Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra, music director Michalis Economou and the MDR Radio Choir of Leipzig will feature in a concert on Sunday at Katara Opera House.

The choir will perform Marcel Khalife’s Orientale to texts by Arab poets along with traditional Arabic texts. Coloratura soprano Whal-ran Seo will then join the Philharmonic for the world premiere of Rami Khalife’s Requiem.

Unesco Artist for Peace Marcel Khalife is a Lebanese music composer, oud master and singer. Committed to humanitarian issues, his revolution against oppression, violence and war transcends the struggle to a deeper essence to seek the liberation of the man from all restrictions.

Khalife played a fundamental role in the establishment and development of the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra as an artistic consultant, composer and member of the board of directors has composed many masterpieces for the orchestra.

Musical shape-shifter Rami Khalife’s works are as eclectic as it is bold, ranging from improvised concerts, recording a Prokofiev concerto with Globalis Orchestra, performing world music with Marcel Khalife and the El Mayadine Ensemble, composing contemporary works for orchestra, producing sound tracks for film and documentary, collaborating with poet and author Mahmoud Darwish, only to switch it all up with classic-electro group Aufgang.

Heralded as “a musician of extreme calibre and pure expression…a welcome experimental detour from the norm of today and in the relatively conformist world of classical composition…he is positively brand new” by the Daily Star, it’s no wonder that Rami Khalife has emerged as one of the most exciting young composers of the 21st century.

The celebrated Korean soprano Whalran Seo is a coloratura soprano as well as lyric soprano. She studied voice at Sook-myung Woman’s University and continued her studies in Europe, graduating from Santa Cecilia Conservatorio in Italy and Geneva Conservatoire in Switzerland.

She won the 58th Geneva International Competition as well as numerous other competitions. An active concert singer, Whalran Seo has appeared as a soloist at Montpellier Festival, Guewiller Festival and Ohrid Festival in Macedonia.

The Philharmonic’s next concert is Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, also with the MDR Radio Choir on February 8, at Qatar National Convention Centre Theatre.

The Peninsula

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