Eastern music has become increasingly popular in Israel and the International Oud Festival held earlier this month in Jerusalem included a tribute to the famous Egyptian composer Muhammad al-Qasabgi and an evening devoted to Umm Kulthum, the "Queen of the Nile".

Umm Kulthum's songs were performed by four contemporary Arab singers - Mustafa Dakhleh, Khalil Abu Nikola, Lubna Salameh and Riham Mustafa - accompanied by the Alfarabi Orchestra, founded in 1993 by its conductor and musical director Sami Khsheibun. The orchestra has appeared at international festivals including the annual Arab Musical Congress at the Cairo Opera House and in a variety of television programs.

Al-Qasabgi wrote hundreds of songs for Egyptian singers. While the lion's share going to Umm Kulthum, he also composed for other classical Arabic singers such as Layla Mourad, Asmahan, Munira al-Mahdiyya, Salah Abd al-Hay and others. In his later years, al-Qasabgi accompanied Umm Kulthum on the oud. Al-Qasabgi's songs, which remain popular to this day, were performed at the festival in a special tribute by the Tarshiha Orchestra.

The Orchestra has been in existence for 25 years, and has performed twice at the Cairo Opera House. Its conductor, Nasim Dakwar, from Tarshiha in the Galilee, began his musical career as a 12-year-old oud player at weddings. He later studied Western classical music at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and went on to teach Eastern music at the Academy. He was also a member of the successful Jewish-Arab Bustan Abraham band and has composed music to poems by Mahmoud Darwish.

This year's week-long festival was marked by diversity, including a special encounter led by vocalist Miriam Toukan between the poems of Israeli national poet Haim Nachman Bialik and the songs of the great Lebanese vocalist Fairuz, between klezmer and Arab folk music. Other international participants revived traditional Turkish, Greek and Kurdish music, leading Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat to say: "The festival is a cultural pearl, a dialogue of multiple cultures, between East and West, between new and old, making it the pride of the city."


 Concerts were attended by a mixed Jewish and Arab audience
 Copyright: Confederation House, Jerusalem / I. Barel

As the festival grows in popularity, an effort was made to attract young Jews and Arabs to the events, with discounted ticket sold in Arab neighborhoods in the city. The festival is supported by the Jerusalem Foundation and the Israel Ministry of Culture.

The 14th annual Jerusalem International Oud Festival, produced by the Confederation House, is the jewel in the crown of this center of ethnic music, poetry and theater. Confederation House provides a stage for Jewish, Arab and other artists and ensembles from throughout Israel and abroad. Its location opposite the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem, between the old and new cities, is ideally suited to an organization that seeks to serve as a bridge connecting peoples, reviving ancient dialogue between cultures, and symbolizing the hope for a better future.