Janet Hassouneh

Founder - Executive Director

Janet Hassouneh is an entrepreneur and former opera singer who founded NSO in 2011 after moving to Abu Dhabi, to meet the region's cultural aspirations. She holds both a Bachelor's and Master of Music degree in Vocal Performance from the United States where she received many prestigious awards and scholarships for her singing, in both Washington and New York. She has performed in major performing arts centres and concert halls throughout the United States, Europe and the Middle East in opera, oratorio, recitals and musical theatre.

Janet has been working in the music business in the UAE for the past 30 years, performing and organising opera and music theatre concerts featuring international guest artists from New York and London. Her own singing performances include being featured soloist with the European Community Chamber Orchestra and the New York-based Ambassadors of Opera and Concert Worldwide Ltd, which included artists from New York's Metropolitan Opera. She has brought many internationally recognised vocal and instrumental artists and groups to the Gulf and Middle East and was Founder and Director of Bravo! Productions while living in Dubai.

Janet is a highly respected music educator and is a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (USA). On receiving her MMus, she worked as Teaching Assistant to the renowned American Vocal Instructor Adele Addison at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. After moving to Dubai, she became Head of Music at the Latifa school for Girls and, during her 12 years there, she also produced and directed many fully staged musical productions in both English and Arabic (Petra, Sahinom, The Wizard of Oz, The Snow Queen, etc).

Her "Working with Children for Children" community performing arts productions (Hansel and Gretel, Cosi Fan Tutte, Amahl & the Night Visitors), as well musical theatre productions (Cinderella, Oklahoma!) have been very successful and raised funds for a number of Dubai charities. The productions starred international singers in the leading roles who worked alongside Dubai's young, talented performers in the chorus, ballet, orchestra and stage management, offering them invaluable experience in musical theatre performances and production.

Janet is noted for her work within the community for charitable causes, under the auspices of the UAE authorities. NSO UAE was formed to reciprocate the government's hospitality.