One hundred photographs from the musical memory of the city of Aleppo displayed in a documentary exhibition

The documentary exhibition, entitled “From the Musical Memory of the City of Aleppo,” displayed one hundred photographs of the most important musical evenings and concerts that have been performed in the city of Aleppo over the past decades.

The event was held within the activities of the artist Omar Al-Batsh’s annual forum on the occasion of World Music Day.

The Director of culture in Aleppo Jaber Al-Sajour told SANA that the exhibition celebrates the artistic, musical and lyrical memory of the city of Aleppo since the middle of the last century until this moment, documenting the decades that passed in this city, which was full of concerts and musical evenings with the participation of prominent musicians on the theaters of Aleppo.

The cultural event was organized in cooperation with “Al-Jamahir” newspaper, according to the Director of Culture, using the newspaper’s archive and the musical events it covered in that period, with the aim of introducing the artistic history of the ancient city of Aleppo, as it is a city full of types of art and literature.

Artist Ghassan Dahabi, one of the exhibition’s documenters, considered that this event is a confirmation of the artistic position of the city of Aleppo, with its rich and ancient music archive, pointing to the importance of the documentary significance of the photographs which contributes to preserving heritage.

The artist Dahabi explained that the exhibition included pictures and press articles about great Arab and international musicians who visited the city of Aleppo, including Umm Kulthum, Farid Al-Atrash and the artist Malaka Sorour , the first Arab artist to record a song on Edison CDs in Chicago who came from the city of Aleppo.

Among the visitors to the exhibition, the young artist Rod Abu Abed expressed her admiration for this musical history of Aleppo, which depicted great musicians and singers and everything that was presented in that era, pointing to the importance of such exhibitions in introducing the ancient history of that beautiful time to the new artistic generation.

In turn Najah Hajj Gomaa drew attention to the aesthetics of the displayed photos, especially as they were taken spontaneously in the pre-fifties era.

 Dr. Mona Tajo called for the continuity of such exhibitions, as they enhance the artistic position of the city of Aleppo and highlight the ancient works of art.

Rawaa Ghanam