All of the sudden, I am 100% enamored with Egyptian EVERYthing. Culture, cuisine, people, music … it stands to reason that I would at least be interested in their music, but it’s not just that. Their whole idea of rebuilding their country from the inside out with NO outside influence … it is so inspirational and amazing to watch.

I started following closely when the whole idea of overthrowing Mubarak took off. I hoped and prayed like mad that it would end well for them. And in the end, it did. It’s opening doors of communication in and out of the country like never before. For example, Twitter was ALL abuzz with news we didn’t get to hear through the traditional media. I read numerous posts from various Tweeters, like Ahmed. He and I have a had a small but meaningful dialog back and forth about him and the goings-on in Tahrir Square. Through this dialog, he pointed me to his website. He plays the piano and violin, and he composes and arranges music.  How amazing is that?!

I would highly encourage everyone to check out his site. On it, he has a player set up that cycles through his compositions. They’re all really amazing work! It sounds like he’s recorded it on his computer with a keyboard of some kind. How he recorded the violin parts is a mystery to me, but I’ll find out. Super impressed that he can do this. What I really like is that there seems to be an ethnic influence in the compositions, which is exactly what I was looking for–classical music compositions with an Egyptian influence.

This is the kind of music I want to “discover.” This, current Egyptian music, Egyptian rock, folk, indie … if they have those genres or an equivalent. This is what I want to find. If anyone has any suggestions, I’d love to hear them!