amr AbdelGhany, AbdelRahim Mohamed, Ibrahim El Sayed, Adel El Husseiny

Azza Gaber, Enas El Deeb, Safaa Hamdy, Safaa Waheeb, Wegdan Saeed, Leqaa Mo'men, Manaal El Rae'e, Elham AbdelFatah, Wasfiya Mahmoud, Magda Ashour, Rana El Mahmoud, Manaal Hussein, Ghada Magdy, Shaimaa Wagdy, Shaheera Saad, Basema Ibrahim, Manaal El Habashy, Nadia Tawfiq, Maha Ayyad, Hoda Ayyad, Rawya Mohamed, Susan Hassan, Hanya Moheeb, Al Zahraa Fadya, Soha Mustafa, Magda Saeed, Azza El Demerdash, Intesar Lotfy, Intesar Saeed, Soaad Mohamed, Manaar Aql, Zeinab Gheita, Mayada Ahmed, Zeinab Taha (Hajja Zoza, 91 years old), Abeer Foaad, Madiha Mohamed, Amaal Mohamed, Ayda AbdelRaouf, Monira Mohamed, Salma Atef, Manaar Magdy, Heidy El Sayed, Amira Khaled, Yosriya El Sayed, Hala Fathy.

• Musicians:

Mohamed Nasr, AbdelNaser El Sawaf, Ihab Mahmoud (violin), Mohamed Bedeir, Mohamed Yaqout (cello), Samer Ibrahim, Maged Askar, Mahmoud Amer (Qanun), Doaa El Hefnawy (keyboards), Morad (contrabass), Mahmoud Kamal, Mamdouh Soroor, Hefny Mahmoud (Ney), Al Ameer Mahmoud, Hany Bedeir, Mustafa El Sawaf, Hamada El Sawaf (percussion)

Biography:

Hossam Samir and the Sakia Adult Choir (Ahl el Maghna)

Hossam Samir graduated from the Faculty of Music Education in 1988, then worked abroad as a teacher of Oud for many years. When he returned to Egypt, he worked as the general manager of the Al-Azhar University Arabian Music Choir for six successive years, then directed shows for children at several venues. After the year 2000, he started performing Oud recitals abroad and one of his most important shows was in Austria, where he gave a stunning performance that dazzled the Germans and Austrians in spite of the fact they did not understand the intricacies of classical 19th century Arabic music. Many Austrian newspapers reported on that event, which took place at a famous theatre on February 17th 2007, and a recording of the show naturally exists there.

Hossam Samir performed his first show at the Culturewheel on May 13th 2007, and he was keen on distributing the lyrics of his songs among the audience, and the newspapers dubbed him "The People's Musician", because the audience attending his shows came to sing along with his playing. Soon after, he struck an agreement with Mr. Mohamed Al-Sawi to form an Arabic music ensemble composed of children called the Sakia Children's Choir, and it attracted many people interested in classical Arabic music. Hossam Samir decided to collaborate with Mr. Mohamed Al-Sawi in forming another ensemble but for adults; thus the Sakia's Adult Choir was born. This idea was innovative in that the ensemble solely consists of elderly people of distinguished stature in society (physicians, pharmacists, businessmen, lawyers, engineers, housewives, ladies and pensioners).

This group rose to stardom after their first show at the Culturewheel on  June 5th 2009, and they gained popularity and a following among the public after their numerous shows and successes. They gained lots of media attention from TV channels, newspapers and Egyptian and Arab magazines. The choir reached over 90 people, some continued while others could not due to other commitments, but they continue to come from time to time.

The choir performed at many events such as the celebration of the Hijri New Year at the New Generation branch, the Citadel Festival of Music and Song (August 17th 2009), the honouring of the international Judo champion Mohamed Rashwan at the River Hall in November 2009, the honouring of actress and singer Shadia (January 2nd 2010) at the Wisdom Hall, Commemoration of Um-Kolthum (February 2010) and AbdelHalim Hafez (April 2nd 2010) at the Wisdom Hall and the celebration of the group's first anniversary at the Wisdom Hall on June 5th 2010. The choir also went on a trip to Antalya, Turkey where the performed for the Arabic community there on July 8th 2010.