Renowned for her contributions to music performance, ethnology, documentation, and rearrangement of almost disappearing music heritage from Egypt and the Arabic speaking region, Donia Massoud is a singer, actress, and music researcher.

Her work has toured extensively in the Arabic Speaking World and Europe for almost two decades, and was presented on reputable world stages including Kammerspiele (Munich), Cairo Opera House (Cairo), Institut du Monde Arabe (Paris), Bastionen (Malmo), Jerash Amphitheater (Jerash), Museo Egizio (Torino), Zanzibar Castle (Zanzibar), among many others.

Between 2000 and 2010, Donia Massoud has travelled to several Arab villages collecting a heritage nearly lost, of sacred and profane songs and music material.

Discovering theatrical and choreographic material related to that music heritage, Donia’s renditions of this canon took a theatre and performance based turn, staging these works into unique works that straddle the format of concert, plays and performance art.

Through her research, and rearrangements, this music heritage was made available to large audiences, and eventually released as the record “Mahtet Masr”.

As an actress, she has worked with pioneering Arab theatre and cinema directors including Hassan Geretly, Lenin Ramly,  Khairy Beshara, Mohammed Khan, and Yousri Nassrallah.

As a musician, she has been presented -among others- by the Festival D’Uzes, Maisaf Festival of Athens, DisORIENTation Festival of Haus Der Kulturen Der Welt, Valetta’s Malta Festival of the Arts, and the Festival Adriatico Mediterraneo.

With a keen interest in collaborative process-oriented projects, Donia collaborated with Theatre Foraat (Sweden) within docu-drama performances dealing with female genital mutilation, Sherif Azma’s experimental video and performance work, and Kazamada’s multi-composer scores and concerts.

Donia Massoud lives and works in Paris, where she is currently working on a lecture-concert performance project that revisits the history of staging traditional music within contemporary stages.