A German orchestra performs music with Jordanian students and young Syrian refugees

German Orchestra Performs with Refugees
An orchestra performs music with Jordanian students and young Syrian refugees — and it's pretty adorable.
Posted by AJ+ on Wednesday, 30 March 2016

Art as Resistance in War

Jafar Meray wants images to bring hope (Homs, Syria - 2016)

Artist wants images to bring healing and hope to #Syria.

Posted by CCTV on Sunday, 13 March 2016

Syrian photographer Jafar Meray captured the photos “to show that life is stronger than death”, that 'Love is stronger than war'. Moving pictures show Syrian bride marrying soldier posing in the ravaged city of Homs - as Russia reveals it has hit at least 400 targets in the country in just two days... 

Drone footage over Homs
After years of war, parts of Homs, Syria, are crumbling and deserted. New drone footage shows the extent of the devastation.
Posted by Channel 4 News on Tuesday, 2 February 2016

Pianist plays John Lennon's Imagine outside Bataclan concert hall after Terror attacks (Paris, France - 2015)

Pianist plays John Lennon's Imagine outside Bataclan concert hall, the day after more than 127 people were slaughtered during the Paris terror attacks. An unnamed man plays John Lennon's Imagine on a grand piano outside the Bataclan in tribute to the victims of the Paris attacks.
Posted by The Guardian on Saturday, 14 November 2015. The pianist attracted huge media attention as he performed a jazzy version of the late Beatle's classic ballad.

Ayham al-Ahmad, the pianist of Yarmouk (Damascus, Syria - 2015)

Amid the ruins of the destroyed Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp on the outskirts of Damascus, pianist Ayham al-Ahmad provided a rare glimmer of hope amid the devastation. Videos of him defiantly playing piano in the ruined streets of Yarmouk, accompanied by children and other residents of the camp, were widely shared online as a symbol of the camp's spirit of resistance. More HERE.

Karim Wasfi, the cellist of Baghdad (Iraq - 2015)

Karim Wasfi, conductor of the Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra, had decided to play amid the wreckage to drive home a message.

Iraqis needed to experience beauty, not just endure one bomb after another.

“It’s about reaching out to people exactly where someone had experienced something so grotesque and ugly earlier,” Wasfi said in an interview. “The spot where people lost their lives, the spot where people were still trying to stay alive, trying to function.” More HERE.

 

Vedran Smailovic, the cellist of Sarajevo (w. Joan Baez, 1992) 

On May 27, 1992 news spread throughout central Sarajevo that a bakery had received a shipment of flour. Hundreds of people assembled in the market square waiting hours in line for bread.
Suddenly, shells lobbed from surrounding hills struck the square, leaving a large crater. Among the ruble were 22 dead men, women and children and more than 100 wounded.
Nearby, a man named Vedran Smailovic saw the destruction and ran to the square to help his fallen neighbors. Later he returned home.
Unable to sleep, Vedran struggled with the senseless massacre of so many innocent people. He knew he had to do something, but what?
Dressed in a formal evening jacket, Vedran returned to the square the next day and set a simple chair among the rubble. Although many people had returned to the square to wait in line for bread among the rubble of the previous days massacre, a quiet fell as Vedran played Adagio in G minor, a song known as a musical cry for peace. More HERE.

Pink Floyd and Middle East conflict: Wish you were here... or Another brick in the wall....

Jewish men singing Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd (COVER)
Posted by I Love Rock and Metal on Wednesday, 24 February 2016

Knowledge is the Beginning

"The Ramallah Concert - Knowledge is the Beginning" is the story of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, where young Arabs and Jews perform and live side by side. It is a film about what music can do; the way it can transcend cultural barriers, bring people together, defeat prejudice and overcome religious and political differences. It also demonstrates the problems that crop up occasionally and how music can help people from different points of view find common ground. For Daniel Barenboim, founder of the ensemble, the orchestra is a symbol for what could be achieved in the Middle East.