RIYADH — May 2012 will be celebrated as Europe Month in Saudi Arabia. The European Union (EU) embassies in Riyadh and the EU delegation together with the Saudi Ministry of Culture and Information will present a broad cultural program complete with exhibitions, concerts and a film festival.

As its contribution to the program, the German Embassy will hold a concert at the King Fahd Cultural Center on May 20 at 8:30 P.M. The concert will feature a performance by the Kreusch brothers and other local Saudi musicians. Johannes Tonio Kreusch is one of Germany’s best known classical guitarists. His brother Cornelius Claudio Kreusch belongs to the country’s leading jazz pianists. They will perform together with Bandar Khaled Al-Shareef, Mohammed Ali Mohammed Musa and Mohammed Banna from Jeddah who will play classical Arabian instruments like qanun, oud and tabla.

German Ambassador Dieter W. Haller said five musicians had performed together at his residency last year with great success and he was excited a larger audience would take part this year.

“I am very happy that their fruitful cooperation will now be accessible to a much larger audience. It was very impressive how well they interacted even on their very first meeting despite their diverging musical backgrounds. This musical experiment nicely shows what can be achieved if we approach each other’s culture with due respect and interest. I, therefore, invite all of our friends, partners and all those interested in this promising ‘Saudi-German musical dialogue’ to join  us at King Fahd Cultural Center for this extraordinary experience,” said Haller. — SG