The Music Box Qatar Music Academy’s monthly newsletter
Examinations
ABRSM Theory Exams:
The results have finally arrived! Congratulations to all of
the students for achieving such excellent results. Forty
nine students achieved a distinction, fifty students
achieved a merit and twenty six students passed. The
certificates are now available outside Ziriab hall.
Three students in the Western Department achieved a
perfect score of 100:
 Naomi Chen – Grade One
 Ailsa Cameron –Grade Two
 Seo Hee Hong -Grade Five
Well done Naomi, Ailsa and Seo-Hee!!!
ABRSM Practical Exams:
The timetable for the ABRSM examinations is on the
board next to Ziriab Hall. The exams will be held at Qatar
Music Academy in Room 37 from May 7th –May 14th.
Students need to arrive at least 20 minutes prior to the
examination to tune and warm–up. Rooms will be
designated for this purpose. The students will need to go
to the library 10 minutes prior to their exam to report to
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Highlights of Enrolment
this issue... Page 4 Enrique Ulloa
the ABRSM representative.
Students must take with them into the examination the
original music in the book, no photocopies will be
allowed. Students need to make sure that they have
practiced twice with their accompanist prior to the
examination date.
Students are asked to take the examination slip in with
them to the examination. Slips are available on the
noticeboards.
Good luck to everyone!
Royal Irish Academy of Music (RIAM):
The students in the Preparatory 2 classes will be
completing their first theory examination on May 23rd
at 10.00am-11.00am. The examination will be held at
Qatar Music Academy in rooms 39 and 41.
All students are expected to attend a Mock/Practice exam
on Friday, May 8th at 10.00am-11.00am. The practice
exam will help them to prepare for the exam on May
23rd.
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Latest news

MUSIC FOR ALL Enrolment

Online applications for the Music for All programme is currently open but will close on 10th
May.

Please be aware that if you are currently having lessons in this programme and you wish to
continue having lessons in the 2015-16 academic year you will have to click here and apply online.
Please also note that enrollment into the programme is not guaranteed.

In assessing applications from current Music for All students certain criteria will be taken into
consideration. Teachers’ recommendations on consistent attendance, attitude, practice and
progress will all be looked at before places are offered.

Please be aware that each year the timetable scheduling starts from the beginning. Priority is given
to students in the Academic Programme and then spaces around the schedule are given to Music for
All students. Therefore there is a high possibility that the scheduled time that you currently have
will not be available next year.

QF Radio
Every Thursday of April, teachers and students
from the Arab Music Department hosted interviews
at QF radio, for the show called, Mishwar al-Dahira,
.)‫(مشوار الظهيرة‬The interviews discuss their
experiences at Qatar Music Academy and feature
performances of pieces from the Maqam music
repertoire.

Below are the participants:

 Jameal Aridi, Kaman and ‘Ud teacher
 Bayan Rida, Voice and ‘Ud teacher
 Natalie Jouzi, Nay student
 Talin Jouzi, Qanun student
 Abdulla A Najjar, ‘Ud student Natalie Jouzi and Talin Jouzi taking part in the show

Art Week
Yassine Ayari participated in the Art Week event hosted at the US Embassy on Tuesday April 28th,
2015. Yassine held a workshop on Arab music and musical instruments. Accompanied by his
instrument (the nay), he demonstrated the instruments playing technique and played live for the
audience. It was a wonderful time and experience.

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Latest news

Annual Faculty Concerts

Qatar Music Academy has two exciting Faculty Concerts
coming up in May. The first of which will be the Western
Music Faculty Concert on Saturday May 16th at 4pm,
at Qatar National Convention Center– Auditorium 3
(located near Education City). The event is free and all
are welcome.

This concert is a chance to see our accomplished Western

Department teachers do what they do best. For more
information click here.

The second concert we will have is the Arab

Faculty Concert performed by the Marasi
Ensemble (QMA’s Arab Faculty takht), which will
be held at Qatar National Convention Center-
Auditorium 3 on Saturday the 23rd of May from
5.00pm. Their concert will showcase extracts of
instrumental and vocal pieces from the Maqam
musical forms.

