EGYPT: The Egyptian - Dagher, Abdo (violin)

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Abdo Dagher was born in Damietta, Egypt in 1936. Abdo taught himself to play the oud (Arabic lute) when he was seven, and a performance by a foreign soloist (possibly David Oistrakh) attracted him to the violin when he was ten. He left home at the age of thirteen and had to earn his living by working as a musician. The greatest impact on Abdo Dagher's knowledge and musical compositions goes back to the religious music performed by the Sufi orders, which he learned in his childhood. Abdo Dagher's instrumental compositions were inspired by religious hymns and Koranic chanting. Abdo Dagher moved to Cairo when he was eighteen years old. He worked in a shop for manufacturing musical instruments. As his virtuosity had soon become well known, he was taken up as a member of famous Arabic orchestras like that accompanying Um Kulthum, the most well known singer in Egypt and the Arab world in the 20th century. In the 1960's, he helped in founding "The Troop for Arabic Music". It was not until the year 1992 that he started presenting his compositions in concerts of his music outside Egypt including Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Netherlands, France, Italy, Bulgaria and Qatar, and held workshops on Arabic violin playing, training musicians abroad. Known as Malik At-Taqasim (Master of Improvisation), Abdo Dagher has a wealth of music in his repertoire but he does not read or write notated music. He recorded with the two most famous musicians of 20th century Egypt, Um Kulthum and Mohammed Abdel-Wahab. After speaking on the radio in regard to his idea of founding a firqa (Arabic Music Ensemble) to revive Arabic musical heritage, he received funding from the Egyptian Ministry of Culture.