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In Cultural Boycott

Israeli-Palestinian orchestra brings message of peace to divided America

By OLIVIA HAMPTON

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Israeli, Palestinian and other Middle Eastern musicians brought a message of peace this week to an America torn by caustic political discourse.

For nearly 20 years, youths from sworn enemy countries have performed classical music together at the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, the brainchild of conductor Daniel Barenboim and late Palestinian American scholar Edward Said.

“We are looking for something almost impossible, but still we try,” said Kian Soltani, 26, a rising Austrian Iranian cellist who gave a fiery performance Wednesday at Washington’s John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

The orchestra opened its program with Richard Strauss’s symphonic poem “Don Quixote,” inspired by the early 17th century novel about the romantic knight-errant who combats imaginary tyrants.

In many ways, the piece is a metaphor for the orchestra itself.

“If somebody would tell us that peace in the Middle East was impossible, we wouldn’t stop fighting. We would still continue like this because we believe it’s possible,” Soltani, who played the title role, told AFP.

Michael Barenboim (L), the orchestra’s concertmaster, performs during a rehearsal at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC on November 7, 2018. (Olivia Hampton/AFP)

“It’s the same for Don Quixote. He thinks he’s a knight, he thinks his dream is possible. Everyone is telling him it’s not, but he doesn’t care.”

Quixotic as it may be, the project is making its first coast-to-coast American tour just as the United States reels from a series of deadly hate crimes.

Politics and war have thwarted a goal to perform in all the members’ home countries. There was a concert in the West Bank city of Ramallah, in 2005, and none in Israel.

“It’s a pity,” violist Miriam Manasherov, 37, told AFP.

“The day that will come that we can all play in Israel or in the other Arab countries that I can’t go to, that will be a huge success.”

She plays the rotund Sancho Panza, who supports his master gone mad as he pursues his ideals on love, justice and peace in an ugly world.

The pair also performed with their sections for Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony, which evolves from dark to light in four movements linked by a recurring “Fate” theme.

In “Don Quixote,” the hero ultimately gives up on his dream, returns home and dies among his loved ones. The orchestra is hoping to march toward a different future.

Changing attitudes

While he acknowledges that the orchestra — which borrows its name from Goethe’s German lyrical poems inspired by Persian poet Hafez — has not had much impact on the ground in the Middle East, Barenboim says the project has left a “terrific” stamp musically.

Daniel Barenboim (photo credit: CC-BY-Alkan, Wikimedia Commons)

Daniel Barenboim (CC-BY-Alkan, Wikimedia Commons)

“It has changed the attitude of every person who has been through it. That’s about 1,000 people,” said Argentine-born Barenboim, who also claims Israeli, Palestinian and Spanish citizenship.

“Nobody who comes into this with whatever preconceptions he has, goes away thinking the same way.”

The orchestra’s first coast-to-coast US tour is a homecoming of sorts for Barenboim, 75, who stepped down as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s director in 2006 after more than four decades that also saw him serve as conductor and pianist there.

The Midwestern city was the tour’s first stop, on Monday, ahead of performances in Washington, New York’s Carnegie Hall, Berkeley, California and Los Angeles.

During their last US visit, in 2013, the orchestra performed the Beethoven symphony cycle at Carnegie Hall, as well as in Boston and Providence, Rhode Island.

“It is a conflict between two people who are deeply convinced they have a right to the same little piece of land, preferably without the other,” Barenboim said about the intractable Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra performs during a rehearsal at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC on November 7, 2018. (Olivia Hampton/AFP)

“You cannot solve this militarily, unless you kill everybody, and you cannot solve it politically.

“You can only solve it by coming to the point where both sides understand that their destinies are inextricably linked and therefore accept the existence of the other.”

Deceptively simple as it may seem, that is the thrust behind the orchestra and the Barenboim-Said Akademie in Berlin, which trains gifted musicians mainly from the Middle East and North Africa for a professional career.

To drive the point home, the concert’s closing encore was the overture of Richard Wagner’s “The Mastersingers of Nuremberg,” a work widely used in Nazi propaganda and subverted once more by the orchestra’s unique make-up, to raucous applause and a standing ovation.

Original Article

CCFPeace
In Press Release

PRESS RELEASE: CELEBRITIES AND ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY LEADERS SPEAK OUT IN FAVOR OF EUROVISION AND AGAINST CULTURAL BOYCOTT

CELEBRITIES AND ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY LEADERS SPEAK OUT AGAINST ISRAEL EUROVISION BOYCOTT

With the much anticipated Eurovision Song Contest just around the corner, more than 100 artists and leading names in the entertainment industry unite in the spirit of peace and togetherness to show their support for the show in Israel.

