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 (; 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 contemporary Egyptian composers in '' ...

, 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 (, ; 17 March 1892 – 14 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 greatest composer. Ear ...

Mohamed El Qasabgi Mohamed el-Qasabgi (; pronounced in local Egyptian Arabic, Egyptian dialect as Mohamed el-Asabgi; 15 April 1892 in Cairo – 25 March 1966) was an Egyptian musician and composer, and is regarded as one of the five leading composers of Egypt in t ...

Baligh Hamdi Baligh Hamdi ( ; 7 October 1931 – 12 September 1993) was an Egyptian composer who created and composed many hit songs for several singers in the Arab world, especially during the 1960s and 1970s. He composed Warda's most famous songs, and ...

, Mohamed Fawzi, Zakariya Ahmad,

Mohamed Abdel Wahab Mohamed Abdel Wahab (), also transliterated ''Mehammad Abdelwehab'', (March 13, 1902 – May 4, 1991), was a prominent 20th-century Egyptian singer, actor, and composer. He is best known for his Romantic and Egyptian patriotic songs. He wa ...

, Riad El Sunbati and many others.

First generation

(1892–1923) *

(1892–1966) * Zakariya Ahmad (1896–1961) *

Yusef Greiss The following is a list of Egyptian music composers. Pioneers According to the work of the Egyptian musicologist Samha El-Kholy, the first generation of Egyptians to begin writing in modern Egyptian classical style were born around the turn of ...

(1899–1961) * Abu Bakr Khairat (1910–1963) * Hasan Rashid (1896–1969) *

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

(1916–1993) *

Dawood Hosni Dawood Hosni (born David Haim Levi, 26 February 1870 – 10 December 1937) was an Egyptian music composer. Biography Dawood's father, Khidr Hossnei, was a jeweler. Dawood's family were Karaite Jews. Dawood was apprenticed to a bookbinder, Sukkar B ...

(1870–1937)

Second generation

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

Farid al-Atrash Farid al-Atrash (; October 19, 1910 – December 26, 1974), also spelled Farid El-Atrache, was a Syrian-Egyptian singer, oudist, composer, and actor. Although born in Syria, he immigrated to Egypt at the age of nine with his mother and siblings, ...

(1910–1974) * Kamel El-Remali (b. 1922), *

Awatef Abdel Karim Awatef Abdel Karim (; 8 February 1931 - 24 April 2021) was an Egyptian composer of contemporary classical music. Karim was the first Egyptians, Egyptian female composer to formally study music composition. She composed for piano, violin, choir, a ...

(1931–2021) *

Gamal Abdel-Rahim Gamal Abdel-Rahim ( ) (November 25, 1924 – November 23, 1988) was a distinguished Egyptian classical music composer and composition professor. Life and career Abdel-Rahim was born in Cairo to a musical father, and began playing the piano at ...

(1924–1988) *

Sayed Awad Sayed Awad (1926–2000; ) 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 Russian violinist and co ...

(1926–2000) *

Halim El-Dabh Halim Abdul Messieh El-Dabh (, ''Ḥalīm ʻAbd al-Masīḥ al-Ḍab''ʻ; 4 March 1921 – 2 September 2017) was an Egyptian-American composer, musician, ethnomusicologist, and educator, who had a career spanning six decades. He is particu ...

(1921–2017) *

(1916–1993) *

Soliman Gamil Soliman Gamil (; 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 his compositions for films ...

(1924–1994) *

Rifaat Garrana Mohamed Garrana Rifaat (; 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 in Cairo on 29 January 1929. He ...

(1929–2017) *

Tarek Ali Hassan Tarek Ali Hassan (, 19 October 1937 – 8 September 2024) was an Egyptian endocrinologist who was a professor of medicine and chief of endocrinology at Al-Azhar University in Cairo. He was also a composer, musician, writer, painter, and philosoph ...

(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 Syrian Ku ...

(1927–2013)

Third generation

(1932–1993) *

Rageh Daoud Rageh Sami Daoud (; 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 composers. He has comp ...

(born 1954) *

Omar Khayrat Omar Khairat (; born November 11, 1948) is an Egyptian musician. He has gained recognition for his versatile talents as a composer, pianist, conductor and arranger. Early life Born in Cairo, Omar was raised in a family of musicians. His uncle, ...

(born 1949) *

Mona Ghoneim Mona Ghoneim (; 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. Puglisi and compositio ...

(born 1955) * Sherif Nour (born 1958) *

Mohamed Abdelwahab Abdelfattah Mohamed Abdelwahab Abdelfattah (; born 1962) is an Egyptian composer of contemporary classical music and educator. He is a member of Egypt's third generation of classical composers. Biography Abdelfattah was born in Giza. He graduated with a ...

(born 1962) * Sherif Mohie El Din (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 five ...

(1958–2017) *

Adel Kamel Adel Kamel (1942–2003) عادل كامل was a music critic, musicologist and composer. He was one of the writers in ''Watani'' newspaper, the founder of “Panorama” section, a lecturer in Universities in Egypt and abroad, a member of th ...

(1942–2003)

Fourth generation

Hesham Nazih Hesham Nazih, also spelled Hesham Nazeh (, 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 graduation year, he co ...

(born 1972) * Hisham Kharma

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: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 year ...