Feature: All-women blind orchestra in Egypt brings light to darkness

Clapping of audience at Egypt's Opera House lasted several minutes after an Egyptian orchestra composed of blind girls magically performed one of the most famous pieces of Beethoven.

It is not the first time the Al-Nour Wal Amal (Light and Hope) Chamber Orchestra plays at Egypt's most elite house of music as the group, which consists of some 40 visually impaired and completely blind female musicians, has performed across the country over the past four decades.

Dubbed the fourth Pyramid of Egypt, the orchestra has also played in 24 countries in five continents and was highly applauded by foreign audiences.

The orchestra won its uniqueness as it is the only chamber orchestra in the whole world entirely composed of blind musicians who play western classical music as well as oriental music.

The orchestra works under the umbrella of the Al-Nour Wal Amal Association, a non-profit organization founded in 1954 that provides education and professional training for visually impaired and blind girls to integrate them into society.

In addition to the main orchestra, the association also has a junior orchestra composed of younger girls.

All female musicians graduated from the Music Institute of Al-Nour Wal Amal Association.

Wearing white veils and black gowns, the all-women orchestra amazed the audience with their efficiency and professionalism as they performed the music of Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn, Rossini, Verdi and Bizet.

"We learn the musical piece in Braille and then we have to memorize it by heart," 31-year-old violist Shaimaa Yahiya told Xinhua in the backstage minutes before the concert started.

Yahiya, who is also an English language teacher, said this requires great efforts since it is not easy to memorize the sheets of tens of musical pieces and songs and play them with a group.

Even for a well-trained sighted musician, playing in the Al-Nour Wal Amal Chamber Orchestra is not easy, because the musicians have no music notes or conductors to follow during the performance, Yahiya said.

The orchestra is composed of girls and women of different ages, from school children to university students and graduates, and with different levels of music education.

Yahiya said students there learn to play their musical roles separately and they train twice a week as a chamber orchestra, adding that the orchestra has all four sections, strings, woodwind, brass and percussion.

"I joined the orchestra when I was 12 years old...it was a dream that has come true," she said as she tuned her violin. "My life would have been so different if I did not join the orchestra. It really changed my life to the best."

Yahiya said that she feels proud that the orchestra is playing an important role in spreading classical music among Egyptians who are not big fans of this genre of music.

For her colleague Shaimaa Mukhtar, who plays the oboe, a flute-like instrument, being a member of the orchestra made a notable difference in her life.

"I do not feel that I'm a person with a disability at all, thanks to the orchestra and the people who supported me to join it," Mukhtar said as her visually impaired fiancé stood next to her in the backstage.

The 30-year-old Arabic language teacher said she feels that she is very distinguished in music. "I may have not been a musician at all if I were a sighted person," she said.

"The orchestra has given me much, maybe more than I have expected," she revealed as holding her fiancé's arm.

The orchestra has a long history, said Amal Fikry, vice president of Al-Nour Wal Amal Association. It was founded in 1961 as a regular music school and in 1972 the orchestra held its first performance outside the premises of the Association at the old Cairo Opera House.

In 1988, Fikry said the Chamber Orchestra performed for the first time abroad in Austria, adding that the orchestra gained international reputation, fame and recognition after the trip.

"The second generation performed in Vienna, the audience was so delighted to see the girls and could not believe how clever they were," Fikry added as the girls were finalizing the rehearsal before the concert.

"The first, the second and the current third generations traveled 30 times around the world, visiting five continents and performing in 24 countries," the lady said.

Fikry noted that the two orchestras, the junior and the main music have 65 girls, adding that 20 more girls are now learning at the music institute of the association.

Today, Fikry said, a fourth generation Orchestra composed of school children is being trained, to follow the successful path of the former generations of musicians of Al Nour Wal Amal Chamber Orchestra.

"These young musicians have already won the hearts and admiration of audiences in Cairo," she said. Endit