pioneers social change through the arts

Performances: Located in downtown Cairo (see Contacts for address), El Mastaba presents four regular weekly concerts: a weekly performance in Cairo at El Dammah Theater for Free Arts brings performances by the 11 bands of the El Mastaba Network (for detailed information about the bands El Mastaba supports, click here) with a focus on the simsimia and damma traditions from Port Said and the Suez Canal region in general, the music of Rango, originating from Sudanese and Egyptian Zar rituals and the Bedouin music from the Sinai. Three performances of the bands, El Tanbura, El Hinna and El Waziry take place weekly in Port Said, Ismailia and Suez, respectively. See Videos for a list of El Mastaba performances on the Web. Schools: El Mastaba has founded and maintains three schools, one in Port Said, a second in Suez and the third, just established (2012), in El Arish for teaching children their musical heritage. 15 students in each school range from the age of 6 to 16 years old and are taught to play the popular instruments and rhythms, and also to learn and keep and perform the popular songs and dances. The Center also fosters balanced growth by combining art and knowledge as it monitors and encourages the general educational development of the students, promoting the value of education to their future. The students also gain experience as performers: they have performed in more than 15 concerts in the Canal Zone and in Cairo. These performances have attracted diverse audiences which includes a number of street children. El Mastaba has brought these students together in three bands (see LINK to Bands), produced a CD of their work and found them opportunities to perform for audiences. Archive: The Center houses and maintains an archive of over 700 hours of audio-visual material, including recorded interviews, performances and films. A catalogue of the archive materials is available in Arabic and we have plans to translate it to English and put it online. Production: El Mastaba also produces Cds, DVDs, as well as films and promotional material for the bands. For a list of El Mastaba productions and how to purchase them, see Videos.

For society as a whole to value the role of traditional musicians in the wider community, an expanded field of play and larger, more diverse audiences are required. There is a critical need to mentor and prepare traditional musicians for live performance in diverse contexts that demonstrate their importance to the larger cultural arena. We aim to expand the performance program in our new space, El Tanbura Hall with an educational program of lecture/demonstrations and documentary films to educate the public and to overcome local perception of traditional musicians as irrelevant to the ambitions of a modern nation-state, as well as to demonstrate their value as an artistic resource to contemporary artists.