Khartoum Oud Music Festival concludes in Sudan

The second Khartoum Oud Music Festival was concluded on Saturday with a performance by the famous Iraqi musician Naseer Shamma* and his band.

After the success of the first edition of the three-day festival dedicated to the Arabic lute in 2014, the Cultural Forum of the Sudanese Dal Food Group company decided to organise the festival for a second time.

An oud is a lute-type stringed instrument played extensively throughout the Arabic-speaking Africa and Asia Minor.

Well-known Sudanese oud players opened the Khartoum Oud Festival on Thursday, accompanied by music students who studied at the Oud House in Cairo for two years. Apart from enjoying oud music, the visitors were also given the opportunity to attend seminars and workshops.

Omar El Ashari, Dal Group’s Marketing Director, said in a press conference at the Carinthia Hotel on Wednesday that the festival aims at “showing our musical culture, in addition giving world artists and musicians the chance to present their music in our country.

“We hope that this musical dialogue will bring about new ideas and opportunities for artistic cooperation,” he said, and referred to the graduation of Sudanese oud students Mujahed Khaled and Abdelgader Ibrahim at the Arabic Oud house in the Egyptian capital under the supervision of Naseer Shamma.

El Ashari added that the festival may be “considered a founding stone for a Sudanese Oud House”.

The head of the Dal Cultural Forum, Mohamed El Gaddal, pointed to the pentatonic musical mode with which the Sudanese music distinguishes itself from the heptatonic (seven-note) scale used in Arabic music, and said he hoped a special Sudanese oud school will develop on the basis of the  pentatonic mode.

He further noted the importance of the corporate social responsibility among the companies of the Dal Group.

Nazim Ali, Marketing Manager of the Corinthia hotel, and Ahmed Omar, Marketing Manager of Kai Motors both said they hoped to contribute to “the achievement of excellence and innovation”, as well as to the establishment of a Sudanese Oud House.

*Naseer Shamma, who is known as one of the best oud virtuosos in the Arab world, has just been designated a UNESCO Artist for Peace in acknowledgement of “his commitment to peace, especially by targeting youth during his musical performances.” 

(Sources: Khartoum Post, Alnilin, BBC Arabic)