The takht will bring to life most of the musical

forms of the Maqam musical tradition, such as the
Bashraf, Sama’i, Longa, Tahmilah, and Dulab on a
variety of traditional Arab instruments. The
concert will also feature a special guest on Marasi 2015
percussion, Khalid Yassine, who is one of the
most important Arab percussionists in the Arab world. The concert will be free and all are welcome.

For more information visit www.music.com.qa or contact Yassine Ayari at yayari@qf.org.qa .

The Class of
2014-15
Academic
Programme

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Latest news

Enrique Ulloa
Enrique held two very informative
sessions with parents in April. He spoke
about ways to help motivate your child
to practise regularly and enjoy the
essence of the music that they are
playing. Throughout the week he held
master classes, workshops and worked
with the young children.

QMA students participate in AMIS

Middle School Honor Band Festival
Kaela Coil, Per-Nikolas Barth, and Ruth Zachariah recently
participated in the Middle School Honor Band Festival
sponsored by the Association of Music in International
Schools. Here are Kaela's impressions of this exciting event:
"I have recently participated in the AMIS Honor Band that was
hosted at ASDoha. While I practiced with the band, I met new
people from all over Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. I
also learned many things from our guest conductor, Mr. John
Leonard, over the course of 3 days. For example, he made us
start the music by ourselves, and this taught us how to
communicate with the other members of the band. This was by
far the greatest opportunity I've had to use my musical skills
and I'm really glad that I decided to audition!"

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Latest news

Thanaa Awards
In April Anne-Marie Pigneguy , Ravell Galil, Deborah
Armstrong, Katalin Varro, Rachel Seay and Adele Samuels
received Thanaa Awards for their hard work and dedication
to the Western Music Department. Congratulations to all the
awardees!

Recitals
April was the month of Western Department instrumental recitals with 22 Recitals being held over
two weekends. It was wonderful to see the progress the students had made since the last series of
recitals in December, 2014.

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Latest news

International Woodwind & Brass Competition -

Varaždin, Croatia 2015 by Dávid Sztankov
This was my first international competition that I’ve ever taken
part in. In fact, it was my first ever international appearance
with my horn. There were over 400 participants taking part in
the event, and around 30 of them were horn players.

I prepared for around 2 months, so I was pretty much all set

and ready to go. My father and I drove down to the beautiful
town of Varazdin, eager to make a good impression. My
thoughts were racing through my mind, as I did not know how
competitive or how close the outcome would be. The
competition itself, was located in the Glazbena Skola u
Varazdin, and stretched over a period of 7 days, from the 22nd
-28th of March. My respective instrument's category was due
to play on Friday the 27th, at 12 PM. It consisted of me and 6
other participants competing against each other. I was last to
play in my category, which meant I had to take the stress of
waiting the longest few minutes I've ever felt in my life. When
it was finally my turn, I somehow managed to step onto the
stage, boldly, feeling not too nervous, due to having played this
program in front of several audiences. I played "Morceau du
Concert in F minor" by Camille Saint-Saeans and W.A Mozart's first Horn Concerto in D major. I was
lucky to have an experienced accompanist, whom I had an intense rehearsal with the night before.

After I had played my piece and left the stage, I packed up and experienced longest minutes I've ever
felt, when I was waiting for the final result, which was put onto a board, in the lobby of the music
school.

I was thrilled when I saw my results and could

not believe how generous the judges were to
me. For the next few days I remember how
excited I was to experience this again with
another competition. I am fortunate to have a
two week holiday in April, so I can prepare for
my next competition which will take place on
the 30th of May, in Brno, Czech Republic. The
standards are said to be much higher there, so
I intend to practice a lot and look for more
opportunities to perform publicly, so that I get
used to being on stage. I am extremely
thankful for all the people who've helped me
achieve this, and hope to achieve even better
results, next time!

