This year the Spasskaya Tower International Military Music Festival will once again heartily welcome back the Military Symphonic Band of Egypt.
Being a ceremonial band, the group takes part in various state official events of the highest level featuring head of states and delegations. In 1992 to train military musicians the Military Music School of Egypt was founded under the aegis of the service.
The ensemble is a permanent participant of different international music festivals and events. In the 1960s, for the six years in a row the band became prize winner of the International Festival of Military Music in Bari (Italy). The band performed at the Edinburgh Military Tattoo in 1995, at the Berlin International Folk Music Festival (Germany) in 2000 and 2004, and at the International Festival of Military Music in Monchengladbach (Germany) in 2006.
The organizers of the Spasskaya Tower Festival are eager to announce some of the details of Egypt this year’s performance. Thus, the band will gloriously step onto the cobblestone of Red Square performing Egyptian Triumphal March from Verdi’s Aida and executing a technically difficult regrouping in the form of ankh, a hieroglyph symbolizing internal life. It is also known as the Egyptian crux. An ancient quadriga will head the procession, while an Egyptian stela will finish it. But the musicians are still keeping in secret what it is going to symbolize. Then, a regrouping representing the Pyramid of Djoser will follow and Abdel Halim Hafez, the leading singer of the band, will perform a traditional Egyptian song. The famous Radetzky March by Johann Strauss Sr. that traditionally finishes the New Year’s performances of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra this time will crown the Egyptian performance.
Major General Helmi Ahmed Sulaiman Hattab, Head of the Military Band Service of Egypt, will lead the band
at the 2019 Spasskaya Tower International Military Tattoo.
First Lieutenant Samy Mosaad Shehat is the Chief Conductor of the ensemble.
Audiences of the Spasskaya Tower Festival are already familiar with the Egyptian Military Symphonic Band
as it took part in the tenth anniversary festival in 2017.
For Information
The history of the Military Band Service of Egypt goes back to 1838 when the first military wind and drum school was founded. It’s worth noting that at then the majority of professors were French. In 1966 Gamal Abdel Naser, president of Egypt, decorated the Egyptian Military Band Service with the Medal of Republic for their high professional skills.
First Lieutenant Samy Mosaad Shehat, Chief Conductor of the Band, started his military career in 1986 as a flute player. In the same condition he was transferred to the Egyptian Military Symphonic Band. in 2004 he was appointed as its chief conductor.