Hiba Kawas

Hiba Al Kawas and José Carreras

Hiba Al Kawas(born 17 July 1972, Saïda, Lebanon) is a Lebanese operatic soprano, composer and academic.

Biography and career

Hiba Al Kawas graduated from the Lebanese University with a degree in experimental sciences and a Bachelor's Degree in clinical psychology. She followed this with a Master's Degree in opera singing with high distinction from the Lebanese National Higher Conservatory and a master's degree in composition and studies in musicology. She completed final studies for a Diploma in piano. Al Kawas was awarded a special scholarship from the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Italy where she pursued advanced studies in opera singing with Carlo Bergonzi and composition with Franco Donatoni.

Composer

Hiba Al Kawas has composed for symphony orchestra, chamber orchestra, string orchestra, various ensembles, piano, and voice. In her compositions traditional Arabic instruments are included in the orchestra. Her compositions combine Oriental-Arabic music components with international composition techniques, forming a bridge between Oriental-Arabic music, classical and neo classical forms, and contemporary music.

Hiba Al Kawas has recorded 21 works of her own composition with the Dnepropetrovsk Symphony Orchestra-Ukraine under the direction of Vyacheslav Blinov, and 10 works with the Kraków Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Wojciech Czepiel. She has recorded 13 works with The National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine and the National Choir of Kiev conducted by Vladimir Sirenko. In 2000, participated as a composer in the Krakow Contemporary Composition Festival, where the Krakow chamber Orchestra played her Aspiration No.1 conducted by Wojceich Czepiel. At her second appearance ath the festival, her composition Moments in Krakow was given its world premiere by the Krakow Academy of Music conducted Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Wojceich Czepiel. Her orchestral work, Pleusis 1, which was premiered in 2000 by the Lebanese National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Harout Fazlian and by Wojciech Czepiel, has been played by the City of London Sinfonia, Cairo Symphony Orchestra, Krakow Symphony Orchestra, Bolshoi State Theatre Symphony Orchestra.

On 14 October 2007, her composition Rou'ia fi Maa received its première at the Opéra Bastille in Paris.[1] The work comprises five instrumental and three song pieces based on Arabic poems by Nada El Hage. It was commissioned by the Festival d'Automne for contemporary music and performed by the Neuwe Ensemble of Amsterdam with Al Kawas singing the soprano solos. In November 2007 a short musical film Noor - Lady Light was produced using Hiba Al Kawas' song Asra Biqalbi which is based on a poem by Abdel Aziz Khoja.[2] Asra Biqalbi and several other works by Al Kawas received their world première at the Abu Dhabi Music Festival, in the closing concert on 2 April 2008.

The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and in the presence of its Patron Queen Maxima wife of the King of Netherlands, played Hiba Al Kawas’s composition "Moments in Krakow" on June 2011 in a world-famous program of Al Kawas, Ravel, and Korsakov at the Royal Concertgebouw hall conducted by Adrean Prabava.

Concert artist

Since her first concert at the age of six, Hiba Al Kawas has performed in many concerts in Lebanon, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, Cairo, Tunis, Bahrain, London, Paris, Italy, Germany, Poland, Ukraine, Portugal, and Amsterdam. She has established a career in Lebanon and the Arab world, furthering the cause of Arabic opera. She developed and adapted operatic vocal techniques to find the proper voice placement to preserve the Arabic pronunciation and singing tradition. She frequently performs her own vocal compositions in concerts.

She performed at the opening ceremony of Tyre festival in Lebanon and the Al-Medina Festival in Tunis. On 30 November 2006, Hiba Al Kawas performed along with José Carreras in Dubai at the second anniversary of the Dubai International Financial Centre, accompanied by the City of London Sinfonia Orchestra, conducted by David Giménez Carreras and Brad Cohen. She performed songs of her own composition and sang a duet with Carreras, "All I Ask of You" from The Phantom of the Opera. On 19 February 2007 Al Kawas sang several of her compositions in the presence of President Jacques Chirac at the IMA in Paris. She dedicated her song O Liban soit sauvé! (composed to the poetry of Nada El Hage) to President Chirac and the memory of Rafic Hariri. On 2 April 2008, Al Kawas closed the 5th Abu Dhabi Music and Art Festival, accompanied by Bolshoi Theatre Symphony Orchestra. Several of her compositions inspired by Andalusian music were premiered at the Festival with Jose Maria Gallardo Del Rey on guitar.[3] On 21 April 2008, she presented a music, poetry, and meditation evening, "The Sound of a Peaceful Heart", with Dadi Janki, the head of Brahma Komaris University, and the poets Hoda Naamani and Nada El Hage. On 19 June 2008 she performed her songs in London with the Nieuw Ensemble, Amsterdam, at the Cadogan Hall.[4]

Academic

Al Kawas is currently a member of the board at the Lebanese National Higher Conservatory and a professor of Opera singing and Composition. She is a professor at the Lebanese University and is the Academic and Music Coordinator at the Teachers' Training College for Music in Beirut. She is a committee member of The Lebanese National Symphony Orchestra as well as a member of the High National Committee of Music at UNESCO. She is a member of the Intellectual Property Committee of the International Chamber of Commerce. In 2005, she gave several lectures at the University of Amsterdam and was commissioned by the University to compose Sada Al Akwan, which was played by the Nieuw Ensemble during Gaudeamus Music Week in Utrecht. She is the co-author of Methods for Elementary and Intermediate Music Stages in Lebanon (1997/1998) and the author of Methods for Teacher Training in Lebanese Music Schools (2000).

Awards

Compositions

Instrumental

For symphony orchestra

For string orchestra

For the Neuwe Ensemble

Octets

Trios

Duets for oud and piano

For piano

Vocal

Arabic arias for soprano, choir and symphony orchestra

Arabic arias for soprano and symphony orchestra

Arabic arias for soprano and orchestra

Arabic arias for soprano and piano

Notes and references

  1. ↑ Opera de Bastille Archived May 20, 2011, at the Wayback Machine.
  2. ↑ "Lady Light web site". Ladylight.net. Retrieved 2013-08-10.
  3. ↑ ADMAF Program Archived December 4, 2008, at the Wayback Machine.
  4. ↑ Cadogan Hall Archived January 9, 2010, at the Wayback Machine.
  5. ↑
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