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Jan 2021
1h 1m

Fatma Said, Opera Singer

Nadine AbdelGhaffar
About this episode

Fatma took her first singing class when she was fourteen with Soprano Neveen Allouba, she took her from Cairo to the hallowed boards of Milan’s Teatro alla Scala and selection as one of BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists in 2016. She became an exclusive Warner Recording Artist in 2019 and her debut studio album, El Nour, was released in October 2020. After receiving her Bachelor of Music from the Hanns Eisler School of Music in Berlin in 2013, Fatma was awarded a scholarship to study at the Accademia del Teatro alla Scala in Milan, becoming the first Egyptian soprano to perform on that iconic stage. She represented Egypt on Human Right’s Day in 2014 and 2018 at the United Nations in Geneva and in 2017 at the Luxor Temple and sang for children's right to education and dignity through music. In 2016, she received an honorary award from Egypt’s National Council for Women. Later in the same year she became the first Egyptian opera singer ever to be awarded the state’s Creativity Award, one of Egypt’s highest accolades, for her outstanding artistic achievement on an international level. In the past years she has won several major singing competitions including the 8th Veronica Dunne International Singing Competition (Dublin, 2016), the 7th Leyla Gencer International Opera Competition (Istanbul, 2012), 2nd prize at the 16th International Robert Schumann Lied Competition (Zwickau, 2012) and the Grand Prix at the 1st Giulio Perotti International Opera Competition (Germany, 2011)

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