The idea of music playing an invaluable and incontrovertible role as the quintessentially “universal language” is still alive and kicking. It is encouraging to learn that, notwithstanding the ongoing violence in these parts and the constant stream of grief and horrific news reports, there is a group of youngsters who meet up to do what comes naturally to them – playing music together.
We are not talking about any old cross-section of teenagers here. These are Jewish and Arab youth who, despite the pain and the societal fissures, convene on a regular basis to get down and dirty with scores written by some of the greatest creators in the history of Western civilization.
That sense of mutual acceptance and empathy lies at the core of the Next Generation concert scheduled at the Jerusalem International YMCA on December 21 (12:30 p.m.) as part of this year’s Liturgical Festival, the sixth to date. It is the first to be held away from Nazareth, which is home to the Polyphony organization founded by locally born, then Berlin-resident violinist Nabeel Abboud-Ashkar in 2006, and underpins the festival credo.
Polyphony started out as a Western classical music conservatory with 25 students and four teachers. It grew incrementally until, in 2011, Abboud-Ashkar joined forces with Jewish American social entrepreneur couple Craig and Deborah Cogut to launch the Polyphony Foundation. The new venture’s stated expanded intent was “to support efforts to bring together Arab and Jewish children in Israel by offering them equal opportunities in music.”
That initial worthy purview has evolved over time and has been forced to extend its socio-political reach to cater for sadly continuing negative developments in the region.
The barbaric attack of Oct. 7, and the ensuing military mayhem, have of course impacted the Polyphony folk and their young members. But, at least in this case, when the going gets tough, the tough get together and close ranks in an effort to maintain at least some semblance of normality and wholesome endeavor.
That, says Abboud-Ashkar, is part and parcel of the organizational ethos as the young folk, and their older professional colleagues, gear up for the YMCA event, which will take place at the venerable and aesthetically evocative Jerusalem institution on December 20-21 and 24.
This will be complemented by some Christian seasonal good cheer, which includes a traditional Christmas market with body- and soul-comforting warm wine on offer as the bells in the YMCA tower waft their ding-dong knell from on high.
“Polyphony has always been, and will remain, a beacon of light in dark and difficult times,” declares Abboud-Ashkar, who also serves as the festival’s music director. “At the heart of its mission is the unwavering belief that the destinies of Arab and Jewish communities in Israel are inextricably connected; that together we can succeed in building a vibrant shared society based on mutual respect, equality, and partnership. The alternative is not an option.”
Bold and heartwarming words, indeed.
Holding the Liturgical Festival in 2024
“The Liturgical Festival, our annual flagship event, will be held this year in a reduced format,” he continues. “Unfortunately, the security situation does not allow us to host the musicians who were supposed to come from around the world. However, we are proud to present an alternative program featuring excellent Jewish and Arab musicians, for three days of fine concerts.”
Thankfully, at least for now, things have calmed somewhat in the North, and the festival program now includes a slot at its perennial base of Nazareth.
The Next Generation date is built around the 22 members of the Music and Society Seminar Orchestra, significantly beefed up by the young Polyphony Quartet – fresh from a tour of the US – and a chamber music ensemble, with Yanal Khoury on the conductor’s dais.
RAWAN BISHARAT, director of the seminar, which entails an immersive two-year program for talented Arab and Jewish musicians aged 15 to 18, sheds some light on the wider remedial picture. “I am not a musician, and I don’t come from the world of music,” she clarifies.
She has, however, accumulated a wealth of experience and sober insight into coexistence-oriented projects and offers some learned perspectives on the domain as a whole. “I look at this from a different angle. There is the common denominator of the music. They all play Western classical music on a very high level.”
That, Bisharat believes, provides artistic and personal interfaces, which, nonetheless, feed in from outside the youngsters’ natural stomping ground. “What they share does not necessarily pertain to their cultural world – not for the Jews born in Israel, nor for the Arabs from Nazareth.”
