Mr. El-Saedi began private music studies in 1963 and later studied philosophy at Alexandria University from 1966-68. He studied music theory with Awatif Abdel-Karim and Gamal Abdel-Rahim and piano with Vsevolod Demidov and Libuce Krepilova at the Conservatory of Music in Cairo from 1968-71 and there earned a BMus with excellence. He also studied composition with Sergey Balasanyan at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow in 1973-74. He studied composition with Friedrich Cerha, conducting with Othmar Suitner and Schenkerian theory with Franz Eibner at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna from 1976-84, where he earned degrees in conducting in 1982 and composition in 1984, as well as the Magister Artium in 1985. He also attended conducting and musical phenomenology seminars with Sergiu Celibidache at the Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz from 1978-80.

Among his honors are the Medalha Século Villa-Lobos from the government of Brazil (1988), the State Prize for Composition (1995) and the State Prize for Outstanding Achievement in the Arts (2000).

Mr. El-Saedi is also active in other positions. He founded the International Workshop for Orchestral Conducting in Cairo in 2001 and the Arabic Perspectives Festival in 2002.

As a conductor, he served as guest conductor of the Cairo Symphony Orchestra from 1981-88, principal conductor of the Wiener Virtuosen Kammerorchester from 1986-88, conductor of the orchestra of the Conservatory of Music in Cairo from 1987-89, and music director of the Egyptian Chamber Orchestra from 1989-95. He served as assistant conductor of the Cairo Symphony Orchestra from 1991-93 and as its resident conductor from 1993-96 and has served as its music director and principal conductor since 1996. In addition, he has served as artistic director of the A Cappella Choir in Cairo since 2001. He has guest-conducted orchestras in Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Lebanon, Lithuania, Mexico, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, South Korea, Syria, Turkey, the UK, and the USA.

He taught as an associate professor at the Conservatory of Music in Cairo from 1988-92 and in 1996-97 and has taught as Professor of Orchestration, Schenkerian Theory, Score Reading, and Tonal Harmony and chair of the department of composition and conducting there since 1997.

A resident of both Austria and Egypt, he became an Austrian citizen in 1985.

In addition to the works listed below, Mr. El-Saedi has composed much didactic, film and popular music, as well as incidental music for stage and TV productions.

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