Qatar in Colour |
| The 101 members of the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra playing at their 10 th anniversary performance
says Kurt. “But they flooded in. The auditions are now
blind, with musicians playing behind the curtain, which
means they are selected by the orchestra on musical
ability alone.”
the eighth century, and made from a coconut shell with
one string.
The auditions demanded a gruelling international
schedule, taking place in London, Madrid, Paris,
Moscow, Cairo, Zurich and Vienna. Once completed,
the selected musicians came to Doha with their families.
Of the original orchestra, 80 per cent of those musicians
are still in place to this day. The orchestra goes on tour often, most recently to Russia
and China. “It is important for an orchestra to be on
tours” says Kurt. “This is how Qatar Philharmonic
Orchestra can, in terms of its artistic level, be compared
to the best orchestras around the world”. In 2016, it
played a sold-out tour featuring Rachmaninoff’s piano
concerto and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 in London’s
Royal Albert Hall at the BBC Proms Festival.
The orchestra has also developed its own distinctive style.
Within the space of a few weeks, it performs everything
from video-game music to a classical repertoire
including the works of Haydn and Berlioz, and Arabic
compositions. So how has the orchestra matured since its formation? As
Kurt explains, during the philharmonic’s 10 th anniversary
concert, it performed the same programme, including a
composition by Maurice Ravel’s Boléro, as it did during
its inaugural concert.
For his part, Kurt has embraced Arabic music, including
the rababa - the oldest Arabic instrument, dating from “But this time, the orchestra performed without a
conductor. That has never happened. You could see
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