Performance marks reentry of Iraqi culture onto world stage

By Phillip Kurata
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- Iraq's National Symphony Orchestra performs before President Bush and other dignitaries at the Kennedy Center in Washington December 9 to showcase the benefits of freedom for the Iraqi people since the toppling of Saddam Hussein.

"Together we will celebrate the reentry of Iraqi culture onto the world stage," Secretary of State Colin Powell said at a recent Kennedy Center Honors Dinner.

"The Iraqi National Symphony testifies to the power of the arts, the power of the arts to keep hope alive, even under the cruelest oppressor. The American people can be proud that they will be here and that we are helping the men and women of Iraq realize their long-held dream of freedom," Powell added.

Kennedy Center President Michael Kaiser and Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs Patricia Harrison organized the visit of the Iraqi symphony when they traveled to Iraq September 23-26 to meet with artists, arts leaders and arts organizations and develop strategies to help rebuild Iraq's cultural institutions.

"Educational and cultural exchange programs provide the opportunity for people to effect positive change at every level of society," Harrison said. "In addition to the bricks and mortar of reconstruction of post-Saddam Iraq, we are working to build a partnership with the Iraqi people to restore civil society and hope for the future."

Washington's National Symphony orchestra with featured soloist Yo-Yo Ma will perform alongside the Iraqi symphony. The combined orchestra will be conducted by Leonard Slatkin, the music director of the National Symphony, and Mohammed Amin Ezzat, the Iraqi symphony director and an award-winning composer.

The program will feature works by Ezzat, Kurdish composer Abdullah Jamal Sagirma, as well as by Beethoven and Bizet.

The Iraqi symphony was founded in 1959 with the help of Munther Jamil Hafidh, cellist and director of the Arab League's Arab Academy of Music. The symphony was abolished in 1962 but rehearsed underground until 1970 when it was reestablished.

The Iraq symphony gave a concert in Baghdad in June 2003 that was broadcast on the Iraq Media Network. During the past summer, the Iraq symphony toured northern Iraq to audition and recruit new members.

The 63-member symphony now has Shia, Sunnis, Kurds, Armenians, Assyrian Christians and Turkomens among its musicians, including four women. The symphony also features traditional Arab music instruments, such as the balaban, the daf, the santur, the tar, the oud and the zarib.

Orchestra co-founder Hafidh stressed the importance of presenting Iraqi music to an international audience at the Kennedy Center.

"Our objective is not just to come here and play music, but to play music through our point of view and the way we understand it," Hafidh said through an interpreter. The Iraqi musicians want "to learn about different musicians and different conductors and how they train and how they go about their work," he added.

Flutist Saad Al-Dujaily said, "the importance of our presence here is for the Americans to learn about the capabilities and all the resources that are present in Iraq." The flutist said the Iraqi musicians are eager to show their skills as classical musicians.

Al-Dujaily is also a biologist and had a fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. "The people were very surprised that someone from Iraq was able to play the flute," he said.

There has been strong support for the Iraqi symphony from around the world. The Major Orchestra Librarians' Association has organized a massive donation for the orchestra. The U.S. State Department shipped a large quantity of orchestral music to Baghdad for the orchestra's library in November. Musical instrument makers Steinway and Yamaha have pledged to donate new instruments, some of which will be presented during the Washington visit.

In addition to performing before the president and other dignitaries, the Iraqi symphony will hold an event for school children in Washington, and its staff will take part in seminars on orchestra administration and management facilitated by the Kennedy Center.

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)