Oriental Music Ensemble Plays US Tour

Watch and listen to the performance at the Kennedy Center. LISTEN: Suhail Khoury talks about the mission of the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music.

The Oriental Music Ensemble wowed audiences in New York and Washington during their brief US tour. At the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage, it was standing room only. In New York, more than 300 people turned out to hear the Palestinian quartet at Columbia University’s Miller Theater, giving them a standing ovation. 

The performance at the Kennedy Center was part of the month-long Arabesque Festival that highlighted Arab arts and culture. The quartet’s New York concert was organized by ANERA as a fund raising event for the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music’s new Bethlehem branch. For now, classes are held in a small rented apartment. The Embassy of Finland’s Cultural Counselor co-hosted a private benefit concert in Washington a day after the Kennedy Center performance. ANERA has supported the conservatory’s activities for more than a decade.

The money that was raised will also help rebuild the music school in Gaza that was destroyed in the December shelling that hit the Red Cross building where it was housed. The school had only opened six months earlier with 31 children, a project of the Qattan Foundation with assistance from the ESNCM.  The quartet dedicated one of its original arrangements to the children of Gaza.   

The quartet took time from their hectic schedule to perform at two elementary schools in Washington, DC. The children responded joyfully to the distinctive rhythms. A couple of youngsters spontaneously danced in the aisle to the hypnotic beat of Yousef Hbeisch’s small hand-drum, the tablah. They clapped enthusiastically to the lively “Salma”, which Oud player Ahmad al Khatib had written for his three year old daughter.

While visiting a local elementary school, one ensemble member taught students the tableh.

In many ways the quartet’s US tour highlights the challenges they face as Palestinian musicians. Because of their different travel documents and travel restrictions, they only play together outside the Middle East except for occasional concerts in Turkey and Cyprus. 

Ibrahim Attari, who lives in Ramallah and runs the Ramallah branch of the music conservatory, has a Palestinian passport. So, the qanun player cannot go to Jerusalem – only about eight miles away – to rehearse with clarinetist Suhail at the conservatory’s headquarters. Ahmad al Khatib has a Jordanian passport and used to live in Ramallah but was forced to leave after Israel reoccupied the area in 2002. He has been living in Sweden for the past seven years where he teaches Oud. Percussionist Yousef Hbeisch is a Druze from northern Israel. He travels on an Israeli passport, which means most Arab countries and the West Bank are off limits. 

Yousef says most of the time they communicate through the internet, emailing music compositions and arrangements to absorb before they can meet on neutral ground to rehearse and perform together.

Some music students find it just as hard to get to class as they wind their way around or wait in long lines at Israeli checkpoints that dissect the West Bank. Those who can’t get to Jerusalem end up taking their final exams or auditions via video conference and the Internet. 

Passion for music and music education energizes all four musicians. Suhail sees music education as essential to the development of Palestinian identity and pride. He sees a hunger for art and creativity among Palestinian youth.  “It is important to feel special and unique,’ he says, “And, it is wonderful to see our parents’ pride when they hear the youth orchestra or our music ensemble perform.  We are building something for our future.” 

Date modified: November 2009