The Royal Omani Symphony Orchestra will be playing a concert at the Oman Auditorium Hall in Al-Bustan Palace Hotel. The program will include classical pieces by Mozart, Blumin Haydn and other classical composers.

The event presents an opportunity for classical music connoisseurs to enjoy an orchestral live performance. The hotel is also preparing special set menus for concert goers in the Al-Khiran Terrace Restaurant & Vue by Shannon Bennett Restaurant.

The tickets for the event will cost 10 Rials, and dinner reservations for the set menu have to be prebooked.

Concert program & further event details on ROSO’s Facebook Fan Page

The registration of this competition is already closed, artists from all around the world came to get the honor of participating in the competition of drawing the best portrait for His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said on the occasion of the sultanate’s 39^th National Day on November 18.

This competition is organized the Omani Society for Fine Arts and Bank Muscat and is held in the Omani Society for Fine Art galleries both in Muscat & Salalah starting on the 10th of November (4 days ago) and until the 17th of the same month, in order to give the artists a whole week time to draw the best portrait for His Majesty The Sultan.

The winner of the competition “Qaboos Oman” will get a cash prize as well as presenting his portrait to His Majesty the Sultan.

Omanternity Team was there and captured few pictures of the workshop and the artists working on their drawings. You can view the gallery of the pictures after the break.

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Continuing the spirit of exchange between the two nations, De Nieuwe Kerk Museum in Amsterdam has recently launched an Oman centered exhibit titled Oman’s Heritage.

The event, a response to the recently held Rembrandt Exhibit in Muscat, will similarly portray elements of Omani culture & life in the 17th century. The event, inaugurated by His Highness Sayyid Haitham Bin Tariq, along with the Crown Prince of Netherlands Willem Alexander and other dignitaries, will be displaying select 250 traditional items ranging from Dhofari frankincense, clothing & silverware weaponry to the public.

The exhibits have been provided by participating collections from Oman (Ardh Al-Luban Museum, Bait Al-Zubair Museum, Sultan’s Armed Forces Museum, Sayyid Faisal Bin Ali’s Museum, Bait Al-Barranda Museum, Sayyid Mohammed Bin Ahmed’s Library) and organized by the Ministry Of Tourism, and the Omani Embassy in Amsterdam.

A first of it’s kind, and length, the exhibition is also a sign of further cultural and developmental cooperation between the two countries in support of the long standing economic one.

The event will last until April 18th, 2010. A rich audio descript by Luitgard Mols, the guest curator of the exhibition, can be found on the Radio Netherlands Worldwide website.

Photo Credits : Paddy Maguire – More pictures after the break.

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An Omani team consisting of 3 architecture students from the Sultan Qaboos University have won the Royal Institute of British Architects‘ first competition, and the first of it’s kind in the region.

The competition revolved around designing an insight of what the new definition of the traditional souk may be. It involved choosing an existing location and ‘rejuvinating’ it to incorporate urban design elements and present it to the panel. We know that the team have chosen the Beach Road area, in Shatti Al-Qurum to become the canvas for their project.

The team was told that their entry has been shortlisted some time ago, and were flown to Abu Dhabi to attend RIBA’s Gulf Chapter’s launch event and take part of the awards ceremony where they were announced winners, and received a check for £2500.

Haitham Al-Busafi (@conceptoo), an active member in the Omani online community scene is one out of the three that were part of the team, so congratulations to him & to the rest of them.

The Omani Theater Association has finally launched officially after having been unstable and noncontinuous in the last years. The event, held at the Law School SQU,was under the auspices of HH Sayyid Fatik Bin Fahar Al-Said, general secretariat of the Ministry Of Heritage & Culture, who is also the chairman of the organizing committee of the currently ongoing Omani Film Festival.

A speech was made by Dr. Mohamed Bin Saif Al-Habsi, the chairman of the board of directors , in which he outlined what the association is aims to do and how it hopes to work with directors, writers and actors to vitalize Omani Theater. A small documentary was later played to describe the logo of the association (designed by Taher Al-Harrasi) and another one followed (directed by Dr. Moh’d Al-Habsi / Hilal Al-Hilali) which detailed the history of Omani theater and it’s most important victories in the last few years.

The association will also work with, & on behalf of the theater community to assist them in organizing local events, and participating in international events.

The third (first in 2004, second in 2006) Omani Theater Festival, organized by the Ministry Of Heritage & Culture was opened last night in the Al-Bustan Palace Hotel Hall under the auspices of His Excellency Seikh Mohammed Bin Marhoun Al-Ma’mari, the secretary of state & governor of Dhofar.

The festival will continue till the 26th and will hold a new play daily in the Muscat International School auditorium daily. For play programs, and timings please visit the Events Calendar page or continue after the break.

Update : It seems that the first play, Al-Razha was not played today, due to some technical problems with the lighting setup.

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