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Latest news

Mathaf Students Arts Competition and Exhibition

Six students from the Arab Music Department participated in the Mathaf Students Arts
Competition and Exhibition on Saturday, May 2nd 2015 at Al-Mathaf. They performed and
demonstrated pieces from the Maqam music repertoire; playing music from Turkey, Iran, the
Middle East and Egypt.

The students who took part:

 Talin Rimoun F Jouzi: Qanun
 Natali Rimoun F Jouzi: Nay
 Nadir Abdul Salam: Oud
 Nusaim Abdul Salam: Percussion
 Leena Dietz, Nay
 Naeela Dietz, Qanoun

Qatar International School

Grade six Students from Qatar international have visited QMA twice over the past fortnight. They
were introduced to the instruments of the Orchestra followed by a percussion workshop. Great
fun was had by all involved!

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Important Dates for May and June

Western Music Department
Day and Date Time Event Venue
Thursday, May 7th 8.30-5.30pm ABRSM exams in Room 37 QMA

Friday, May 8th 8.30-5.30pm ABRSM exams in Room 37 QMA

Saturday, May 9th 8.30-5.30pm ABRSM exams in Room 37 QMA

Sunday, May 10th 9.00am Last day to enroll for Music For All lessons QMA

Tuesday, May 12th 8.30-5.30pm ABRSM exams in Room 37 QMA

Wednesday, May 13th 8.30-5.30pm ABRSM exams in Room 37 QMA

Thursday, May 14th 8.30-5.30pm ABRSM exams in Room 37 QMA

Saturday, May 16th 4.00-5.00pm Faculty Concert QNCC

auditorium
3
Sunday May 17th 10.00-6.00pm Academic Programme Scholarship auditions QMA Room
Students will be nominated by their instrumental teacher 37
to apply.
They need to be playing at ABRSM Grade 5 and above.
Saturday, May 23rd 10.00-11.00am RIAM exam Venue 41 Radisson
2.30pm Radisson Blu ABRSM –Examiner and Teacher Meeting Blu hotel
11.00am- ABRSM exams at Radisson Blu
5.00pm
Saturday, May 30th 12.00-1.00pm Student Concert St Regis, Jazz
Club
Tuesday, June 2nd TBC Qatar Academy Awards QNCC
Students in the QMA Youth Orchestra are performing
Dress rehearsal and performance
Thursday, June 4th 5.30-6.30pm Ensemble Concert QMA
Symphonic Wind
Junior Symphonic Wind
Percussion
Orff Percussion
String Ensemble
Saturday, June 6th 10.00-12.00pm ABRSM High Scorers’ Concert QMA
1.30-4.30pm Rehearsal with the Youth Orchestra and the Choir at QMA
Saturday, June 13th 5.00-6.00pm End of Year Ceremony at QNCC QNCC,
Auditorium
3
Monday, June 14th- 10.00-6.00pm Return your instrument to QMA after your last QMA
Thursday June 18th instrumental lesson

Thursday, June 18th All day Last day on lessons QMA

Monday June 22nd 9.00am Academic Reports will be emailed QMA

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Coming Soon to the

Arab Music Department
Recitals
There are upcoming Arab Department recitals on:
 INSTRUMENTAL RECITAL: Sunday- May 21st, 2015
 ENSEMBLE RECITAL: Thursday- May 28th, 2015

Sharqiyyat Exams
The Sharqiyyat Arab Instrument Exam will be on Tuesday May 9th from 09.00-12.00pm. Please
see below the list of the students who will participate.

’Ud
 Nadir Abdul Salam (Grade 2)
 Zeina Hamd (Grade 2)
 Yasmine Hamd (Grade 2)
 Ajwaad al-Uwaisheg (Grade 1)
 Rakan Raed Ayoub (Grade 1)
 Isabell Bekirova (Grade 1)
 Abdullaziz Al Mansouri (Grade 2)
 Abdulla A Najjar (Grade 1)

Qanun
 Siwar Ayoub (Grade 1)
 Omar Saleh M.Abdulla (Grade 2)
 Ameena Khalid Al Meer (Grade 2)