Fête de la Musique! Click on the poster to see the full programme
Revelation
One particular revelation was mint lemonade - my life now exists in terms of pre-ML and post -ML. Mint is a wonderfully recurring theme to life in this part of the world - food tastes different - certainly from the US - it tastes real and immediate and somehow seems to fill more of the senses than merely taste.
The other road to Jerusalem
Of course to get to Jerusalem, we had to find the ‘open sesame’ to get through the 25 ft wall, that winds like a deep scar on the sun-burnt landscape.
The road to Jerusalem
The walk through Jerusalem was of course, redolent of antiquity. The surprise for me was seeing cars hurtling down the narrow cobbled streets, ‘time’ now apparently traveling as fast here as anywhere else in the world, as people jostled with provisions, tourists idled by, and with the occasional Israeli military presence at the street corners.
First Concert
The first week of the Music Festival consists of a sprinkling of ‘faculty’ concerts with regular appearances by the school’s Ramallah and Jenin Oriental Ensembles, the Al Kamandjati Choir, the percussion band, and the jazz band - at a whole host of local venues. A few of us arrived on the Sunday - all from various parts of the globe, we rehearsed that night, and gave our first concert in the Centre for Jerusalem Studies in the old Quarter of Jerusalem, on the Monday evening. We played outside in a small ancient courtyard, a huge basket of apricots welcomed the throng that came to see us, along with the small intense coffee portions and the traditional mint tea.
The open door of Al Kamandjati…
I have arrived in the land of milk and honey…
The city of Ramallah - the ‘height of God’ - sits amongst the parched hill-tops of the West Bank in Palestine. This fabled and most ancient of lands curiously already feels like home - the people are so welcoming, and despite obvious paucity, I have never seen broader smiles, or such direct looks, and a quality of ‘alive-ness’ behind the eyes.
At Al Kamandjati, the music school where I am based for the next ten days, the delicate strains of oud, mix with jazz organ and the Beethoven violin concerto. There is a music festival in progress - and the air is buzzing both with musical electricity and a tangible sense of community, uniting to foster this incredible process.
This is the crucible of the alchemical transformation that is at work here, under the inspiration and guiding vision of Ramzi Aburedwan.
