Cairo Symphony Orchestra

Yasser El Serafi   (Solo Violin & Conductor)

Born in Alexandria, at the age of six he started to study the violin at the Alexandria Conservatoire with Renato Borghese and Lisette Meguerditchian. In 1986, he won the first prize in the National Strings Competition. In 1988, he received a scholarship from the French government to continue his musical studies in Paris.
He was awarded four gold medals in violin, chamber music, conducting and theory of music from the Conservatoire National de Rueil Malmaison and the Conservatoire National de Paris.
He was invited to perform as a soloist with the Cairo Symphony Orchestra in 1991 and 1993 at the Cairo Opera House. Since 1993, he has been concertmaster of the Cairo Symphony Orchestra and gave recitals in Paris, Rome, Geneva and in Japan at Aoyama-Gakuin University, Suntory Hall and the Kyoto Concert Hall. In 1997, he received a Fulbright Scholarship to study violin with Erick Friedman at the Yale University in the U.S.A. In 1999, he received a scholarship from the Japan Foundation to study the Suzuki method in Matsumoto in Japan for six months. El Serafi is a member of Tekfen Philharmonic Orchestra (Turkey) which performs in Turkey and toured in Europe and Japan.
He performed as a soloist in a concert for the honour of their Excellencies President Chirac, Mubarak and Sultan Kabous at the Abdine Palace. He has been concertmaster of the Mediterranean Orchestra, New Music, New Heaven and Rueil Malmaison Conservatoire. Yasser El Serafi conducted Amadeus Chamber Orchestra, Alexandria Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre Symphonique du C. N. R. de Rueil Malmaison, Orchestre del Ecume 1996. He conducted the Cairo Symphony Orchestra in several occasions performing Vivaldi concertos, Dvorak (New World Symphony) and in the Arab Perspectives Festival. He started to perform with his wife, the harpist Mona Wassef and gave their first concert in Alexandria, 2006.