Take Me To The River
Ashraf Fouad
Ashraf Fouad is a composer, who teaches composition and theory at The American University in Cairo. He is a graduate of The Academy of Arts in Cairo, Egypt, and The Juilliard School of Music, New York, where he advanced to the level of DMA studies with David Diamond (1988–1991). At the Cairo Conservatory, he studied with Taha Nagy and Said Awad. At Juilliard, Fouad studied composition with Stanley Wolfe, Joseph Schwantner, and Bernard Rands. Among his works, which were premiered at Juilliard are: Sonata Concertante for Violin and Piano (Paul Hall) and String Quartet (Alice Tully Hall).
A working musician all his life, Fouad has been performer, producer, researcher, teacher, lecturer, and composer. In 1994, he joined the faculty at The American University in Cairo as composer-in-residence. Since then, he has written Ithaca (cantata for orchestra, chorus and soloists), a commission celebrating the 75th anniversary of the University. Other works composed, while at AUC include Afterthought, a song for tenor, soprano, violin, and piano; Longing, song for voice and piano; Cairo Tapestry, a work in collaboration with artist Paul Rinaldi in video and music; Tapestry Suite, for nine musicians; Silently I Wait, I admire Your Face, songs for voice and piano; Christmas Song, ensemble song for voice, harp, percussion and piano; In the Basement, tuba solo; New Jersey Girls, three songs for bass tuba, and piano; Love Cycle, four songs for voice and piano; Waheeda, a trio for vion, violoncello and piano; Sonata Piccola, piano sonata; Nature’s Angels, song for voice and piano; Toccata Moderna, for piano. In the Theater, Fouad wrote Octahedron, score for experimental theater and recorded the incidental music for Sophocles’s Antigone and performed live in Brecht’s A Man’s a Man with director Frank Bradley. Recent performances of Fouad’s works have been in Cairo and Alexandria, Egypt; Washington DC; Chicago; New York; Dublin; London; Vienna; Komaron; Slovakia; and Budapest, Hungary. Awards for his works have come from The Kennedy Center, Washington, DC, and the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP).