Ali Osman Alhaj ( ar, علي عثمان; born 1958 in

Omdurman Omdurman (standard ar, أم درمان ''Umm Durmān'') is a city in Sudan. It is the most populated city in the country, and thus also in the State of Khartoum. Omdurman lies on the west bank of the River Nile, opposite and northwest of the ...

Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...

- died February 16, 2017, in

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

) was a Sudanese composer of

contemporary classical music Contemporary classical music is classical music composed close to the present day. At the beginning of the 21st century, it commonly referred to the post-1945 modern forms of post-tonal music after the death of Anton Webern, and included seria ...

.Ati Metwaly
Remembering Ali Osman: Composer, academic and conductor of Egypt's Al Nour Wal Amal Orchestra
''Ahram.org.eg'', 25 February 2017 He was active in Egypt's contemporary music scene and a specialist in Sudanese music. He also played the

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

drum kit A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player ( drummer) typically holds a pair of matching drumsti ...

, and

double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...

. As artistic director and principal conductor, he worked with the ''Al Nour Wal Amal'' (Light and Hope) Orchestra for blind female musicians.

Biography and career

Growing up in Sudan, Ali Osman was a self-taught rock musician playing drums and guitar. Feeling he had reached a point where he could not progress by himself, he planned to move to Canada, but in 1978 he settled in Cairo, where he was supposed to get his Canadian visa. He studied with

Gamal Abdel-Rahim Gamal Abdel-Rahim ( ar, جمال عبد الرحيم ) (November 25, 1924 Cairo – November 23, 1988 Königstein/Germany) was a distinguished Egyptian classical music composer, and composition professor. Life and career Abdel-Rahim was born ...

Bertold Hummel Bertold Hummel (27 November 1925 – 9 August 2002) was a German composer of modern classical music. Life Bertold Hummel was born in Hüfingen, Baden. He studied at the Academy of Music in Freiburg from 1947 to 1954, taking composition with Har ...

and Robert Woshborn at the

Cairo Conservatoire The Cairo Conservatoire ( ar, معهد الكونسرفتوار; transliteration: ''Ma'had el-Konservatwar''; full name: "المعهد العالي للموسيقى "الكونســرفاتوار) is the primary music conservatory in Egypt. It was ...

(1978–1986), and learned the double bass with

Rodney Slatford Rodney Slatford OBE (born 18 July 1944) is an English contemporary double bass player and teacher. He was the principal bass player of the Midland Sinfonia, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, and English Chamber Orchestra, a founder of the Nas ...

. He wrote a thesis on traditional Sudanese and Arabic music. He obtained a

Bachelor of Music Bachelor of Music (BM or BMus) is an academic degree awarded by a college, university, or conservatory upon completion of a program of study in music. In the United States, it is a professional degree, and the majority of work consists of prescr ...

in composition and music theory, and a Master of Music. He then pursued postgraduate studies in analysis, counterpoint and music history with

Awatef Abdel Karim Awatef Abdel Karim ( ar, عواطف عبدالكريم; 8 February 1931 - 24 April 2021) was an Egyptian composer of contemporary classical music. Karim was the first Egyptian female composer to formally study music composition. She composed for p ...

(1986–1990). He taught music at the Cairo Conservatoire from 1990, and at the Arabic Higher Institute of Music in Cairo from 1999. In 2001, he became the artistic director and principal conductor of the ''Al Nour Wal Amal'' (Light and Hope) Orchestra, which consists of visually impaired and blind women musicians. In 2000, he traveled to Switzerland, where Swiss Radio recorded his first full CD. On March 30, 2002, he performed for the inauguration of the

Bibliotheca Alexandrina The Bibliotheca Alexandrina (Latin for "Library of Alexandria"; arz, مكتبة الإسكندرية ', ) is a major library and cultural center on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea in Alexandria, Egypt. It is a commemoration of the Library ...

.Denis A. Seachrist
The Musical World of Halim El-Dabh
''Books.google.com'' Ali Osman earned his PhD in 2009, and he died on February 16, 2017, in Cairo.

Distinctions

*1995: Third Prize in the competition

Abu Bakr Khairat Abu Bakr Khairat (10 April 1910 – 1963) ( ar, أبو بكر خيرت); also spelled Abu Bakr Khayrat) was an Egyptian composer of classical music, part of that nation's first generation of such composers. An architect by profession, Khairat stu ...

of the Ministry of Culture in Cairo for the Song for Chamber Orchestra *2000: Scholarship from the organisation

Pro Helvetia The foundation Pro Helvetia is a public foundation of Switzerland. Presidents *From 1939 to 1943, Heinrich Häberlin. *From 1944 to 1952, Paul Lachenal. *From 1952 to 1964, Jean-Rodolphe de Salis. *From 1965 to 1970, Michael Stettler. *From 1971 ...

Books

*''Egyptian Contemporary Music'' (series), with

Samha El-Kholy Samha Amin El-Kholy ( ar, سمحة الخولي; July 27, 1925– January 25, 2006) was a noted Egyptian musicologist. She published widely about the traditional music and contemporary music of Egypt, including several articles about contemporar ...

, ed. Ministry of Culture, Cairo, 2000–2003

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Osman, Ali Sudanese composers People from Omdurman 1958 births 2017 deaths Sudanese expatriates in Egypt

Biography and career

Distinctions

Books

See also

References