(by Rodolfo Calò) (ANSAmed) - CAIRO, FEBRUARY 26 - For the first time ever, a female Italian orchestra conductor has performed on stage in Cairo.
    Isabella Ambrosini was conducting the Cairo Symphony Orchestra. She is also the only female conductor to have performed in the Montecitorio hall since 2012. The concert was held on Saturday at the Cairo Opera House and was the first that Ambrosini conducted in a Muslim country, she told ANSAmed. ''Music is not something from the West or East, the North or South. Music is everyone's. It is pure and living thought, when it is great music, and as such is world heritage,'' the orchestra conductor said.
    She conducted several times in the presence of Pope John Paul II. Artistic and musical director - as well as founder - of the Rome Symphony Orchestra and Coro Roma Tre, Ambrosini chose a program with music by Beethoven (Seventh Symphony), Ravel (the Tzigane-Concert Rhapsody), Saint-Sans (l'Havanaise) and 17th-18th century Danzi.
    ''I found an orchestra with elements from around the world and many youths very attentive to my way of interpreting music,'' Ambrosini said in response to a question on the Western repertoire of a country that is 90% Muslim like Egypt and in a city like Cairo, which has the headquarters of Al-Azhar, the highest institution of Sunni Islam. To a question on the difficulty for a woman to make a name for herself in a sector that is still male-dominated, like that of orchestra conductors, Ambrosini said that ''there is too much attention on this issue. We can do our job only after lengthy, difficult study. A very long apprenticeship and a great deal of experience are needed.'' To the question of to what extent her physical appearance had contributed to her success, the blond orchestra conductor said that she did not think that ''a serious Opera House can risk choosing a conductor because they are good-looking and not because they are good at what they do. We have had many conductors who were also good-looking men but no one ever considered giving them work simply because they were good-looking,'' she said, citing as examples Von Karajan, Muti, Pretre and Bernstein. (ANSAmed).