Paul MacAlindin: What I learned from the National Youth Orchestra of Iraq | Big Issue
04/10/16 00:09
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Big Issue sellers are working, not begging, so if you pay for a magazine please take one HOME » FEATURES » BOOKS » PAUL MACALINDIN: WHAT I LEARNED FROM THE NATIONAL YOUTH ORCHESTRA OF IRAQ
PAUL MACALINDIN: WHAT I LEARNED FROM THE NATIONAL YOUTH ORCHESTRA OF IRAQ BOOKS
SEP 5, 2016
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The National Youth Orchestra of Iraq has created hope in a war-torn country, as conductor Paul MacAlindin demonstrates Between 2009 and 2014 I was the conductor and artistic director of the National Youth Orchestra of Iraq, after responding to an intriguing newspaper ad. Despite the overwhelming logistical and financial challenges in a difficult, dangerous time, this group of young musicians came to produce fine music, not only in Iraq but also Britain, Germany and France.
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The National Youth Orchestra of Iraq is no more, thanks to Isil, but our story is out there in my book, Upbeat: The Story of the National Youth Orchestra of Iraq. When we started I knew little of Iraq or of the Iraqis. But I learned a few things: 1. Grit: My young musicians in Iraq are the toughest you’ll ever meet. They have what it takes: passion, willingness to learn and determination. I’m talking about people who, growing up in a Middle Eastern war, stepped over dead bodies to get to school, lost friends and relatives and still learnt to play Bach by mimicking YouTube or downloaded instrument fingering from the internet. 2. Each member has a story compelling enough to make a Hollywood film: There’s Waleed from Kirkuk, who gave up a football career to take up flute after falling in love with it on TV. He scraped together enough cash to buy a Chinese import and practised for hours on end every day to pass our auditions. A born leader, he founded the Baba Goorgoor Chamber Orchestra and is now studying music at university in Kurdistan. The irrepressible Waleed couldn’t stop himself from rejoicing in his love for music. Then there’s Boran, a brilliant young pianist whose 18th birthday we celebrated on our first summer course in 2009. Fluent in English, Kurdish and Arabic, she was already hosting her own classical music radio programme in Kurdistan and teaching herself piano when we met. That birthday party in the restaurant garden broke the ice for us, just as the adventure of bringing Iraq’s diverse young musicians together was taking
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Paul MacAlindin: What I learned from the National Youth Orchestra of Iraq | Big Issue
04/10/16 00:09
dispel some common myths about The Big Issue its toll. Mariwan, our first clarinet, struck up Happy Birthday as our lead cellist, Tuq’a, came out with a glittering birthday cake – and Sherwan leapt up with the tremulous daf, a Sufi drum, that launched us all into an John Lydon rages at Great British evening of revelry and circle dancing. Bake Off move to Channel 4
And, of course, there’s the orchestra’s founder, Zuhal. In 2008, the 17year-old daughter of two Iraqi doctors had the brainwave to form a National Youth Orchestra for Iraq’s strained young musicians, many of whom came from less privileged backgrounds. A singularly brilliant act of unity in a country fractured by war, her innovation in the first year, including a tweet that brought the course $50,000, helped us launch ourselves for the next five years.
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3. Music unites: In Iraq, our musicians came Our musicians came together together from all from all backgrounds – backgrounds –ethnic, ethnic, religious, male, religious, male, female – for something incredible; female – for something we created unity and incredible communication where there was none anywhere else in Iraq. Sure, we exper-ienced some tensions in the first couple of years but eventually everyone realised our only goal was to unite and make music. Every year showed enormous growth, performing to critical acclaim in Iraq, Germany, France and the UK. Wherever we went, the public met us with love whilst the Iraqi government showed us only resistance. We faced a daily battle to stay alive and reach out to international audiences with our message of peace and reconciliation. Thanks to the courage and vision of our long-term supporter, the British Council, we united each year from 2009 to 2013, a cracked window of opportunity between the end of the Iraq War and the invasion of Isil.
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World's Bravest Orchestra
LATEST FEATURES The rise and fall and rise of 4. Compassion is key: Every year, I brought the best, toughest young music tutors I could source from podcasts America, Britain and Germany to our orchestral boot camps. Music education in Iraq barely existed. Eamonn Forde Students had to cope with poor training, envious older players and religious contempt for music. So, I More than four million people listen to determined to find tutors with the right mix of compassion and patience. Talent alone wouldn’t work; our podcasts in the UK. We speaks to the stars behind the worn-down young players needed so much more. Together we represented what young Iraqis could pod phenomenon... achieve for themselves, if only Iraq gave them a chance. Of course, we were a revelation, helping Features everyone leave the politics and bloodshed behind for two or three precious weeks a year to work like demons towards our performances. 5. We can all be so much more than we believe we are: With just a small chance to grow in peace and fairness, we showed these kids could soar like gods on stage. Iraq was once amongst the most educated countries of the Middle East. Now, the National Youth Orchestra of Iraq is in mothballs, waiting for the nation of Iraq to decide what it actually is. Our near-impossible concerts, the applause, cheering and standing ovations,
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With just a small chance to grow in peace and fairness, we showed these kids could soar like gods on stage
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Paul MacAlindin: What I learned from the National Youth Orchestra of Iraq | Big Issue
04/10/16 00:09
does
are still burnt into our players’ souls. They are the flames that will generate new creative heat for the next chapter of Iraq’s story.
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Paul MacAlindin’s book Upbeat: The Story of the National Youth Orchestra of Iraq is out now (Sandstone Press Ltd, £19.99)
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