Omar Khairat(I)

Omar Khairat was born in Cairo and belongs to an artistic family. His uncle Abu Bakr Khairat, a music composer, was the founder of of the Music Academy and was its first Dean. In 1959, Omar joined the Academy and studied the piano and musical theory. After graduating, he continued his studies at Trinity College in London. In parallel, he became involved with international popular music and jazz and played the drums for one of the top bands in Cairo, "Le Petit Chats". This experience added another dimension to his musical influences. His career as a pianist began in 1979, when his various works started to gain recognition from both listeners and critics. His first major work was the music score for the very popular film The Night of Fatma's Arrest. His music score was a hit and was widely applauded by the public. It was the first time in Egypt for a film score to be released on audio cassette, and became a milestone in the music industry in the Middle East in that particular field. He went onto compose the music score for the famous television drama, Bangles. In his work, he introduced a Western harmonic flair to the classic music structure. It was an experience for him and was acclaimed by the critics. Other compositions include the music for two ballets: The Sorceress and the Magical Perfumes, and the Nile Ballet, and the music for two operettas, A 100 Years of Cinema and Al Amrana Hill. All of these were followed by his symphonic work, Arabian Raphsody. His most famous film scores include: Aam Ahmed's Case, The Terrorist, Slumber in the Honey, Tutankhamon, The Forbidden Time, A Date with Fate, Love Also Dies, Executing the Dead, The Sixth Day, Hell Under Water and The Vision.