Culture Minister Enas Abdel Dayem left for Germany on Tuesday to receive a music award that went to Cairo Steps, an international music ensemble consisting of Egyptian and German musicians.
Cairo Steps merges and combines traditional Egyptian and oriental grooves with modern jazz improvisation, classical music and contemporary sounds.
The music is influenced by spiritual ethnic music as well as European music traditions and alternates between strong unison rhythms, virtuoso solos and meditative soundscapes.
Founded in 2002 as a collaboration between Egyptian oud player Basem Darwisch and German pianist Matthias Frey, Cairo Steps has now become an international ensemble under the musical direction of German pianist and producer Sebastian Müller-Schrobsdorff.
Cairo Steps said in a Facebook post that the Egyptian minister will participate in the concert on April 19 with the Berliner Philharmonic orchestra and receive the German Jazz Award with Cairo Steps and Quadro Nuevo.
Cairo Steps and Quadro Nuevo receive the award for their joint project Flying Carpet, which Dayem was part of before taking the post of Egypt’s Culture Minister, reported the privately owned newspaper al-Shorouk.
Cairo Steps will also perform during the award ceremony, with the participation of Minister Dayem.
“I am pleased to have Dayem among the soloists of this work, who participated in the work before becoming Culture Minister,” Shorouk quoted Darwisch as saying.
