A R Rahman's Firdaus Orchestra to ring down the curtains at Dubai 2020 Expo

Hyderabad: The Firdaus Orchestra, an all-women musical ensemble led by Academy and Grammy Award-winning composer AR Rahman, will ring down the curtains on the Expo 2020 Dubai’s Space Week with a concert on Saturday, starting at 8.40 p.m., Indian Standard Time.

The concert will be live streamed at https://www.youtube.com/Expo2020Dubai/live .

The orchestra will render a space themed repertoire comprise Western classical music and an original composition by Rahman.

The Firdaus Orchestra, led by conductor Yasmina Sabbah, represents musical talent from across the Arab world, and the one-hour performance will include ‘Also Sprach Zarathustra,’ the theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey, as well as music from Star Wars and E.T. – Adventures on Earth. It will also feature Karl Jenkins’ ‘Palladio,’ Beethoven’s ‘Symphony No. 5,’ and a grand finale performance by A.R. Rahman who will present an exclusive new composition, ‘Humanitas-Proorismós-Al Amal’, an ode by the composer to explorers of space. ‘Al Amal’ is the Arabic word for ‘hope’, which also happens to be the name of the first Arab mission to Mars.

Rahman said: “To know the unknown is the quest of life, and by exploring space we explore ourselves.”