That may be the case, but it generates something of a comfort zone in which the young artists can examine the challenging issues from a safe and inclusive place. “We can start to talk about other things from there, which may be controversial,” Bisharat posits. “That is a powerful basis. That’s what I feel.”
Surprisingly, the seminar head does not blindly follow the unison-at-all-costs trope. “We don’t necessarily have to always look for the common denominator between us. The reality outside is reality of disagreement. The outside reality is also present inside.”
That also references the fundaments of basic communication. “The Arab musicians don’t speak Hebrew well, and the Jewish musicians don’t speak good Arabic. Hebrew is the prevailing language, so you have gaps inside that you have outside, too.”
The linguistic barriers did not, it seems, cool the youngsters’ determination to keep the togetherness ball rolling. “Last year, we should have started the program in October, but that didn’t happen because of the war. But, also due to the great cooperation we have had with the Israel Conservatory of Music in Tel Aviv over the years, straight after that, in November, everything carried on as usual.
“That didn’t happen with other programs. Many groups said, ‘We don’t believe in this [coexistence] anymore,’ on both sides. They said there was no point.”
The seminar folk kept the faith. “The reality outside didn’t get in the way,” Bisharat says. “It was very impressive because of the good relations among the participants also because they are familiar with the program.”
It was a matter of getting on with the musical job at hand, regardless.
“I didn’t think it was the right time to talk about the mourning and pain. It was a time to be with that, but not to discuss it. There would be time for that later. That wouldn’t lead anywhere good. The families [of the students] met, they hosted each other in Tel Aviv and Nazareth at a later stage, and that went well.”
THE CORE of the whole exercise is the sonorous collective output the youngsters produce on their instruments. On December 21, that takes in works by Schubert, Mozart, Bartok, and Franck. “Music touches the heart,” Bisharat declares. “You see the young students playing, and you feel how that connects them.”
In Bisharat’s book, that does not mean homing in on the harmonic – safer – side of the social intercourse tracks. “The things we disagree about are also interfaces for us. They [politicians] are constantly trying to divide us. The media only talks about one side or the other, and their pain and suffering.
“What I try to do is to say there is room for both of us. We haven’t been shown how to accept the other, and to listen to the more challenging things from the other side.”
Bisharat has her fingers in all sorts of relevant pies. “I teach a course on inter-identity dialogue to social psychology students. I asked the Jewish students if they had met Arabs before, and I asked the Arabs if they had met Jews. Both sides said no. We have to meet and listen to each other out of a sense of mutual respect.”
That is also integral to music making in group formats. It also spills out into street-level life, outside the cloistered confines of the music auditoria and practice rooms. “There are great gaps in our knowledge. We often think we know it all. This is an opportunity to become more familiar with each other. It is important to listen.” Presumably, Messrs. Beethoven, Stravinsky, Debussy, et al. would have gone along with that, even if the former’s ears had died on him in his later years.
THERE ARE musical riches to be found right across the festival lineup, with the full complement of the Galilee Chamber Orchestra – all 43 players – in the mix performing Mendelssohn’s Reformation Symphony, conducted by Abboud-Ashkar.
The orchestra also features in the YMCA’s traditional Christmas concert, with internationally acclaimed pianist and conductor Nizar Elkhater and soprano Nour Darwish starring in a program that includes works by Vivaldi, Schubert, Rossini, Borodin, and Bach.
And there is some slightly off-piste fare in the schedule, courtesy of cellist-singer Maya Belsitzman and percussionist Matan Ephrat, who join the Polyphony Quartet, cellist Michal Beck, and alto vocalist Doreen Sassine in renditions of piyutim (Hebrew liturgical songs), as well as special arrangements of popular Israeli songs.
As Abboud-Ashkar put it, here’s “Hoping for peaceful days, full of good music.” Amen to that.
For tickets and more information: liturgicalnazareth.co.il.
