Sunday Times: Zuhal Sultan: I forged harmony amid chaos

From The Sunday Times: Gillian Harris February 28, 2010

Zuhal Sultan: I forged harmony amid chaos

The maestro tells how she created Iraq’s new youth orchestra against a backdrop of war and hostility from fundamentalists

!

!

Six months ago Zuhal Sultan stood in the wings of a makeshift concert hall in northern Iraq watching young musicians run through final rehearsals ahead of their first public performance. “I was crying a bit, because it was so emotional.

The progress they had made was unbelievable, after all they had been through. I was so happy,” she says.

Sultan had every reason to be proud. Single-handedly, she had brought together professional musicians from some of the world’s leading cultural institutions and 33 Iraqi youngsters to form the National Youth Orchestra of Iraq (NYOI). The 18-year-old from Baghdad secured funding from organisations including the British Council and persuaded the deputy prime minister of Iraq to make a donation.

Her efforts culminated in an intensive two-week summer camp in the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniya last August, with a concert that allowed the Iraqi teenagers to demonstrate their talents in a war-torn country where classical musicians live in constant fear of reprisals from Islamic fundmentalists.

A few days later, Sultan was on board a flight to Scotland. She now lives in Glasgow, with her brother, his wife and their two children, and is studying for

A-levels in philosophy, critical thinking, mathematics and psychology. Later this year she will apply to study international law at Oxford “because I am interested in the law and musical careers don’t always work out”.

From her laptop computer, Sultan continues to run the NYOI, 3,000 miles from its official base in Baghdad. She is organising more training sessions in Iraq this summer, with the cellist Julian Lloyd Webber already confirmed as a guest soloist, and she hopes to unveil a piece of music by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, the Orkney-based composer, specially commissioned for the orchestra. There is also a campaign to raise money for the Iraqi musicians to tour Britain.

“There are so many exciting things I would like to do with the orchestra,” she says. “These young people who have gone through so much with the war are coming together through music. I want to keep that going.”

Sultan’s achievements are remarkable. Still a teenager, she has created a flourishing orchestra in a politically unstable country devastated by war. Along the way, she garnered support from musicians at the Juilliard School in New York, the Royal College of Music and the London Symphony Orchestra, giving Iraqi youngsters a unique opportunity to learn from professionals. How did she tackle such a project?

“I don’t really know,” she laughs. “When I had the idea, I realised there were three main ingredients I needed to make it work. A conductor, musicians and funding. I wrote a press release saying, ‘Iraqi teenager seeks musicians’ and put it online.”

Paul MacAlindin, the Aberdeen-born conductor, was sipping coffee in an Edinburgh café when he read Sultan’s message. “I thought it sounded interesting,” he says, from his home in Cologne. “I made contact with Zuhal by email. What really grabbed me about her was her purity of intent. She was very clear about what she wanted to happen. I was impressed by her vision.”

Sultan was equally impressed by MacAlindin and appointed him NYOI’s musical director. “The idea of the orchestra excited him and he was so energised about it. He had a few ideas for it, too, so I felt very strongly he should get the job.”

The next challenge was to find musicians, aged between 14 and 24, to make up the orchestra. In Iraq, where carrying a musical instrument in the street can lead to trouble with hardliners, there was no obvious pool of talent.

Again, Sultan turned to the internet. She posted a message in English, Arabic and Kurdish and received 53 applications. After whittling the number down to 33, she arranged for the youngsters to receive online tuition from music teachers in the UK and America.

“When the war broke out, most of the music teachers in Iraq disappeared.

They either left the country or stopped teaching. Many young musicians in Iraq are self-taught. It is the only way,” she says.

Finally, she sought funding for her venture. “I was staying up late at night sending 40 emails a day to anyone I could think of,” she says. “One day I found that the deputy prime minister [of Iraq] was on Twitter, so I sent him a message, with an article about me and the orchestra, and asked him if he would be interested in supporting us. Two days later I met him and he gave me $50,000. It was the quickest $50,000 I ever got,” she says. “After that, I was ecstatic because I just knew it was going to work out.”

Members of the orchestra and the musicians from abroad met for the first time last August. “The Iraqi musicians were from all over the country and spoke different languages. At first they stayed in different groups, with people from their area. But as soon as they sat down to play music, they all came together.

