On Tuesday 20th April 2010, five students and two graduates from the Beit Almusica conservatory won prizes for top places in the Marcel Khalife National Music Competition, organised for the third consecutive time by The Edward Said National Conservatory of Music and held at the Ramallah Cultural Palace.
This is the second time that students from the Beit Almusica conservatory in Shefa-Amr have taken part in the different musical categories of the Marcel Khalife National Music Competition. During Beit Almusica’s first participation in 2008, four students won prizes for top places in the competition which takes place every two years. In this year’s competition, seven representatives of Beit Almusica received the following awards:
Mustafa Saad from the village of al-Maghar won first prize for the violin in group two (ages 13 to 16)
Ghandi Saad from the village of al-Maghar won first prize for the violin in group one (ages 12 and under).
Niruz Naffa from Shefa-Amr won second prize for the guitar in group three (ages 17 to 22).
Maysa Faur from Shaab won third prize for the guitar in the 12 and under age group.
Akram Abdel Fattah from Kawkab Abu Alhaija won first prize for Arab music in the 17 to 22 age group.
Tony Barhoum from Shefa-Arm also won first prize for Arab music.
Nadim Makhoul from Al-Baqia won third place for Arab music in the same age group.
The Marcel Khalife National Music Competition is overseen by international juries and covers all types of music. This year’s session ended with a ceremony which was attended by a large audience on Tuesday 20th April at the Ramallah Cultural Palace and broadcast live on the Al Jazeera channel and Palestinian television, attracting both Palestinian and pan-Arab media interest.
Mustafa Saad, age 12, who won first prize in the string instruments category for the 13 to 16 age group said in an interview:
“I decided to take part in group two which included students who are older than me because I wanted to compete musically with older children[…]. I honestly never expected to win the first prize. The standard of playing was very high and a bit difficult but I was very happy with the result as I got a score of 39 out of 40. This was the first time that I’ve been given this kind of score at the Palestinian National Music Competition.”
A music ceremony especially for the students and the graduates who won prizes at the Marcel Khalife National Music Competition was organised by Beit Almusica on Friday 30th April in the auditorium at the Beit Almusica conservatory in Shefa-Amr.