When writing about the story of the Syrian refugees getting together to form a fullblown symphony orchestra in Germany last week, I cameaccross another uplifiting piece of news regarding music made under difficult circumstances.
In 2008, 17-year-old pianist Zuhal Sultan briefly made news headlines when looking for something one might not usually expect a 17 year old girl to look for, let alone one that was raised in Iraq amidst a war. She was on a quest to a youth orchestra in Baghdad wanted and needed a conductor. The British council put her in touch with a British reality show and they in term sponsored a press release titled "Iraqi Teen seeks Maestro for Youth Orchestra."
Scottish Conductor Paul MacAlindin read about this request and rose to the challenge, and that challenge was huge. While auditioning potential members over the internet, the connections were often so bad that uploads of a single video could take days and more if power outages brought a reset to the process. The instruments available were outright terrible, and there were large problems with the quality of the playing. At the heart was what MacAlindin describes as “joyless, as if their instruments were disconnected from their souls”. Despite these challenges, 33 of the best players from 14 to 29 years old from both Bagdad and the Kurdish region of Erbil.
The problem of the dismal instruments was solved through Twitter. Zuhal estimated that she needed 50,000 dollars and after the London Times ran the story, Zuhal used the social media website to twitter a link to the article to the Iraqi deputy prime minister and days later she was in his offices and got her money.
One major challenge during the Iraq war was the security issues related to travelling throughout the country, and with that the young musicians were forced to practice alone or in smaller groups.
The first summer course was organized in 2009 in the Erbil Kurdish region of Iraq and the orchestra now meets once a year in a two-week summer course These courses include intensive training by European and American professional musicians, providing an opportunity for the talented musicians to receive group lessons as well as one-on- one as most of the members have had little tuition or have been self-taught. The course includes ice-breaking and bonding sessions between members and tutors.
And what is the outcome of all this? How much can an orchestra really advance in only three weeks of playing together each year, as Conductor MacAlindin put it:
''These young players are insanely motivated in a way that we in the west do not understand.'' Bass Tutor Dobbs Hartesthorne put this way: I used to think that good music was about good schools and weekly lessons. I now know its about highly motivated students. The following video gives an overview of the work done with Hartesthorne in the second session in 2010:
The challenges of bringing classical music to a war region were complex, as MacAlindin explains:
''If you are going through hell, how can you make beautiful music? One of the dreadful effects of war is that it conditions you to be afraid, to be in survival mode, long after it's over, and the ongoing terrorist attacks ensure that Iraqis stay in this state of posttraumatic stress. And for young musicians… stepping over dead bodies to get to school or disguising their musical instrument case for fear of it being confused for a bomb...was their childhood reality.''
So according to MacAlindin, this really was also an attempt to give back these young people a part of normality and childhood they had been deprived of by the war.
The orchestra seems to have taken a particular liking to the symphonies of Ludwig van Beethoven, who himself new a thing or two about the triumph over adversity.
The following video shows the National Youth Orchestra of Iraq under MacAlindin joined by solo violinst Arabella Steinbacher to play at the Beethoven Fest.
Soundcloud has a collection of their truly astonishing recordings made from 2011 to 2013 and the long way they have come from being a 17-year-old pianist's dream.
The National Youth Orchestra of Iraq is a living example of peace and reconciliation by Iraqis, for Iraq and for the world. This year, the orchestra arrived in the French town of Aix-en-Provence, to work alongside the National Youth Orchestra of France for three weeks and perform in Grand Theatre de Provence. NYOI’s diversity brings together young Arabs and Kurds, among others from across Iraq, to create real harmony together. We were founded by a brave 17-year-old Iraqi, Zuhal Sultan, just four years ago. Since then, the orchestra has developed with the tireless energy of Musical Director Paul MacAlindin. Though many musicians fled the country during the war, we have been determined to create a national youth orchestra for Iraq and the world by collaborating with The British Council and German Friends of NYOI. We audition each year on YouTube and many of us receive our only tuition at the annual summer school.
Arved Deecke is founder of the Danish / Mexican Loudspeaker company KVART & BØLGE that makes audiophile quarter wave loudspeakers and sound systems at a price anyone can afford. In his free time he blogs about all things related to sound, music and audio.
