SAN FRANCISCO—Mr. Sary Dowidar, an international conductor and composer, was among the audience enthralled by the Divine Performing Arts (DPA) Chinese New Year Spectacular at San Francisco’s Opera House on Saturday Jan. 10.
As an expert in music, Mr. Dowidar wanted to share his thoughts and feelings about the performances. “I would like to talk about the performance and I talk about the thing which I am concerned with, which is music. The composer is a great man and he arranged well the work and has a good coordination between him and choreographer.”
“He could introduce the Chinese music in a very good way to us to hear it as a separate music in our home. Even with dances or without dance, we can now hear the music-the Chinese music as a universal music and we can like it at our home.”
“The arrangement is genius. To make the combination, some people refuse to make a combination between the Chinese traditional instruments and the orchestra. I'm the opposite, I encourage that because … it’s not easy. To play Chinese melodies with the western orchestra. The style and the way the play, its not easy.”
“But to make it easy for the people to hear it from the western perspective. Emphatically it’s something unbelievable—this is what I am talking about.”
The Divine Performing Arts Ochestra combines Western and Chinese musical instruments to create a unique and beautiful sound. Currently it is the world’s only orchestra that embraces both Western and Chinese instruments together.
Mr. Dowidar explained that he is in America to compose and conduct American and Arab people together, to play traditional Arabian classic music, and to teach the American people how play and how to sing the Arabic music.
He said he felt that the choreographer and conductor worked together in perfect harmony. “Second thing, the choreographer was genius and I like his way .. he has a good coordination between him and the composer. Above all, of course, is the director.”
Mr. and Mrs. Benarab accompanied Mr. Dowidar to the performance. Mr. Benarab said he invited Mr. Dowidar to the show because he felt it was “going to give you a lot of thoughts and many things that can help you in your performance, Arabic performance, although it's Chinese.”
Mr. Dowidar said this indeed did happen, "because I have many things now in my mind about [the] music and I told you before that the composer could make [the] music reach to our heart and soul and we can hear it without dancing—its just music...”
“He made a very nice connection between the traditional Chinese instrument and the whole orchestra and he has a very nice mix down between the both. I was just listening to them and it was very, very professional work. Also, the conductor, he was great.”
When asked which was his favorite performance Mr. Dowidar replied, “I like best the music of Mulan [Mulan Joins the Battle], the music to that dance is unbelievable—it’s great, I liked that too much. After the whole program... I liked that style of music which is explaining what’s going on ... The music was very great. I liked this dance very much.”
Mr. Dowidar was so moved by the performance, he felt seeing it once was not enough, he wanted to come back again and again until it totally encompassed his heart and soul, he explained, “I would like to see it more than twice or three times or four times, until I study and get it in my mind and start singing internally.”
“At the last one, you finished the whole thing, the music which was played was marvelous at the end. The music was very marvelous. I can't say what’s best and what’s better than that—the whole thing is very nice … Everything is very good—I wish to attend it more than three or four times until I get it.”
“I am grateful to the people who make these things possible.”
Mr. Dowidar has been composing, conducting and arranging for such decades. He has studied classical Arabic music, both choral and orchestration, with the Academy of Music in Cairo. He is a well-known composer for some of the prominent Egyptian opera house singers.
The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of the Divine Performing Arts 2009 World Tour. Please see DivinePerformingArts.org for more information.
