Composer Omar Khairat named Sheikh Zayed Book Award's Cultural Personality of the Year

The pianist has been recognised for his contribution to music in the Arab world

Egyptian musician Omar Khairat has been named as Cultural Personality of the Year by the Sheikh Zayed Book Award. Photo: Omar Khairat

Egyptian musician Omar Khairat has been named as this year’s Cultural Personality of the Year by the Sheikh Zayed Book Award panel.

The pianist, 74, has been recognised for his contribution to music in the Arab world, with a career spanning several decades. His timeless and recognisable compositions have featured in several popular films and drama series.

“The Sheikh Zayed Book Award is committed to highlighting prominent artistic and intellectual figures whose remarkable contributions to the cultural movement are sure to resonate through the generations,” said Dr Ali bin Tamim, secretary general of the SZBA and Chairman of the Arabic Language Centre.

“Musician Omar Khairat is certainly one of these individuals. His music will always inspire deeper meanings and emotions, carrying within its notes the markers of our culture, which he has been able to brilliantly mix with other cultures, creating timeless masterpieces that will remain engraved in our memory and our identity.”

Khairat was born in Cairo in 1947, and loved music from a young age. He was among the first batch of graduates from the Conservatoire music institute, where he studied piano and musical theory. He continued his studies at London’s Trinity College, before going on to join Egyptian rock band Les Petits Chats as a drummer.

“I was studying the piano and playing drums with the band,” he said in a recent interview with The National. “As a composer, it showed me how to link different genres together, it made me understand even more the structure of compositions and the importance of melodies.”

His expertise at blending genres, as well as mixing western and Arabic sounds, led to him writing scores for Arabic films and television shows, starting with 1983’s The Night Fatima was Arrested.

Through his work in television and film, Khairat helped usher classical music into Egyptian popular culture with sophisticated works rooted in the region.

“I never wanted to lose the Arabic identity in my music,” he told The National. “It's not only important to me personally but the music from our part of the world is rich and diverse enough that it can easily mix with other western forms.”

The Sheikh Zayed Book Award is being held for the 17th year, under the patronage of President Sheikh Mohamed, and organised by the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre. Previous winners of the Cultural Personality of the Year award include Saudi author Dr Abdullah Al-Ghathami and Jordanian-Palestinian poet Salma Khadra Jayyusi.