On Thursday the Dilmun Club will host a 'Carvery & Classical Evening' featuring a flute and piano duo.
Performing artists are Ahmed Al Ghanem on the flute and Dana Smith on the piano.
Dana began studying the piano under her mother's tutelage at the age of six. She completed the advanced certificate in piano from the Royal Schools of Music, London, at the age of 16.
She received her Bachelor of Arts from Mills College, California, US, and her master's degree in music from the University of Southern California, where she specialised in chamber music performance.
She is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Honour Society, and the Pi Kappa Lambda music scholarship society. During her years in graduate school she received the Miriam Oppenheimer merit scholarship and upon graduation was honoured as the outstanding graduate of her department. Since then she has performed and taught the piano in India, Burkina Faso, Belgium and the US.
Ahmed was born in Barbar, Bahrain, in 1970, where he had the chance to learn music at Barbar Primary Boys' School. He began by studying the piano there. In 1988 he went to Cairo and studied at the Cairo Conservatory where he started playing the flute. He graduated from the Conservatory in 1996.
Ghanem has performed many recitals in Bahrain and other Gulf countries, studied in London and Athens and has appeared with well-known musicians. He has participated in many international workshops and concerts with musicians from different countries such as the Melody for Dialogue between civilisations (UNESCO) concerts in Paris and Havana and the Regional Music Workshop in Kuwait (British Council).
He was a music teacher at a government school for 10 years and is now the Head of Music and Folklore Department at the Directorate of Culture and Arts, Ministry of Culture & Information.
Since 2004 he has been a member of the Bahrain International Music Festival Executive Committee and in 2005 became the co-ordinator of the festival. He is also a member of the Traditional Music committee at the Arab Academy of Music.
Tickets for the event are BD8 for members and BD10 for guests and include a half-bottle of beverage and dinner. Performance only is BD5 and the show begins at 8.30pm. Doors open at 7pm. For details contact the club on 17690926.