'There were many great performers': Egypt's Mustafa Said on winning inaugural Aga Khan Music Awards

"The Aga Khan Music Award in Performance is presented to Mustafa Said," said David Harrington, one of the AKMA jury members, shortly after all the finalists took the stage to perform the best of their repertoire at the Calouste Gulbenkian Centre in Lisbon, Portugal. "We were all very inspired by all the performances. We feel that we have learnt new things about life through music and those beautiful performances," Harrington said. He added that the choice of Said was for "exceptional artistic achievement that embodies music's traditional role as a source of spiritual enlightenment, moral inspiration and social cohesion." During his performance in Lisbon, Said presented his own compositions, taking the audience into the vast territories of music experience and truthful personal journeys.