delivery Mizra and concert Nazareth

You can find a documentary in pictures of 6th January 2007 on this webpage (click here). We are at the end of a mission of two weeks and can now finally call it accomplished. All 311 instruments of Music Fund have been succesfully delivered to the different partners who are beneficiary of the donations, and the music workshops of the musicians of Ictus have also been very interesting and succesful in Tel Aviv, Nazareth and Nablus. Another job well done and over with. We are this weekend leaving the region, ready to come back in only a few months with musicians from Belgium (from Ictus and other ensembles) and with instrument experts of Music Fund to teach in Tel Aviv, Nazareth, Nablus or Ramallah. The project which started in 2002 with the first music workhops by soloists from the ensemble Ictus will next time already know its 15th edition, and for Music Fund it will be our 2nd instrument repair workshop in the region. Today I attended the general rehearsal for the concerts at the end of the music workshop which the Barenboim-Said Foundation organised in Nazareth together with Orpheus (Nazareth) and with the help of some musicians of Ictus (Brussels). The results were really astonishing, as compared to what I heard only a week ago. I imagine that participating in this music workshop must be an unforgettable experience for all these kids and adolescents from the Westbank and Israel, because it allowed to taste from what it can be to one day become a professional musician. With Pol and Lisa, we also went to the kibboutz of Mizra near Nazareth, where we donated some instruments to the music centre Emek Israel, the very last ones to be delivered. We met with Uri Ben –David who is leading the music centre in Mizra, and who has been one of my first contacts in the region since I came the first time in July 2002. The music centre of Mizra also received some music instruments. Bringing them to Mizra, allowed me to talk with Uri about his relationship with Orpheus in Nazareth and the other projects which are being developed in the field of music in this area. Collaboration between the different organisations is not going smoothly for the moment, but hopefully this is just a temporary situation. The fact that Orpheus has thanks to the support of the Barenboim-Said Foundation been able to start an independent music conservatory will surely be an important factor for the development of music education in the Arab community here. In a few years from now, the situation will look very different and new forms of collaboration will come out of this.