The Cairo Symphony Orchestra, (; Orkestra el-QÃÂhera el-Semfà Âni), is an orchestra based in Cairo, Egypt. Founded in 1959 by its first music director and conductor, Franz Litschauer. The symphony's current principal conductor is Ahmed El Saedi.
The Orchestra was founded in 1959 under its first music director and conductor, Franz Litschauer, and from mid-1959 to 1963 it was conducted by the Yugoslavian Serbs Gika Zdravkovitch (1959âÂÂ1960) and Dushan Miladinovitch (1960âÂÂ1963) (Serbian: ÃÂøòþÃÂøý ÃÂôÃÂðòúþòøÃÂ, à ½ivojin ZdravkoviÃÂ; ÃÂÃÂÃÂðý ÃÂøûðôøýþòøÃÂ, Duà ¡an MiladinoviÃÂ). Two Egyptian conductors, Ahmed Ebeid and Youssef Elsisi, succeeded Litschauer as conductors of the Cairo Symphony Orchestra.
Many international guest conductors such as Charles Munch, Yehudi Menuhin, Alexander Frey, Patrick Fournillier, Carlo Zecchi, Otakar Trhlik, Ole Schmidt, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Janos Kukla, Alain Pâris, Felix Carrasco, and others have led the Cairo Symphony Orchestra. In April 2009, Israeli-Argentinean conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim played Beethoven's piano sonata no. 8 (known as "Sonata Pathétique"), and conducted the Cairo Symphony Orchestra in a performance of BeethovenâÂÂs Fifth Symphony.