London, UK (30, 2019) – The entertainment industry non-profit organisation, Creative Community For Peace (CCFP), has released a statement in support of the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest, which is being held in Tel Aviv, Israel this May.

With over 100 signatories, the statement includes stars such as Sharon Osbourne, Rachel Riley, and Stephen Fry, as well as Gene Simmons and Tracy Ann Oberman, amongst the biggest names across the global entertainment and music industry.

The full statement and list of signatories can be found below. Additionally, over 15,000 people from around the world have signed a similar statement on Change.org, asserting that a cultural boycott of Eurovision does not work to advance peace between Israelis and Palestinians. [LINK]

This news comes as the BBC recently released its own statement in support of the Eurovision Song Contest in Israel this year, noting that the international song contest, as always, embodies the “values of friendship, inclusion, tolerance, and diversity.”

Ari Ingel, Director of CCFP, said: “This year, approximately 200 million people will watch, visit and take part in the Eurovision song contest, celebrating music and the diversity of our different cultures. The members of the entertainment industry who have signed this statement, along with the thousands of individuals who have endorsed its message, all believe in building bridges through music and the arts as a means to achieving greater understanding and peace in the region.”

STATEMENT

We, the undersigned, believe that music is our shared language, one that transcends boundaries and brings people together under a common bond.

We believe that unifying events, such as singing competitions, are crucial to help bridge our cultural divides and bring people of all backgrounds together through their shared love of music.

The annual Eurovision Song Contest embodies this unifying power. Every year, millions of people across Europe, and around the world, join together in a massive display of cultural exchange and celebration of music.

Unfortunately, this year, the spirit of togetherness is under attack by those calling to boycott Eurovision 2019 because it is being held in Israel, subverting the spirit of the contest and turning it from a tool of unity into a weapon of division.

We believe the cultural boycott movement is an affront to both Palestinians and Israelis who are working to advance peace through compromise, exchange, and mutual recognition.

While we all may have differing opinions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the best path to peace, we all agree that a cultural boycott is not the answer.

We call on all our friends and colleagues around the world to express their support for an exciting and successful Eurovision 2019 in Tel Aviv.

SIGNATORIES

Marina Abramović: Performance Artist

Orly Adelson: President ,Orly Adelson Productions

Jason Adelman: Vice President, Strategy & Brand Development at Brand Innovators

Marty Adelstein: CEO, Tomorrow Studios

Michael Adler: Partner, Lichter, Grossman, Nichols, Adler & Feldman

Alberto (Miss Caffeina): Artist

Mitch Allen: Music Producer

Keren Ann – Artist

Alfredo Arense:  Journalist, Radio 3

Baccara (Cristina y María): Artist

Gary Barber: Former chairman and CEO of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) and co-founder of Spyglass Entertainment

Craig Balsam: Co-founder, Razor & Tie Entertainment

Richard Baskind: Partner & Head of  Music Simons, Muirhead & Burton

Carlos Baute: Artist

Aton Ben-Horin: Global VP, A&R at Warner Music Group

Daniel Benmayor: Filmmaker

Steven Bensusan: President ,Blue Note Entertainment Group

Maya Binkin: The Art Pilgrim

Neil Blair: The Blair Partnership

Evan Bogart: Hit Songwriter, President Boardwalk Ent.

Joshua P. Binder: Partner, Rotherberg, Mohr, and Binder LLP.

Harvey Brown: Professor

Scooter Braun: Founder, SB Projects

David Byrnes: Partner, Ziffren Brittenham ,LLP

Simon Callow: Actor

Ellie Cannon: Doctor and Media Personality

Caroline Civia: President of Clic Entertainment

Isabel Coixet: Filmmaker

Conchita (María Concepción Mendívil): Artist

Deborah Conway: Artist

Jim Cooperman: Senior VP Legal & Business Affairs, The Madison Square Garden Company

Rob Cowan: Point Blank

Rory Cowan: Actor

Josh Deutsch: Chairman/CEO ,Downtown Records

David Draiman: Musician and front man of Disturbed

Craig Emanuel: Partner, Entertainment & Media, Paul Hastings

Ron Fair: Record  Producer & CEO, Faircraft Inc.

