Concertgebouw gives its talent award to a Palestinian singer
mainPress release:
Amsterdam, January 13, 2020 – The Concertgebouw Young Talent Award 2020 is awarded to Palestinian singer, composer and flutist Nai Barghouti. On the eve of the Mahler Festival on Thursday, May 7, 2020, she will receive the award from Simon Reinink, general director of The Concertgebouw. The Young Talent Award is made possible in part by main sponsor Van Lanschot Kempen.
With the award of the Concertgebouw Young Talent Award, Het Concertgebouw wants to support Nai Barghouti in its further development. The prize consists of an award and a scholarship of € 5,000. Earlier winners of the prize were pianists Lucas and Arthur Jussen (2011), violinist Noa Wildschut (2013), soprano Laetitia Gerards (2014), recorder player Lucie Horsch (2015), pianist Aidan Mikdad (2017) and pianist Nikola Meeuwsen (2019) .
Simon Reinink: “Nai Barghouti is a great talent with an enormous charisma and technical control. Musically she is limitless. Whether she sings a jazz standard, a classical Arabic song or a Bach improvisation, she does not turn her hand around it. She is a model for a new generation of musicians who carry and carry different styles and cultures. It was crystal clear to us that she had to receive the Concertgebouw Young Talent Award this year. ”
Nai Barghouti
Palestinian singer, composer and flutist Nai Barghouti (23) started her musical career when she was 14 years old. Since then she has performed in many countries including Egypt, Palestine, Kuwait, Belgium, Austria, France, England, Denmark and at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
Barghouti, who now lives in Amsterdam, studied at the Jacobs School of Music in Indiana (USA). She graduated from the Conservatory of Amsterdam in March 2019 and is currently working on a masters in jazz. Her debut in The Concertgebouw was last summer during the BankGiro Lottery Summer Concerts with the Palestinian Youth Orchestra. In November she paid tribute to the Lebanese diva Fairouz during a sold-out Tracks concert in the Kleine Zaal.
Karl Guha, Chairman of the Board of Van Lanschot Kempen: “By supporting art and culture, we want to contribute to the preservation and enrichment of our cultural heritage. Nai is a very special talent and we are proud to give a stage to young talent with this award. ”
In other words, she’s one of those crossover “artists” who are destroying classical music by muddling it with pop, jazz, world music and whatever…probably done for political reasons, to further attack Israel.