Hisham Gabr
Composer and Conductor

Hisham Gabr is a resident conductor at the Cairo Opera House and Director of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina's Arts Centre, a dynamic cultural institution, part of the renowned Library of Alexandria, Egypt.

Gabr studied conducting in Egypt, France and the United States, with several renowned conductors: Christophe Muller, Dominique Ruits, Jean-Jacques Werner, Chris Kim and Ahmed El-Saedi. He was granted the Fulbright senior grant to continue his conducting development in the United States of America, where he completed the “Advanced Conducting Techniques" studies at the Cornell University, New York.

Besides his regular commitments as a conductor at the Cairo Opera House, Gabr has been invited to conduct many international orchestras and is now a returning guest conductor in many of them. As such, Gabr cooperates as a conductor and composer with a number of international orchestras and renowned artistic institutions, among them Macedonian Philharmonic Orchestra, Wroclaw Philharmonic Orchestra (Poland), Kiev Kamerata (Kyivska Kamerata, Ukraine), National Symphony Orchestra of Mexico, Astana Philharmonic Orchestra (Kazakhstan), Lebanese Philharmonic Orchestra / Caracalla Dance Theatre, along with other commitments with Royal Opera House Muscat (Oman).

The upcoming season's commitments include conducting the Göttinger Symphony Orchestra (Germany), and Holland Symfonia (Netherlands). In Egypt, Gabr conducts on regular basis major national orchestras during symphonic and opera performances: the Cairo Symphony Orchestra, Cairo Opera Orchestra, Bibliotheca Alexandrina Chamber Orchestra and others. Since early 1990s, Gabr is also composing music to numerous features movies, documentaries, musicals and theatre plays produced in Egypt and abroad. His compositions were performed by the Cairo Symphony Orchestra, and were acclaimed by both audience and critics.

Among his recent compositions is Ibn Battuta, The Prince of Travellers, the first big production performed on stage of the new National Theatre of Bahrain, celebrating Manama being chosen as the Arab Capital of Tourism, 2013. Gabr also composed music to Praxa, the first Egyptian musical, which was successfully performed at the Cairo Opera House's main hall, and at the Royal Opera House Muscat (Oman). Gabr receives frequent commissions to compose music for prestigious Egyptian and international institutions and orchestras. Over the recent years, he has been commissioned by the Egyptian Ministry of Culture, Egyptian Ministry of Information, along state and private institutions in Holland, Bahrain, Oman and Lebanon.