Erica Forster: VP of Music Partnerships, DanceOn

Gary Foster: Principal, Krasnoff Foster Productions

Daryl Friedman: Chief Advocacy & Industry Relations Officer, The

Recording Academy/ GRAMMYs

Stephen Fry: Actor, Comedian

Saul Galpern: President, Nude Music Group

Andrew Genger: Red Light Management

Gary Gersh: President, Global Talent, A.E.G. Presents

Gary Ginsberg: Senior VP, Softbank

Daniel Glass: President & Founder, Glassnote Entertainment Group

David Glick: Founder & CEO, Edge Group

Andrew Gould: President of A&R, Downtown Music Publishing

Trudy Green: Trudy Green Management/HK Management

Matt Greenberg: Ritholz Levy Fields LLP

Steve Greenberg: President, S-Curve Records

Sarah Halioua, Producer, Visionnaire Films

Ronnie Harris: Harris & Trotter LLP

Scott Hoffman: Artist (Scissor Sisters), Songwriter and Producer

Neil Jacobson: President, Geffen Records

Zach Katz: Former President of A&R BMG, CEO Raised In Space

Larry Katz: Esq., Lawrence H. Katz, P.C

Allison Kaye: President of SB Projects

Adam Kenwright: Executive Vice President at Ambassador Theatre Group

Ilan Kidron: Artist (Potbelleez)

Amanda Kogan: William Morris Endeavor Entertainment (WME)

Rick Krim: Former Co-President, Sony/ATV Music Publishing

Rosa Lagarrigue: CEO, RLM

Mollie Lehman: A&R at Atlantic Records

Colin Lester: CEO, JEM Artists

David Levy: Partner & Co-Head, William Morris Endeavor Entertainment

Lior: Artist

David Lonner: CEO, Oasis Media Group

Javier López: Artist

Iona de Macedo: Entertainment industry

Ben Maddahi: President of Unrestricted

Imran Majid: EVP/Co-Head of A&R, Columbia Records

Orly Marley

David Mazouz: Actor

Betty Missiego: Artist

Al Murray: Comedian

Mónica Naranjo, Artist

Caroline Norbury: CEO – Creative England

Tracy Ann Oberman: Actress

Antonio Martos Ortiz: Artist

Sharon Osbourne: Manager, Businesswoman, Television Star

Scott Packman, Former Senior EVP & General Counsel; Managing Member of SSP Partners

Jose Ramón Pardo: Journalist, RNE

Donald S. Passman: Partner, Gang, Tyre, Ramer, & Brown, Inc.

Lucía Pérez: Producer, Maestranza Films

Antonio Pérez: Maestranza Films

Dean Raise: C3 Presents

David Renzer: Former Chairman/CEO, Universal Music Publishing Group

Rachel Riley: Actress, TV Presenter

Lindy Robbins: Multi-platinum Songwriter

Jaimison M. Roberts: Attorney at Law

Dan Rosen: CEO, Australian Recording Industry Association

Hanna Rochelle: Founder & President, Lyric Culture

Rick Rosen: Co-Founder & Head of Television, William Morris Endeavor Entertainment

Haim Saban: Businessman, Philanthropist and Producer

Marta Sánchez: Artist

Rafa Sánchez: Artist

Paul Schindler: Senior Chair of the New York Entertainment & Media Practice, Greenberg Traurig LLC

Steve Schnur: Worldwide Executive & Music President, Electronic Arts

Sam Schwartz: Partner, Gorfaine/Schwartz Agency

Jonathan Shalit OBE: Chairman – InterTalent Rights Group

Ben Silverman: Chairman & Co-CEO, Propagate Content

Gene Simmons: Band member of KISS

Ralph Simon: Chairman & CEO, Mobilium Global Limited

David Simone: President – DSW Entertainment

Soraya: Artist

Jeff Sosnow: SVP of A&R at Warner Music Group

Jose Ortega Soto (Manzanita): Artist

Gary Stiffelman: Shareholder, Greenberg Traurig LLP

Aaron Symonds: Film Composer

Traci Szymanski: President of Co-Star Entertainment/Israelife Media Group

Sharon Tal Yguado: Head of Event Series at Amazon

Adam Taylor: President, APM Music

Joyce Trabulus: Manager

Mario Vaquerizo: Artist and TV & Radio Collaborator

José Sainz de Vicuña: President, Impala films

Peter Wade: Producer and President of WonderSound

** Note – The signers of this statement do so as individuals on their own behalf and not on behalf of their companies or organizations. All organizations and companies listed are for affiliation purposes only.

Notes to editors:

Creative Community for Peace (CCFP) is a non-profit organization comprised of prominent members of the entertainment industry who have come together to promote the arts as a means to peace, support artistic freedom, and counter the cultural boycott of Israel. CCFP is apolitical, and does not stand for any government official or party, and does not receive funding or support from any government, or government related entity.  Instead, CCFP believes in artists and their ability to affect lives and effect change. Furthermore, CCFP’s advisory board is made up entirely of independent entertainment industry professionals and it is these entertainment industry professionals and staff that direct its day-to-day operations.  More than 35,000 people have signed CCFP’s general anti-boycott petition [LINK].

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