Barenboim Orchestra Spreads 'Message Of Peace' In Berlin

ETVBHARAT

Berlin: More than 25 years since its founding by star conductor Daniel Barenboim, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra's mission to foster dialogue in the Middle East endures -- including among its own members."Our message of peace must be louder than ever," Barenboim, who formed the ensemble alongside US-Palestinian intellectual Edward Said in 1999, told AFP ahead of a week-long festival celebrating the organisation in Berlin.The event aims to share the orchestra's work with an "even larger audience," said the 83-year-old, an Argentine-Israeli citizen who was granted Palestinian nationality in 2008, via email.The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra has long brought together around 100 musicians from Israel, the Palestinian Territories and Arab states, seeking to promote understanding through a shared love of classical music.

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00:00Thank you for listening.

00:40Thank you for listening.

01:00On a collective level as well, we've become, I think I dare to say we understand each

01:05other more.

01:06And for those of us who are in the oppressed level, we are now more capable of expressing

01:13our pain.

01:23Here we discover a different kind of power.

01:25The power of being human, worthy of all your rights, regardless of the political situations

01:31there.

01:32And this is why this is important, because it's kind of like an experiment where everybody

01:38here is given all their rights.

01:40I can exist.

01:41Nobody can stop me at a checkpoint here.

01:43Nobody can tell me go home.

01:45Nobody can shoot at me.

01:46This doesn't happen here.

01:58It was quite heavy conversations in the beginning.

02:01And we try to figure out how we come together and find a mutual way of understanding and

02:07talking to each other and communicating in a safe and not very inflammatory way.

02:17Of course, I cannot say so from the beginning it was not like that.

02:21It was inflammatory.

02:22But with time, spending time together and understanding and trying to listen to each other, we have

02:30come closer.

02:30I already experienced something with someone that maybe I disagree about many things and

02:36we see life differently, but we just play together.

02:39We created something together and it's so precious and we listened so well and we wanted

02:45to really support each other.

02:47So after this kind of feeling of supporting each other, to go to something that is completely

02:51opposite is a bit difficult.

02:53I think that's the power of music.

03:10Many, many schools, you have children who have an Arabic language history or connection

03:17because of their parents or because of them themselves.

03:21And then they become the experts.

03:23So this is just one example.

03:24And then we've had projects where we've invited the kids to hear, to sing with professional

03:29musicians.

03:30And then the kids and the parents hear about this place, find out about it.

03:35And the step to then come is smaller than if they didn't know about it.

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