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19 concerts, seven emirates, one year: UAE National Orchestra wraps up debut season
The UAE orchestra refuses the usual separation between Western and Arabic music; an ensemble of oud and qanun shares the score with a full symphonic string section
- PUBLISHED: Sat 27 Jun 2026, 3:33 PM
When the UAE National Orchestra walked onto the stage at The Arts Centre at NYU Abu Dhabi on Thursday night, the programme moved from Leonard Bernstein's Symphonic Dances from West Side Story to a Mexican danzón, then to a samai built on centuries of Arabic classical tradition, and closed on a suite of beloved Emirati songs rearranged for full orchestra and choir.
It was an unusual run of music to hear in a single sitting. It was also, in miniature, the argument the orchestra has been making all year. The concert, repeated the night before at Dubai Opera, marked the end of the orchestra's first season.
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The ensemble gave its first public performance only in December 2025, at the 54th Eid Al Etihad celebrations, and opened its inaugural public season on January 15 at Emirates Palace. In the months since, it has staged 19 performances across 12 programmes, touring all seven emirates with 70 musicians and 30 choir members drawn from more than 30 nationalities.
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"Our Season Finale was a celebration of everything this Orchestra has become in its first year," Sheikha Alia bint Khalid Al Qassimi, Managing Director of the UAE National Orchestra, told Khaleej Times. "We are incredibly proud to have presented 19 performances across 12 concert programmes, but what matters most is the enthusiasm, commitment and belief that have helped bring this Orchestra to life."
The central question for any national orchestra built from scratch is what it should sound like. Most countries inherit that answer over generations. The UAE has been assembling one in real time, and its solution has been to refuse the usual separation between Western and Arabic music.
On the same stage, an Arabic ensemble of oud and qanun shares the score with a full symphonic string section. The approach runs through the finale programme, which included a commissioned arrangement of Saint-Saëns' Bacchanale reworked to blend Western orchestral colour with Arabic instruments, and The Fiftieth Samaei, a new work by Emirati composer and orchestra musician Abdulaziz Al Madani.
"From the beginning, we wanted to create programmes that reflected both the richness of the international orchestral tradition and the cultural identity of the UAE," said Ahmed Farag, the orchestra's conductor to Khaleej Times. "Seeing internationally recognised works performed alongside Emirati compositions, including Abdulaziz Almadani's The Fiftieth Samaei, brought that vision to life."
The orchestra is one piece of a larger cultural build. Abu Dhabi has spent years constructing the institutions of an arts economy, from Louvre Abu Dhabi to the soon-to-open Guggenheim on Saadiyat, and a national orchestra fills the gap missing in that picture. It sits alongside existing ensembles such as the UAE Philharmonic. What distinguishes the national orchestra is its mandate — to perform across the whole country and to define a specifically Emirati orchestral sound.
The membership reflects the country it plays for. The orchestra selected its musicians from more than 3,200 applications worldwide. Emiratis currently make up around 15 per cent of the ensemble, a figure the orchestra has been open about wanting to raise. That is the purpose behind Tashyeed, a 13-month paid training programme launched in May that places 17 Emirati musicians inside the working orchestra, embedding them in rehearsals and performances rather than teaching them at a remove.
For its chairperson, the season is evidence for a broader case about public spending on the arts. "The success of the Orchestra's inaugural season demonstrates the value of continued investment in cultural institutions that inspire creativity, nurture talent, and strengthen community connections," Noura bint Mohammed Al Kaabi, Minister of State at UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Chairperson of the UAE National Orchestra, told Khaleej Times.
Whether audiences keep coming will be the real test, and a harder one than a launch year. The orchestra has built an audience across the emirates over six months, but novelty fades, and a second season has to hold people who already know what the ensemble does.
The orchestra moves to a standard September-to-June calendar from 2027 and its second season is expected to be announced later this year.
Ahmed Waqqas Alawlaqi is the youngest Special Correspondent, reporting from Abu Dhabi on youth, AI and innovation, and human-interest stories. His work brings exclusive perspectives from the Capital, highlighting voices that shape the UAE's future.