The Road To Ramallah
The second concert of the day…
....was to take place at the Palestinian National Theatre in East Jerusalem. The Youth orchestra had given of their best at the Damascus Gate, now the Ramallah Orchestra was to perform Beethoven’s Violin Concerto (Simon Hewitt-Jones as soloist), Beethoven’s Second...
Damascus Gate
This gate - which also goes by the Hebrew names of the Shechem or Nablus Gate, or the Arabic, Bab-al-Amud (meaning Gate of the Column) was, at the time of the Crusades, the most northern gate of the now ‘Old City’ of Jerusalem. After we let the musical notes fly free...
A very hot burst of Mozart…
The sun was beating down on Mozart’s Symphony No 6 in F Major, and our three pieces by Bizet: Danse Boheme and Habanera from the Carmen Suite, and our pièce de résistance, Farandole from L’Arlesienne…
Nearing Jerusalem
Back in the bus, Sandy Tolan was asking some of the children how it made them feel - going through this rather surrealistic 1984 process, but we were soon unpacking the instruments from the bowels of said bus, and music was at the forefront of all our minds as we...
The Day of Three Concerts
I realize it is a while since I ve written. But I made a unilateral decision. Some days it took me up to 3 hours to just post one photo - dodgy wireless - and me technologically challenged - I was getting frustrated. I came all this way to be with the children - they...
The Ramallah Orchestra rehearsing with Diego Masson
The view from the rehearsal space – very near the school
A few scenes from the main street in Ramallah
World Refugee Day
Monday 20 June: al Kamandjati and UNRWA (UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East) presented the premiere of “My World”, the winners of the annual short films competition, made by young refugees. It was stated that Palestinians make up the...