St John's C of E Primary School
"Use your God-given gifts to serve others." 1 Peter 4: 10
Music for the Sultan Qaboos of Oman 17.4.23
Hamdan Al Shuaily – living (birth date unknown)
Sultan Qaboos of Oman loved classical music. He loved listening to it so much so that in 1985 he founded the Royal Oman Symphony Orchestra (ROSO). When he started it, it was for gifted children to play together but it has now grown into a well known professional orchestra.
Sultan Qaboos has commissioned work (when you pay for composers to write something for you). He has asked composers from all over the world. He also likes to support homegrown talent from Oman.
In 2007 the Omani composer and conductor Hamdan Al Shuaily premiered his symphonic piece A Blessed Renaissance. It mixes together traditional Omani folk music with Western compositional techniques. The piece, commissioned by the Sultan, is a spectacular musical journey through the Sultan’s reign, charting the country’s development from 1970 to the present day.