Discord and harmony: how a youth orchestra flourished in iraq against all the odds | the national by National Youth Orchestra of Iraq PRESS

Discord and harmony: how a youth orchestra flourished in Iraq against all the odds | The National

26/02/2017, 18*54

Members Tuqa Alwaeli and Sabat Hameed with the Tannenbusch School Orchestra, Bonn, in 2011.

Discord and harmony: how a youth orchestra flourished in Iraq against all the odds James McNair

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July 28, 2016 Updated: August 10, 2016 08:56 PM Related

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Like many great stories, Paul MacAlindin’s account of how he came to assemble and conduct the National Youth Orchestra of Iraq (NYOI) begins in the most quotidian of settings. It was in October 2008, while eating fish and chips in an Edinburgh pub, that the author spied a Glasgow Herald article that would transform his life and that of countless others. The piece concerned Zuhal Sultan, a go-getting 17year-old pianist in Baghdad who sought what the Herald called a "UK Maestro" to help her found a national youth orchestra in war-torn Iraq. "Thank goodness for ‘Maestro’!" jokes MacAlindin in Upbeat: The Story of the National Youth Orchestra of Iraq. "Had it just said ‘conductor’ I’d probably have turned the page." Listen: Crossroads podcast: An Iraqi classical soundtrack- Ep 14 MacAlindin, an Aberdeen-born Scot who was previously a conductor/guest conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic and Royal Philharmonic among others, recounts how he knew instinctively that he was the man for the job. But he was also acutely aware of the magnitude and

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Discord and harmony: how a youth orchestra flourished in Iraq against all the odds | The National

26/02/2017, 18*54

sensitivity of the task in hand. Topics: Iraq, The Review Three pieces from the orchestra’s repertoire Symphony No 99 Joseph Haydn The Austrian composer’s 1793 masterpiece proved invaluable to Paul MacAlindin in conducting the National Youth Orchestra of Iraq. “[Playing it] the musicians couldn’t help but learn about their various roles,” he said. Desert Camel

After the UK’s 2003 invasion of Iraq as part of a United States-led coalition, how might his involvement in such a project be perceived at home and abroad? How could Sultan’s somewhat quixotic-looking vision be realised? How could it be funded? How could they find the young Kurd, Sunni and Shia musicians needed to give such an orchestra the vital, multi-ethnic fabric that would make it a non-partisan representation of Iraq? Even more daunting, once organised, was the prospect of day-to-day life for MacAlindin and his stalwart team while teaching the inaugural National Youth Orchestra Of Iraq in Sulaymaniyah, Iraqi Kurdistan, in August 2009 (the players, all aged between 14 and 29 and sourced from all over Iraq, had been auditioned and chosen via Skype and video-uploads to YouTube). The author describes touching-down in the Iraqi Kurdistan capital, Erbil, and encountering the hot, desert wind. MacAlindin knows there will be culture shock and security issues to contend with – but what of entering into a delicate pact of trust with musicians whose childhoods have been stolen from them?

Mohammed Ezzat Ezzat, conductor of the Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra, composed this tune for the youth orchestra. Bedouin flavours and snakecharming melodies figure; MacAlindin calls it “a romper stomper Arab fantasy.” Maple Leaf Rag

For the players of the NYOI, the author explains, music serves as a "forcefield against reality"; a treasured escape from the horrors of gas attacks, invasion, tribal tensions and all-out war. But there is much work to be done if MacAlindin and his fellow tutors are to make a proper youth orchestra of these youngsters, and they must tread carefully, lest they tread on their students’ dreams. Upbeat is an eloquently-written, moving and sometimes funny book. Its title, taken from the gesture that conductors make to indicate the beat that leads into a new bar of music, is symbolic of change and progress. It also describes the mindset that was often required of MacAlindin and his team in testing circumstances.

Scott Joplin Who could resist ragtime music’s most influential hit, as written by Joplin in 1899? Not the National Youth Orchestra of Iraq, whose members would sometimes split up into smaller groups to play it as a piece of chamber music.

It’s in Iraq, of course, that the author begins to process the many and varied challenges his young musicians face. In a country overrun with cheap Chinese instruments baking in a dry, corrosive heat, the sorry state of 21year-old Murad’s bassoon – "it sounded like an elephant in pain" – proves fairly typical.

EP 10: Inside the Emirati sha'bi house TheNationalUAE

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Discord and harmony: how a youth orchestra flourished in Iraq against all the odds | The National

26/02/2017, 18*54

share to Facebook EP 10: Inside the Emirati sha'bi share to Twitter share to Google Plus house More testing, though, MacAlindin learns, is the kind of religious and/or political conservatism which, in some communities, outlaws playing an instrument at all. Horn player Ali, who is used to practising under a towel to deaden the sound, is one of many in the orchestra who have learned to play music covertly and quietly. Transportation of instruments in plastic carrier bags – not conspicuous instrument cases – is also the norm due to a fear of attack or condemnation.

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