West-Eastern Divan Orchestra - The Jewish Theatre

2008

West-Eastern
Divan
Orchestra

About the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra

The Baltic Sea Festival Inaugural Concert that was broadcasted live on a giant flat screen outside the Jewish Theatre, was very well recieved.

Behind the scene of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra

Photography Siri Isgren

Gränslöst vackert

By Daniel Barenboim Svenska Dagbladet August 23, 2008

Kan musiken hjälpa freden i mellanöstern?

By Michael Winiarski Dagens Nyheter May 8, 2008

About West-eastern divan orchestra

Daniel Barenboim and The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra on the lawn outside of The Jewish Theatre August 21, 2008.

The Baltic Sea Festival Inaugural Concert that was broadcasted live on a giant flat screen outside the Jewish Theatre, was very well recieved. Earlier in the day the rain was pouring down but as soon as the presenter Kristofer Lundström entered the stage the sky cleared.

Wrapped in soft, green and white blankets the audience enjoyed Haydn, Schoenberg and Brahms performed by The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra and their maestro Daniel Barenboim.

Download the program (pdf, 2,44 MB)

”A message of humanity”

Photography Barenbom-said.com

Transcript of Daniel Barenboim’s speech during Ramallah concert with The orchestra.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I think that what I have to say to you, I have already said it in the music. Nevertheless, if you will bear with me for just a few seconds, let me tell you that this is an orchestra of wonderful intelligent and courageous people from Palestine, from Israel, from Lebanon, from Syria, from Jordan, from Egypt and from Spain, all of them very courageous people. To you, of all audiences in the world, I don’t have to explain how much courage it takes from each and every one of them to come and play with the other.

This project that Edward Said and I founded in 1999 has been sometimes described in a very flattering way for us as an orchestra for peace, an orchestra that will bring this and that feeling… Ladies and Gentlemen, let me tell you something, this is no going to bring peace, you all know that. The fact that these wonderful people play together here will not bring peace. What it can bring is the understanding, the patience, the courage, and the curiosity to listen to the narrative of the other. This is what this is all about.

In this context, everybody has been able to express himself freely and, perhaps just as importantly, to hear the version of the other. This is why we come to you here today with a message of humanity not with a political message, a message of humanity a message of solidarity for the freedom that Palestine needs and for the freedom that the whole region needs.

It is our belief that there is no military solution to this conflict. It is our belief that the destinies of these two People, of the Palestinian people and the Israeli people, are inexorably linked and the welfare, sense of justice of one will inevitably be that of the other and this is what we aim for. We aim for the change of the thinking of many people in this area to really begin to think that we have here two People who have very strong philosophical, psychological, and historical link to this geographical part of the world and it is the duty of all of us to find a way to live together. Because we either all kill each other, or we learn to share what there is to share.