On Sunday, a quartet of Palestinian musicians will come together for a rehearsal a long way from home. The four are traveling to Turkey, since they are unable to meet in the Palestinian territories: each, while originally Palestinian, holds a different passport.
Ahmad Al Khatib, who plays the ud, or Eastern lute, currently lives and studies in Sweden, and has a Jordanian passport, having grown up in a Jordanian refugee camp. Suhail Khoury, general director of the Edward Said Conservatory for Music in East Jerusalem, plays clarinet and the nay, or flute, and holds an East Jerusalem ID card that prevents him from traveling to Jordan.
Percussionist Youssef Hbeish lives in Israel, and is thus unable to travel into Palestinian territory, while the fourth member, Ibrahim Attari, qanoun (zither) player, lives in the Palestinian West Bank, which prevents him from traveling to Israel.
But despite their difficulties in establishing a rehearsal date, the four men form the Oriental Music Ensemble, bringing together traditional Palestinian folk music with a combination of Lebanese, Turkish, Iraqi, Kurdish, Tunisian and Egyptian melodies.
They have held several previous concerts in Belgium, Sweden, the UAE and Switzerland, and their rehearsal, on this occasion, precedes an event that the musicians keenly await: their first-ever tour to the United States.
The musicians, whose tour is organized by the American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA) charity, will be performing their rich blend of classical, modern and improvised music at locations including the Smithsonian in Washington DC, and the City University of New York.
With the tour, they hope to further "place Palestine in the world arena of music". Certainly, the haunting strains of the Oriental Music Ensemble's first album, "Im el Khilkhal", samples of which can be heard on the Edward Said Conservatory Website, illustrate the need for a broader distribution of Palestinian musicians and their work.
"The purpose of the tour, for me," says Khatib, "is that it's important and exciting to promote Arab music in the West, to demonstrate the cultural side of perceiving and performing Arab music, which many have never before encountered".
"We're also," he continues, "trying to create awareness on the situation of Palestinian music in the region, to gain support for teaching Palestinian children music. This is really necessary in a place where there's not much opportunity to provide a musical education to the main body of Palestinian kids."
"And, third," he adds, "it's an important cultural interaction. Unfortunately, what you see on the news about the Arab world, and Palestinians in particular, is usually unpleasant. It's good to balance this with a lighter image: to show the world that there's more to the region than the terrible pictures shown on the news."
Khatib, a musician since his childhood in Jordan, first traveled to his homeland in 1998, where he worked for the Edward Said Conservatory until 2002, when what he describes as "Israeli obstacles" prevented him from renewing his residence permit and he was forced to leave. Since then, he has continued to work with the Conservatory from a distance, writing Arabic music books and transcriptions, and touring with the ensemble whenever possible.
"It's sad," he says, "that it's not easier for us to meet. We talk about the music over the phone, and we chose Turkey because it's an easier location for all of us to reach than trying to meet in Palestine or other parts of the Middle East. Three or four days before a concert, we manage to meet to rehearse - which isn't so bad, as we already know the repertoire - but still it's not easy. There are always difficulties, and we're forced to compromise, though we never allow this to be at the cost of the music itself."
Even now, just days before their scheduled departure to the USA, the sense of unease that always accompanies travel for these Palestinian musicians remains.
"We still don't even know if we're going," says Khatib. "Everything is arranged, but Suhail and I don't have visas yet, so we're not sure if it will work out. We never know until the last moment about restrictions on our travel, whether we'll get permits and be allowed to go. To be honest, you get used to this kind of thing: you train yourself to know that nothing is ever for sure, because this is life, not just for us but for all Palestinians."
The upcoming US tour, as well as promoting the ensemble itself, involves a series of benefit events, the proceeds of which will support the Palestine Youth Orchestra Project.
Launched by the Edward Said Conservatory in 2003, it is the only professional Palestinian orchestra to play Western musical instruments. With its inaugural concert in Jerusalem scheduled for 2008, intense training is currently underway for the 100 young Palestinian musicians, all aged between 14 and 24.
Each year, a two-week summer training camp is held, which, in 2004, triumphantly ended with a performance in Amman, Jordan, at which the 600-strong audience gave a standing ovation. The orchestra, and the Edward Said Conservatory itself, which teaches Arab and Western music to 550 Palestinian children each year, illustrates both the need for increased music teaching in the region and the popularity among the local population.
The current ministry of education curriculum covers only what it deems the essentials: science, technology, math, Arabic, English, religious studies, social studies, physical education, home economics, and art. Generally, the only musical education that most schoolchildren are exposed to is, at best, a school choir.
But staff at the Conservatory firmly believe that directing children's energy toward music is a good way to counteract the oppressive world of the "occupation".
"Those kids can come here," says Dalia Habash, the school's administrative director, "and channel all their aggression and violence into their music".
As the ensemble prepares for its tour, the musicians are anxious that it will go ahead as planned. Staff at ANERA, the nonprofit, non-sectarian organization that is also one of the key supporters of the Conservatory, are working hard to ensure that the group's first US concert, on February 14, will be a success.
But Khatib knows, from experience, that nothing is certain.
"We've had to call off concerts at short notice because of not being permitted to travel before," he says ruefully. "It will be a real pity if we don't make it, because these tours build strong future relationships, but it happens. We live moment by moment; it's a very fragile life and it can break very easily. It's not comfortable," he adds with a sigh, "but that's life for everyone from this part of the Middle East".
Palestinian musicians prepare for first US tour
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