site.btaSoprano Fatma Said to Perform in Sofia on March 26

Egyptian soprano Fatma Said will visit Bulgaria at the invitation of opera prima Sonya Yoncheva. Said will present the recital Egyptian Sun on March 26 at Bulgaria Hall, reported SY11 Events. 

The singer will present compositions by Mozart, Schubert, Schumann together with British pianist Joseph Middleton, with whom she often tours on international stages. The two artists have also prepared a repertoire with a number of popular songs by leading contemporary Spanish composers such as Manuel de Falla, Fernando Obradors and Jose Serrano.

One of the highlights during the recital in Sofia will be the performance of the song Aatini Al Naya Wa Ghanni, based on the poem of the same name by the famous Lebanese poet Kahlil Gibran, with music by his compatriot Najeeb Hankash, said SY11 Events. The same composition is also included in Fatma Said's debut album - El Nour (The Light), released by the Warner Classics label in 2020. It also includes works by French, Spanish and Egyptian composers, as well as popular folk songs from Egypt and Lebanon.

In 2021, it was El Nour that won Said the Gramophone Classical Music Award, the BBC Music Magazine Vocal Award, as well as the German Opus Klassik Award in the Young Artist category.

In 2022, Fatma released her second album Kaleidoscope with compositions by Johann Strauss, Franz Lehar, Jacques Offenbach, Astor Piazzolla, Serge Gainsbourg. Critics define Fatma Said as the "opera star of the Arab world" because of her characteristic timbre, the beautiful ornamentation in her singing and the desire to unite and meet different cultures, languages, geographical regions and musical styles in her art.

Fatma Said is an advocate for a number of causes. She represented Egypt on Human Rights Day in 2014, 2017 and 2018 at the United Nations in Geneva. In 2016, she received an honorary award from the National Council for Women in Egypt. She became the first Egyptian opera singer to be awarded the State Award for Creativity and Outstanding Artistic Achievement at the international level. Outside of opera, her great passions remain Argentine tango, the music of Beyonce and learning new languages, to date she has mastered and is fluent in five languages.

Pianist Joseph Middleton specializes in the art of song accompaniment and chamber music and has received international recognition in this field. In the pages of BBC Music Magazine he is described as one of the brightest stars in the world of song, and in Opera Now - as a perfect accompanist. He is director of the Leeds Lieder Music Festival, resident pianist and fellow at Pembroke College Cambridge, as well as professor and fellow at his alma mater, the Royal Academy of Music. In 2017, he won the Royal Philharmonic Society Young Artist of the Year award.