Egypt: Visually impaired stuns audience

Music is an art of expression with those involved having a great knowledge and experience of mixing all the instrument to produce a perfect sound.

An audience of around 50 are convened in a small concert hall of the Russian Cultural Centre in Alexandria paying attention to four visually impaired musicians play the piano, the drums and the oud. All the four musicians are visually impaired. They performing to promote the importance of art in the special needs community.

Their music is composed with a popular selection from Egyptian pianist Omar Khairat mixed up together with an international tunes.

They are part of the ‘Sandook al-Kheir’, a civil society organisation who focus on providing solutions for individuals facing social or physical challenges. The group usually hold up free events in support of the Egypt’s blind community.

‘‘The purpose of the concert is to raise awareness of people that those with special needs have extraordinary abilities, more so that a lot of people who do not have special needs. The members could have given up to their shortfalls but these people fought it and learnt difficult instruments such as piano, violin, flutes and percussion,” said Chair of the board of directors at Sandook al-Kheir, Mohamed Aly Youssef.

The band started playing their respective instrument since they were young. This has made them masters of their own. They have been performing together since then more so in concerts like this. Thrilling audience with unique tunes who are always happy after each performance.

“Many members of the audience did not know that there are visually impaired people who can play instruments so skilfully. We wanted to give people the idea that this community plays a big role in our life which we overlook. The event was beautiful and I did not imagine that the musicians would be that skilful,” said Lamia Mohamed, member of the organization.

The youngest musician in the band is 35, while the oldest is violinist Mahmoud Amoor who is 48. They always enjoy what they do.

“I am here today to make people happier. I become happier when I do things well that people enjoy,” said Amoor.

The group has attended many events focusing on the special need community which included a fashion show event featuring disabled fashion designers last year in October.