Press Release

Edward Said National Conservatory of Music to hold a concert for
The Palestine Youth Orchestra alongside Bonn University orchestra in Berlin mid-August

Ramallah- The Palestine Youth Orchestra (PYO) - one of the most important projects at The Edward Said National Conservatory of Music (ESNCM) - will shortly start intensive rehearsals with members of the orchestra of the University of Bonn. The rehearsals will take place at Weikersheim city near Frankfurt in Germany from 19th – 24th August.

These rehearsals are in preparation to hold three concerts there, between 24th and 28th of August. This year is special for many reasons; one of them is that the orchestra has previously met annually in Jordan; this is the first time the PYO meets in a western country and holds joint concerts with another youth orchestra.

The second reason is that the orchestras will play under the German conductor Walter Mik. Mik (born 1951) is responsible for University of Bonn Symphony Orchestra since 1990 which consists of 100 musicians; He is also the Academic Director of Music at Bonn University. He has, during 15 years with this and other orchestras, held many concerts in more than twenty-five countries around the world including Egypt, South Africa, USA, Poland and Bulgaria.

The third reason is that the concerts will be held in presence of musician and ESNCM general director Mr. Suhail Khoury, who will hear the orchestra live for the first time, as he was unable to enter Jordan in previous years.

Finally, the orchestra will play for the first time, Oriental symphonic works by the late Palestinian composer Salvador Arnita, and two other pieces called "Manfa" and "Longa to Marcel" by contemporary Palestinian composer Issa Boulos who is living in USA. They will play also the fifth symphony by Dvořak.

The PYO project is generously supported this year by the orchestra of Bonn University, Goethe Institute, A.M. Qattan Foundation, ANERA, Heinrich Böll and the German Representative Office in Ramallah.

The first concert will be in Weikersheim, 8:00 p.m. on Friday, 24th of August. The second concert is the main formal event. It will be held in the Berlin Broadcasting hall, 6:00 p.m on Sunday 26th August under the auspices of the Palestinian Embassy in Germany and the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with support from the Arab Ambassadors Council, Kultur Radio, and Media Agents. There will be a final smaller event at which members of the PYO will present a program of Oriental music, including solos and ensemble pieces. This event will take place in the city of Gütersloh on Tuesday, August 28, and it will be under the auspices of the Palestinian-German Association for Youth Cooperation.

The Palestine Youth Orchestra was founded in 2004, with the vision of bringing together Palestinians not only from the occupied Palestinian territories, but also from historic Palestine and from all over the Diaspora, to create a high quality national youth orchestra on a par with those worldwide. 

For the last three consecutive years, the ESNCM team has organized a summer residential course for the orchestra in the mountains of Jordan, culminating in a concert after a fortnight of intensive rehearsals.  The PYO consists of talented musicians mostly aged between 14 and 26.  They are largely Palestinians resident in Jordan, Syria and Palestine, but several have also come from Europe and elsewhere.  The Palestinian Diaspora in Latin America has still been largely untapped, but the ESNCM is actively seeking new members worldwide in the hope of expanding the PYO to the size of a full symphony orchestra.  In addition, every year a number of guest musicians are invited from around the world.  In every concert a concerto or solo accompanied by the orchestra is performed, and the soloists have included the prominent Palestinian musicians Salim Abboud Ashkar (piano), 'cellist Alexander Suleiman, pianist Karim Said, and the rising star soprano Dima Bawab, as well as the German violinist Peter Clemente. 

The PYO programs come from the core of the symphonic repertoire, and have included Brahms' 1st Symphony , Beethoven's triple concerto and Kodaly's Dances of Galanta.  The members have been honored to be led by two prodigious conductors, Anna-Sophie Bruening, and the award-winning British conductor, Sian Edwards.