The concert was introduced by His Excellency Salah bin Ghanem Al Ali, Minister of Culture and Sports, Qatar; His Excellency Sheikh Meshal bin Hamad Al-Thani, Ambassador of the State of Qatar to the United States; and Ambassador Greta C. Holtz, Chargé d’Affaires, United States Embassy in Qatar.
The concert was led by Joo Young Oh, the recently appointed Concertmaster of the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra, who performs internationally as a violin soloist and member of the New York Philharmonic. The programme, which began with the national anthems of both countries, featured acapella performances by Ms. Julie Keough-Mishler and Mr. Soud Jassim, and renditions of classic American and Qatari music compositions, including Rising and Spirit of Thunder (Dana Al Fardan), Take Me Home, Country Road (John Denver), Fanfare for the Common Man (Aaron Copland), My Heart Will Go On from the film Titanic (James Horner), Al – Haneen (Nasser Sahim Nasseb) and more.
