Awards

Omani Centre for Traditional Music gets Unesco award

A ceremony was held on Sunday November 10 in the German city of Aachen to present the Omani Centre for Traditional Music with an international music award.

The prize was awarded to the centre, an affiliate of the Ministry of Information, by the Unesco’s International Music Council, in recognition of the key role the centre plays in the preservation of Omani musical heritage.

The Unesco award was received on behalf of the centre by Shaikh Abdullah bin Shuwain al Hosni, Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Information.

In a speech on the occasion, Al Hosni conveyed the greetings of Hamad bin Mohammed al Rashdi, Minister of Information, and expressed the Omani government’s gratitude to the Unesco and the International Music Council.

Al Hosni said His Majesty the Sultan’s Prize for the Environment, which is awarded biannually through the Unesco to distinguished scholars, serves as an evidence of His Majesty’s respect for the Unesco and its noble objectives.

Al Hosni outlined the centre’s efforts in collecting, documenting and preserving Oman’s musical traditions through the use of photographs, audio visual media and sound recordings and compiling a database of these documentation materials.

He also noted that the centre made a number of publications including a dictionary of Omani traditional music and organised international forums on Omani traditional music and the role of Omani women in this type of music.

Al Hosni said the awarding of the Unesco international prize to the Omani Centre for Traditional Music is testimony of international recognition of the Sultanate’s policies under the wise leadership of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos.

The function was attended by the Mayor of Aachen, representative of the Unesco Director-General, head of the International Music Council, Ahmed bin Mohammed al Hinai, the Sultanate’s Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany, Dr Moosa bin Jaafar bin Hassan, the Sultanate’s Representative to the Unesco and others.