In collaboration with the Music Affairs Center of the Ministry of Sports and Culture, the Student Activities Department at Qatar University (QU) today announced the opening of the inaugural iteration of the Awtar 2022 Competition.
The goal of the tournament is to increase students’ understanding of different cultures, develop their musical sensibility, and discover and develop their creative talents. It will continue till October 3, 2023.
According to Abdullah Al Mulla, director of student activities at QU, this competition is aimed at QU students who are gifted pianists or oud players. “The competition’s launch fits within the context of the student life strategy, which encourages and strengthens students’ abilities, extracurricular activities in college life,” he said. This competition, which is in its first year, gives college students a promising opportunity to hone their artistic and musical talents, to feel more confident about themselves, and to gain recognition on a local, national, and international scale.
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“Through this competition, we also seek to discover musical artistic talents specialised in oud and piano at the university, as these instruments are considered among the oldest musical instruments.”
“At the conclusion of the competition, we hope to identify musical artistic talents, help participants polish their musical abilities, and inspire youngsters to participate in a creative atmosphere that will strengthen their sense of national pride. I can only express my gratitude for your major contributions to the fields of artistic and musical output. We really appreciate the important role the Music Affairs Centre staff played in organising this competition and the tremendous work the Ministry of Culture put out to ensure its success,” added Al Mulla.
Khaled Al Salem, Director of the Music Affairs Centre, said: “The Awtar competition, which is launched today in partnership between the centre and student activities at Qatar University, comes within a series of prior partnerships and within the forthcoming plans that contain numerous ideas on the agenda of upcoming activities between two sides.”
Al Salem added: “As for the function of the centre in this competition, it is to give all technical support from it as an official competent authority in the nation, starting with determining the standards by which candidates will be chosen and evaluated, as well as supplying a carefully chosen jury, as the members of the committee. In addition to offering expert trainers in the field of teaching oud and piano, all of them are academic musicians with extensive experience in the field at the local, Gulf, and even Arab levels. They are also recognised academics in the nation.”
Buthaina Al Janahi, Head of the Department of Culture and Arts at the university, said: “In collaboration with the Music Affairs Committee and the Ministry of Culture, we are announcing the beginning of the first Awtar competition today. This competition seeks to identify and develop the skills of students while also encouraging them to take part actively, particularly in fostering national identity through technical levels and knowledge of creation in the creative and musical domains.
“Of course, there will be three stages to the competition. Today marked the beginning of the first stage, therefore we will now focus on recruiting as much talent as we can. The stage of judging and preparing the competitors for the final stage will also be included in the second stage. The three qualified winners will be revealed in the final phase.”
Mohammed Al Marri, distributor and composer of music, and Mohammed Al Banna, composer, were announced as jury members by musician Nasser Sahim, a jury member and deputy executive director of the Qatar Orchestra.
The purpose of starting this competition, according to Sahim, is to find university students who have creative and musical abilities with a focus on the oud and piano. This competition will give students a platform to showcase their musical and artistic abilities.
