Israeli’s concert honours Palestinian
Argentinian-born Israeli pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim has given a “concert for peace” in honour of the late Palestinian author and intellectual Edward Said in the northern Spanish city of Oviedo.
Barenboim chose Oviedo as the venue on Sunday to showcase his West-Eastern-Divan orchestra of Arab and Israeli musicians as it was where he and Said were awarded the Prince of Asturias Award for Concord in 2002.
The Prince of Asturias charitable foundation is currently organising a series of events to celebrate its 25th year.
Barenboim and Said jointly founded the orchestra comprising about 100 young musicians – 38 of them from Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt as well as 37 Israelis – as a means of fostering friendship between Palestinians and Israelis.
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Said’s widow Mariam was in the audience, which gave the programme including works by Mozart and Mahler as well as Carl Maria von Weber’s Abu Hassan comic opera a standing ovation.
The orchestra is currently on a tour which will take it to cities including Buenos Aires and London before winding up in Ram Allah in the West Bank.
Among the numerous charities that he has been raising money for, some of this year’s concert revenues will go towards helping the victims of the devastating Asian tsunami which killed about 250,000 people and affected millions of other last December.