The following is a list of Egyptian music composers. Riyad elsonbaty with Um kalthoum

Pioneers

According to the work of the Egyptian musicologist

Samha El-Kholy Samha Amin El-Kholy ( ar, سمحة الخولي; July 27, 1925– January 25, 2006) was a noted Egyptian musicologist. She published widely about the traditional music and contemporary music of Egypt, including several articles about contemporar ...

, the first generation of Egyptians to begin writing in modern Egyptian classical style were born around the turn of the 20th century. Among the most celebrated composers in Egyptian history who lived in the 20th century are

Sayed Darwish Sayed Darwish ( ar, سيد درويش, ; 17 March 1892 – 15 September 1923) was an Egyptian singer and composer who was considered the father of Egyptian popular music and one of Egypt's greatest musicians and seen by some as its single gr ...

Mohamed El Qasabgi Mohamed el-Qasabgi ( ar, محمد القصبجي; pronounced in local Egyptian dialect as Mohamed el-Asabgi; 1892 – 25 March 1966) was an Egyptian musician and composer, and is regarded as one of the five leading composers of Egypt in the 20 ...

, Baligh Hamdi, Mohamed Fawzi, Zakariya Ahmad,

Mohamed Abdel Wahab ''Mohamed Abdel Wahab'' ( ar, محمد عبد الوهاب), also transliterated ''Mohamed Abd El-Wahhab'' (March 13, 1902 – May 4, 1991), was a prominent 20th-century Egyptian singer, actor, and composer. He is best known for his Romantic a ...

, Riad El Sunbati and many others.

First generation

(1892–1923) *

(1892–1966) * Zakariya Ahmad (1896–1961) * Yusef Greiss (1899–1961) * Abu Bakr Khairat (1910–1963) * Hasan Rashid (1896–1969) *

Aziz El-Shawan Aziz El-Shawan (b. Cairo, May 6, 1916; d. Cairo, May 14, 1993) was one of the most prominent Egyptian composers of the twentieth century. He completed his primary and secondary education at the St. Joseph – La Salle College in Khoronfish, Cairo ...

(1916–1993) * Dawood Hosni (1870–1937)

Second generation

(1902–1991) * Riad El Sunbati (1906–1981) *

Farid al-Atrash Farid al-Atrash ( ar, فريد الأطرش; October 19, 1916 – December 26, 1974), also written Farid El-Atrache, was a Syrian-Egyptian composer, singer, virtuoso oud player, and actor. Having immigrated to Egypt at the age of only nine ...

(1910–1974) * Kamel El-Remali (b. 1922), * Awatef Abdel Karim (1931–2021) *

Gamal Abdel-Rahim Gamal Abdel-Rahim ( ar, جمال عبد الرحيم ) (November 25, 1924 Cairo – November 23, 1988 Königstein/Germany) was a distinguished Egyptian classical music composer, and composition professor. Life and career Abdel-Rahim was born ...

(1924–1988) *

Sayed Awad Sayed Awad (1926–2000; ar, سيد عواد) was an Egyptian composer of contemporary classical music. He began his career as a violinist for the orchestra of the Cairo Opera House and later lived in Jordan. He studied in Moscow with the Russ ...

(1926–2000) *

Halim El-Dabh Halim Abdul Messieh El-Dabh ( ar, حليم عبد المسيح الضبع, ''Ḥalīm ʻAbd al-Masīḥ al-Ḍab''ʻ; March 4, 1921 – September 2, 2017) was an Egyptian-American composer, musician, ethnomusicologist, and educator, who had ...

(1921–2017) *

(1916–1993) *

Soliman Gamil Soliman Gamil ( ar, سليمان جميل; December 24, 1924 in Alexandria, Egypt – June 13, 1994) was an Egyptian composer and '' qanun'' player. In 1963, he began to experiment with the use of Egyptian traditional musical instruments in hi ...

(1924–1994) *

Rifaat Garrana Mohamed Garrana Rifaat ( ar, محمد رفعت جرانة; surname also spelled Garana, 29 January 1929 – 2 April 2017) was an Egyptian composer of classical music, a member of that nation's second generation of such composers. Garrana was born ...

