QU Director of Student Activities Abdullah Al Mulla (second from right) and Director of the Music Affairs Centre, Ministry of Sports and Culture Khaled Al Salem (right) with other officials at a press meet.
Doha: The Student Activities Department at Qatar University (QU) is launching today the first edition of Awtar 2022 Competition, in cooperation with the Music Affairs Centre of the Ministry of Sports and Culture.
The competition aims to broaden students’ cultural awareness, foster their musical sensitivity, and identify and nurture their creative abilities. The contest will run till October 3, 2023.
Abdullah Al Mulla, QU Director of Student Activities, said this competition targets QU students who are talented in playing oud or piano. He said: “The competition’s debut fits into the context of the student life plan, which supports and empowers students’ skills, college life’s extracurricular activities. This competition, which is in its inaugural year, offers college students a promising chance to develop their musical and artistic abilities, to feel empowered personally, and to be recognised at the local, national, and international levels.”
“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.”
Artiste Nasser Sahim, member of the jury and deputy executive director of the Qatar Orchestra, revealed the members of the jury, who are Mohammed Al Marri, distributor and music composer and Mohammed Al Banna, composer.
Sahim explained that the aim of launching this competition is to discover the artistic and musical talents specialised in oud and piano from university students, as it is an opportunity for students to express their artistic talents and musical creativity.
