NEWS
Reviewing Aspects of His Experience in Founding and Leading the Bahrain Philharmonic Orchestra in A Symposium at UoB The Maestro Dr. Najem: The Bahrain Philharmonic Orchestra Is a Project to Spread Culture and Arts
Sakhir – University of Bahrain (Ali Al-Sabbaq)
7 March 2023
The musician, founder and leader of the Bahrain Philharmonic Orchestra, Dr. Mubarak Najem, confirmed that the rich Bahraini heritage represented a musical source for his experience, despite his long attachment to world and military music, and his extended practice of it during his academic and artistic career.
This was during a symposium organized by the Cultural and Social Committee at the College of Arts at the University of Bahrain (UoB) on Tuesday (March 7, 2023), where Dr. Najem indicated that he stuck to originality and impact in his musical production, indicating that his music stems from his soul, his love for folk arts, and his desire to spread culture and the arts.
The President of UoB, Dr. Jawaher bint Shaheen Al-Mudhahka, honored the musician Dr. Najem, who founded the Bahrain Philharmonic Orchestra, which was able to perform many concerts and evenings, presenting instrumentals with a local, khaleeji and international sensation.
For his part, the maestro gifted the President of the University a number of his works and musical compositions before the start of the symposium, which was led by a music piece on the violin, by Ammar Al-Maliki, a member of the music club at UoB.
During the symposium – which was titled: “Shedding Light on the Bahrain Philharmonic Orchestra by the maestro Dr. Mubarak Najem”-, Dr. Najem spoke about the orchestra concepts, the Philharmonic, the history of the orchestra, its development in the world, and the most prominent orchestras in the Arab world.
The symposium attracted students and those interested in music, and it was moderated by Associate Professor of Psychology at UoB, Dr. Ahmed Sa’ad Jalal, who reviewed the biography of the composer, and stations in his life, which is full of achievements and honors, the most prominent of which was his obtaining the Bahrain Medal of the First Class.
Dr. Jalal also mentioned that the maestro Najem was recently able to establish the Bahrain Orchestra, after a journey full of a lot of consideration, development, and artistic production. During the symposium, he reviewed the musical pieces of the orchestra, which since its inception has been performing orchestras with Bahraini, Khaleej and international music, some of which were composed by Dr. Najem himself.
Regarding the beginnings of the Bahraini orchestra project, Najem said: “The beginning was a cooperation with Gulf Air to produce Bahraini music and songs to be played on board the national carrier, followed by music for Bahrain Airport, but we soon developed this experience that resulted in the Bahraini orchestra.”.
Moreover, he confirmed that he does not care for global reach as much as the local one, and for music to reach the various regions in Bahrain. He said, “The locality matters to me. I want my music to reach the simple man in Diraz, Budaiya, Muharraq, Sitra, and other regions. That would make me extremely happy.”.
The musician, who was born in the city of Muharraq, reviewed several experiences of his musical production in Bahrain and the Gulf countries, stressing that the Bahrain Philharmonic Orchestra, which means a band for part-time musicians, seeks greater goals than performing at concerts, as it is a civilized project to spread joy, culture, and beauty, confront extremism, discover talents, and spread the arts.