“It wasn’t perfect from the start. The first rehearsal was a disaster. The instruments were of poor quality and with so many people being self-taught, there were problems. But they worked so hard. They rehearsed from 9am to 7pm and late at night I would hear them practising til the early hours of the morning. One day during rehearsals the electricity shut off and all the lights went out, but the musicians just kept going.”

Among those who travelled to Iraq to help train the youngsters were Scots Michael O’Donnell and his brother, Lawrence, who play with the London Symphony Orchestra. They enjoyed the visit so much they are to return this summer.

The final concert, which included a mix of music by Iraqi composers, Beethoven and Haydn, was performed in front of an audience of almost 1,000.

“It was amazing,” says Sultan.

For her, as well as for the musicians, the experience was entirely new. “In Iraq every single aspect of culture is frowned upon by some people,” she says.

“Musicians carrying their instruments would disguise them in shopping bags to avoid trouble. There are very few public concerts.”

It wasn’t just culturally that Sultan’s life changed after the American-led coalition forces invaded Iraq in 2003. “Things started to really deteriorate about the end of 2004. Suddenly, it was dangerous to go out. My social life disappeared. My days consisted of getting into the car to go to school and coming home again. Most people of my age were in the same position. I depended on the internet for a social life. Facebook became my second home and I used Yahoo messaging. But even the internet was unreliable and only worked when we had electricity, which wasn’t all the time.

“I was stuck at home when it was 50C outside and we had no air-conditioning because the power had gone out again.”

She was in her early teens when first her father and then her mother died. She remained in the family home with her elder brother to finish her studies at Baghdad’s prestigious Music and Ballet School.

“I lived in a very scientific family,” she says. “My father was a pathologist, my mother a virologist who set up Iraq’s first influenza lab. Both my brothers are doctors and my sister did a degree in women’s studies. But I liked to listen to music. I would listen to pieces and then pick out the exact tune on my toy piano. My mother thought I might be talented and signed me up for a tutor.

Then I went to the Music and Ballet School for regular lessons.”

The outbreak of war put an end to Sultan’s piano lessons. She continued to practise at home and received online coaching via a webcam. In 2005, Sultan was invited to join Iraq’s National Symphony Orchestra, which continued to play throughout the war. “The orchestra was an inspiration to me,” she says.

“They kept going through the most difficult times. They were united in their passion for music and courageous, too, because by playing they put their lives at risk.”

Her work with the orchestra led to an invitation to join Musicians for Harmony, an American organisation that promotes peace through music. “I felt very lucky and I wished that other young people in Iraq could have the same experience, and that is really where the idea for a youth orchestra came from.”

Once the ingredients for the youth orchestra came together, Sultan decided to hold the inaugural gathering outside Baghdad for safety reasons. “I still have family in Baghdad and I worry about them every day,” she says. “Sometimes I find it difficult to watch the news, because when things are bad I know I cannot do anything about it.”

For the foreseeable future, Sultan will be in Scotland. Her brother became her guardian after her parents died and he is studying at Glasgow University. She says she likes living in the city. “In Iraq you only get about four days of winter and it can get so hot, so I haven’t got tired of the rain yet,” she says.

Sultan practises the piano at the Mitchell Library, walking to the city centre from her home in Parkhead. “I walk everywhere, at least two hours every day,” she says. “Walking in the street is a luxury because I couldn’t do it in Baghdad.

And shopping. I’ve done lots of shopping since I came here. I like doing things that people here take for granted.”

Much of her time is taken up with planning the next gathering of the NYOI in July. She is looking forward to going back to Iraq, which she says will always

be her home. Her ambition is to one day be the first Iraqi female conductor of a leading orchestra. “There hasn’t been one before,” she says. “I care passionately about the orchestra and what I am doing.”

What would her parents think about what she has achieved?

“I think they would be happy. I hope so.”

Robert Gallo wrote: As a conductor of an youth orchestra myself I know what it feels like working with the young, inexperienced but very passionate musicians. What I do not know, is this stupendous effort of will to overcome her difficulties and help others to do the same throughout music. You are a very important person, Zuhal. Remarkable!

John Birkett wrote: What a wonderful woman and an inspiring story, a welcome change from the usual reports from Iraq. Thank you, Zuhal, for helping to restore one's faith in humanity, and all power to your elbow, personally and professionally!

March 5, 2010 4:20 PM GMT

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/scotland/article7043809.ece !