The Score, a selection of "world-class" concerts, is scheduled for the season and includes 12 educational and outreach programmes sponsored by Emirates Airline and Dubai Duty Free.
A new era
The first event in this new music series will be held on Thursday at the Amphitheatre, Souk Madinat Jumeirah, with special guests the Seattle Baroque Orchestra (SBO) from the US. Founded in 1994, the American ensemble includes six principal musicians specialising in 17th- and 18th-century works.
"Dubai very rarely experiences this type of playing - music heard as it would have been during the lives of Baroque composers such as JS Bach and Handel," says Shelley Frost, the artistic director and producer of The Fridge. "In selecting Seattle Baroque Orchestra, and [the soprano] Clara Rottsolk for our launch, we wanted to set out our intentions for the series. A world-class group, performing music that is timeless and extraordinary."
International concerts
Next year's concerts will start on January 15 with the Rascher Saxophone Quartet from Frankfurt performing old and new works including Bach, Purcell, Glass and Barbara Thompson. A treat for the UAE audience will be the world premiere of a work by The Score's composer-in-residence, Joanna Marsh.
In February, The Swingle Singers from London will take the stage followed in March by the former harpist to the Prince of Wales, Catrin Finch, who has been described as "The Queen of Harps". Katya Apekisheva, a pianist from Moscow, will deliver romantic works from Chopin and Tchaikovsky during her concert in April. May will bring in Amjad Ali Khan, known as one of northern India's greatest classical musicians.
The main goal with The Score is to develop a regional classical music scene with depth and to raise awareness of its relevance and types of performers, according to Marsh, who is also the programme curator.
"As a result, we have created The Score, combining our skills in breaking new ground and reaching out dynamically to the community through a diverse range of concerts and educational and outreach projects," says Marsh.
A special programme
Audiences should expect a "beautiful" and "lively" evening on the first night, says Ingrid Matthews, the co-director of the SBO. The programme includes "tender melodies" from Bach: the A major harpsichord concerto, the famous Wedding Cantata and Air on the G-string. The SBO will also play Johann Heinrich Schmelzer's D major violin sonata. Matthews describes the repertoire as full of "hidden treasures".
"We're very excited and intrigued to come to Dubai. None of us have ever visited this part of the world before," she says. "Baroque composers cared a lot about clarity of expression and I think that makes the music really speak to people today."
Despite social and technological advances, the human response to music has not changed much in 300 years, she says, because composers at that time began with the idea of reaching out to audiences on an emotional level.
"The concerto, the instrumental sonata, the opera and even orchestral symphonies could all be said to have originated in the innovations of the baroque - it was such an important time in music history," she says.
Great baroque music has a wonderful way of being deep and yet immediately accessible, says Byron Schenkman, the co-director of the SBO.
"The composers we are performing on this programme are all captivating in different ways: Bach for his universality, Handel for his sense of drama, Schmelzer for his virtuosity," he says.
This period of music is "ubiquitous in modern popular culture", says Schenkman, pointing to its occurrence in movies, TV and commercials. And, he says, it has had an inescapable influence on the development of western classical music ever since.
Tickets cost Dh185 to Dh250 and are available from Madinat Theatre Box Office in Souk Madinat Jumeirah, www.madinattheatre.com or visit www.thescore.ae. Doors open at 7pm.The outreach projects start on Friday with a Baroque Schools Workshop at The Fridge from 10am.
melshoush@thenational.ae
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Tuesday's fixtures
Kyrgyzstan v Qatar, 5.45pm
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The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
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Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
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Starring: Rose, Jisoo, Jennie, Lisa
Directors: Min Geun, Oh Yoon-Dong
Rating: 3/5
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Business Insights
- As per the document, there are six filing options, including choosing to report on a realisation basis and transitional rules for pre-tax period gains or losses.
- SMEs with revenue below Dh3 million per annum can opt for transitional relief until 2026, treating them as having no taxable income.
- Larger entities have specific provisions for asset and liability movements, business restructuring, and handling foreign permanent establishments.
The five pillars of Islam
From Zero
Artist: Linkin Park
Label: Warner Records
Number of tracks: 11
Rating: 4/5
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
