Syrian refugee girl shines in Netherlands

Recent psycho-social research mentioned that the importance of the 6 and 7-year-old age in raising children's musical sensibilities and that the early years of childhood form the ground in which the child becomes familiar with music. 

The child’s first experiences begin with the realization and simulation of the songs he hears and the way he moves his entire body rhythmically, and at the age of six he has acquired an active relationship with musical symbols and then plays, performance and perception with increasing degrees of accuracy.

The Syrian girl Shatha Al Manla was 1year old when she drew attention to the voice of the Kanoun in her parents' house more than the games for those of her age.

She used to hear the music, so the musical sensation inside her grew up before she stood on her feet. When she was 7 years old, she had mastered playing this Oriental machine.

He father, a professor at the Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts in Damascus, told Zaman al-Wasl that his daughter's relationship with music began at the age of seven. She enrolled at the Salhi al-Wadi Institute in Damascus. She chose the machine and had a weekly lesson for half an hour.

After touching her talent and enthusiasm, she also enrolled in a music institute in Germana, where she continued to study "Solfege" and a special teacher was brought to teach her to play Kanoun on a weekly basis at home.

In 2012, Shatha left Syria with her family to Egypt. In Cairo, She was eight years old and she was registered at the Egyptian Opera House - Talent Development Center. She continued her studies with one of the most prominent law professors, Dr. Saber Abdul Sattar. 

According to her father, she also recorded at the "Arab OudHouse" and continued to attend the "Solfege" classes with Dr. Ahmed Youssef, a professor of Solfege at the Academy of Arts in Cairo, and lasted two years in this intensive study.

Then a Syrian Kanoun professor resident in Egypt (Ahmed SaaB) taught her. Through the Turkish professor Ahmed Saad, sheknew the pieces of "Goksel" and other Turkish musicians and a new technique and a different spirit. 

Her father said that she established an oriental music band called "Qassion" in relation to the famous mountain overlooking the Syrian capital Damascus.

She has participated in many concerts in Egypt as a basic pillar of al kanoun with the "House of Oud" under the Egyptian Ministry of Culture, which is run by the famous Iraqi artist "Nasir Shamma".

Due to the difficult conditions of asylum in Egypt, the gifted young woman was forced to move to the Netherlands with her family at the end of 2015. She was immediately discovered as a musician with her sister Joey, where the two sisters continued to play in their group they already founded in Egypt.

In the Netherlands, Shatha presented a wide range of concerts, traveled with her sister to many Dutch regions, and in 2017 participated in a music competition for children and young people under the age of 18, an annual competition by one of the most important bands, it is the oldest in the Netherlands (NEDERLANDS BLAZERS ENSMBLE). It has many musicians under the age of 18 from all over the Netherlands.

Shatha and two other won in the competition at the Opera House in Amsterdam.

Each year, the Dutch ensemble presents a specific "theme", means that the piece carries a meaning consistent with the theme, not just a musical tune.

The father pointed out that his daughter is now learning to play the guitar and the ociela, in addition to her basic instrument (kanoun), and last year she studied with the famous Turkish musician "Goksel" in a workshop in Greece.

She joined the "Spellender" music union as the youngest member and organized an annual union event on March 2 with a group of Dutch musicians and singers, with her sister on the Oud, along with two actors who added dramatic lines to the work.

The two sisters were selected from a large group to play with the Niederland Blazers band and participated in the 2016 New Year, broadcast on Dutch television, came to a good echo among the Dutch.

Then they presented dozens of concerts in most regions of the Netherlands with the professional parquet and the graduate of the high institute of music, Mudar Salama, who joined the band as a third member. 

Shatha used to participate regularly in concerts with important Dutch musicians, who found in the kanoun a deep addition to Western music, and the last of her contributions was with a Dutch composer (Uni Van Jael), who worked on the re-writing of a piece of Bach.

She expressed her intention to complete the learning of music to reach advanced levels of professionalism that allow her to find a conscious style that mixes Arabic, Western and Turkish music, and her ambition to enter the field of music composition and orchestra leadership.