(born 1924) *

Tarek Ali Hassan Tarek Ali Hassan ( ar, طارق على حسن , born 19 October 1937 in Cairo), is a professor of medicine and chief of endocrinology at Al-Azhar University in Cairo. He is also a composer, musician, writer, painter, and philosopher. His music, ...

(born 1937) *

Ezz Eddin Hosni Ezz Eddin Hosni (15 June 1927 Cairo, Egypt–2013, Cairo), was an Egyptian composer. He is noted for writing tunes performed by some of Egypt's leading singers. Life and career Ezz Eddin Hosni was the son of Arabic language and Islamic calligra ...

(1927–2013)

Third generation

* Baligh Hamdi (1932–1993) *

Rageh Daoud Rageh Sami Daoud ( ar, راجح داود; born November 23, 1954; first name also spelled Ragueh and last name also spelled Dawood) is an Egyptian composer of contemporary classical music. He is a member of that nation's third generation of such c ...

(born 1954) *

Omar Khayrat Omar Khairat (born November 11, 1948) ( ar, عمر خيرت) is an Egyptian musician. Early life Born in Cairo, Omar was raised in a family of musicians. His uncle, Abu Bakr Khairat, a composer and architect, established the Cairo Conservatoir ...

(born 1949) *

Mona Ghoneim Mona Ghoneim ( ar, منى غنيم; b. 1955; first name also spelled Mauna) is an Egyptian composer of contemporary classical music and pianist. She is a member of that nation's third generation of such composers. Ghoneim studied piano with E. Pug ...

(born 1955) *

Mohamed Abdelwahab Abdelfattah Mohamed Abdelwahab Abdelfattah ( ar, محمد عبدالوهاب عبدالفتاح; born 1962) is an Egyptian composer of contemporary classical music and educator. He is a member of Egypt's third generation of classical composers. Biograph ...

(born 1962) *

Sherif Mohie El Din Sherif Mohie El Din ( ar, شريف محي الدين; born May 28, 1964; surname also spelled Mohie Eldin or Mohieddin) is an Egyptian conductor and composer. He is a member of Egypt's third generation of composers. He was formerly the Artistic Di ...

(born 1964) *

Ali Osman Ali Osman is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'', played by Nejdet Salih. He was a member of the original ''EastEnders'' cast, appearing in the first episode on 19 February 1985. He remained with the show for nearly fi ...

(1958–2017) * Adel Kamel (1942–2003)

Fourth generation

Hesham Nazih Hesham Nazih, also spelled Hesham Nazeh ( arz, هشام نزيه, born on 23 October 1972) is an Egyptian composer, musician and actor. Early life and career Nazih graduated from the Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University in 1998. During his ...

(born 1972)

References

* Castelo-Branco, Salwa El-Shawan (2001). "Egypt: Western Music." In ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', 2nd ed. * El-Kholy, Samha (1992). ''Al-qawmiyya fī mūsīqā al-qarn al-‘ishrīn’'' (Nationalism in 20th-century music). Kuwait: World of Knowledge. * El-Kholy, Samha, and John O. Robison, eds. (1993). ''Festschrift for Gamal Abdel-Rahim''. The Occasional Paper Series, v. 2, no. 2. Cairo: The Binational Fulbright Commission in Egypt. * El-Kholy, Samha, ed. (1999). ''Al-ta'lif al-masri al mu'asir'' (Contemporary Egyptian Composition). Cairo. * El-Shawan, Salwa (1985). "Western Music and Its Practitioners in Egypt (ca. 1825–1985): The Integration of a New Musical Tradition in a Changing Environment." ''Asian Music'', v. 17, no. 1 (1985), pp. 145–153. * Shehab, Yaz (1996). "Contemporary Egyptian Music." D.M.A. dissertation. Urbana: University of Illinois. {{DEFAULTSORT:List Of Egyptian Composers

Egyptian Egyptian describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of years of ...

Composers A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...