Bahaa El Ansary

Bahaa is set to participate in Tête à Tête - The Opera Festival as part of the Joy of Opera series, where he will debut “Sebastian”, an expressive, AI-powered talking piano. The project originated from Schokolade, a short opera initially developed with support from Culture Resource. This early version used voice-to-MIDI technology to translate human vocals into piano melodies. Currently, Bahaa is evolving “Sebastian” into an intelligent, interactive system capable of engaging directly with the audience. The performance will serve as the first live test of the model, allowing the audience to interact with “Sebastian” both musically and dramatically.

This ten-minute opera is a work in progress that Bahaa plans to eventually develop into a full-length 70-80 minute opus with the speaking piano as a central character. Two young people come across a child who has been transformed by a spell into piano so they hunt for some magical objects to free him. The objects are sensor devices that can control electronic musical sounds through movement and color.

Bahaa received the grant in order to take part, as a resident composer, with Ensemble Le Balcon, a French chamber music orchestra dedicated to modern and contemporary music and that seeks to develop new musical techniques. The ensemble is working on the production of “Licht”, a cycle of seven operas, one for each day of the week, composed by Stockhausen Karlheinz. The project will be carried out in collaboration with the Polignac-Singer Foundation.

The grant supports his travel from Egypt to the United States of America to perform in a concert at the MATA music festival in New York. Billed as “the city’s leading showcase for vital new music by emerging composers”, the MATA festival this year features projects selected from the works of 1,100 composers worldwide.

Received a grant to travel from France to Egypt to participate in the International Forum on Heritage and Modernity that will discuss the relationship between music heritage and contemporary musical trends.