Religious Song Ensemble

Essam Abdel-Moniem

The late conductor Abdel Halim Nowera founded the Religious Song Ensemble in 1972 and conducted its first concert in 1973. The main aim of the ensemble is to preserve the religious song heritage.

Therefore, Abdel Halim Nowera asked Mohamed El Fayoumy and Abdel Samie Bayoumi, two of the most famous religious singers of that time, to teach the members of the ensemble masterpieces of the religious songs like those by Ali Mahmoud, Ismael Sokkar, Sayed Mousa and Darwish El Hariry.

Maestro Abdel Halim Nowera also requested the famous musician Abdel Moneim El Hariry to compose the musical prologues for these works so that they could be presented in a modern style.

The ensemble started its concerts at the Sayed Darwish Theatre in El-Haram with 16 singers and 25 musicians. Today, the number of its members has increased to 30 singers and 40 musicians. The ensemble was headed by various conductors like Abdel Moneim El-Hariry, Yosri Khater, Salah Ghobashy, Omar Farahat and currently by Essam Abdel-Moniem.

The Religious Song Ensemble performs all over Egypt achieving great success and acclaim. It participated in many international religious song festivals like the Mediterranean Countries Festival in Marseille (France), El Rabat Religious Song Festival (Morocco) and the Music and Song Festival (Poland).

The Religious Song Ensemble is considered the only ensemble in Egypt performing modern and classical religious songs.