The highly successful duo of pianist Mohamed Fouad and violinist Ahmed Mounib will give a concert at El Sawy Culturewheel on Friday, October 1.
The duo performed at Sakia a few years ago, and this will be the first time that they revisit the stage accompanied by an orchestra to be conducted by Maestro George Kolta.
The concert will also feature Hany El Badry on nai (oriental flute), in a composition titled Nostalgia in Blue.
“The concert will showcase works that Fouad and I have composed, with my orchestration,” Ahmed Mounib said.
“We have a large fan base following Fouad and Mounib, violin and piano duo. As follows, the evening will also include some compositions for two instruments.”
As for Nostalgia in Blue, it was first a one movement work for violin, piano, oud (lute), contrabass and percussion, Mounib said.
“I composed Nostalgia in Blue when I was in Germany. With time, I worked more on the composition and today it consists of three movements. The introduction of nai is among the newest additions to Nostalgia in Blue.”
The story of pianist Fouad and violinist Mounib goes back to 2015 when the two musicians met through Facebook and began sharing their music.
A few months later, the duo gave their first concert at an Alexandria creativity centre featuring their compositions.
Their popularity began to grow taking them to numerous renowned halls including the Cairo Opera House and Bibliotheca Alexandrina’s Arts Center, as well as tours to Morocco and Austria.
With time, they started to think about much bigger creative meanders with Mounib creating arrangements of their music for the orchestra. Upon Mounib’s return to Egypt from Germany, the duo gave their first concert with an orchestra in February 2020 at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina where they performed to over 1500 people.
This was followed by another grand concert at the Nafoura stage of the Cairo Opera House.
With Fouad and Mounib Orchestra project attracting many listeners, the musicians remain faithful to their original form and continue performing as duo. The duo is already scheduled to perform at Bibliotheca Alexandrina at the end of October.
Violinist Mounib, a graduate of the Cairo Conservatory, moved to Germany where he received two masters degrees in Classical and Jazz Music from the University of Music, Munich. In Germany, he performed with the ”Württembergische Philharmonic Orchestra” near Stuttgart and worked as a freelancer in several orchestras and bands. He also created his own jazz band and recorded his first album ”Nostalgia in Blue.”
Though Mohamed Fouad doesn’t define himself as a professional musician since this wasn’t his field of studies, music and playing piano have in many ways become his second profession. A graduate of the medical school and practicing medicine, Fouad is a big fan of Omar Khairat. His dream to perform his compositions with an orchestra is now taking shape through Fouad and Mounib Orchestra.
In their upcoming concert at El Sawy Culturewheel, Fouad and Mounib Orchestra will be conducted by George Kolta who is also a founded Syncope Orchestra which performed in many episodes of the famous TV show ”Sahebat El-Saada”.
Kolta also conducted orchestrasaccompanying many stars like: Zyad Rahbani, Hany Shenoda, Carole Samaha, Carmen Soliman, Nesma Mahgoub, Soaad Massi, Faya Younan and many others. In 2021, Fouad and Mounib invited Kolta to be the chef conductor of their orchestra.
