Biologist Tahani Abdul Wahid smiles as she settles into a worn green chair and waits for the Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra to take to the stage.
The audience erupts in applause when the conductor arrives and quickly falls silent as the first notes are struck at the Saturday concert in Baghdad’s green zone — an area fortified by concrete walls against suicide bombers and rocket attacks.
Some had not heard live classical music in years.
“This is the first time I have attended a concert since 2003,” 44-year-old Wahid said. “I used to go to a lot of them before 2003. It feels like I have entered a different atmosphere and a different world.”
Overall violence has dropped in Iraq in the past years, allowing the war-torn country — once regarded as the cultural gem of the Middle East — to witness a slow revival of its arts scene.
Yet, bombings and killings remain a daily occurrence. An election in March, which produced no outright winner, has raised fears of a renewal in fighting.
The Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra (INSO), established in 1948, came close to collapse after the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, but it survived.
The number of musicians employed by the orchestra has now grown to 90 from 52 in 2005, including the first US female violinist to be part of it on a full-time basis. It hopes to add more as exiled musicians return to Iraq after decades of war.
Accompanied by 13-year-old US guest pianist and composer Llewellyn Kingman Sanchez Werner, the orchestra hopes to embark on a national tour this year — and visit Europe and the US next year.
On Saturday, its performance at the Rasheed Hotel was met with a standing ovation by an audience of about 250 people.
Sixteen-year-old student Tuqa Sa’ad, who plays the cello for the orchestra, is ecstatic at the changes that have taken place since she joined the orchestra in 2006.
“I started playing for the INSO when I was very young. It was very difficult then to the extent that I could not take my musical instrument from the rehearsal venue to my home and vice versa due to bad security,” she said.
“Now things are so normal, I can take my instrument anywhere I want,” she said, while proudly patting her cello.
“I believe I can achieve something and help my country develop, and also support other girls and be an icon for them,” she said.
POLITICAL PATRIARCHS: Recent clashes between Thailand and Cambodia are driven by an escalating feud between rival political families, analysts say The dispute over Thailand and Cambodia’s contested border, which dates back more than a century to disagreements over colonial-era maps, has broken into conflict before. However, the most recent clashes, which erupted on Thursday, have been fueled by another factor: a bitter feud between two powerful political patriarchs. Cambodian Senate President and former prime minister Hun Sen, 72, and former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, 76, were once such close friends that they reportedly called one another brothers. Hun Sen has, over the years, supported Thaksin’s family during their long-running power struggle with Thailand’s military. Thaksin and his sister Yingluck stayed
Kemal Ozdemir looked up at the bare peaks of Mount Cilo in Turkey’s Kurdish majority southeast. “There were glaciers 10 years ago,” he recalled under a cloudless sky. A mountain guide for 15 years, Ozdemir then turned toward the torrent carrying dozens of blocks of ice below a slope covered with grass and rocks — a sign of glacier loss being exacerbated by global warming. “You can see that there are quite a few pieces of glacier in the water right now ... the reason why the waterfalls flow lushly actually shows us how fast the ice is melting,” he said.
In the sweltering streets of Jakarta, buskers carry towering, hollow puppets and pass around a bucket for donations. Now, they fear becoming outlaws. City authorities said they would crack down on use of the sacred ondel-ondel puppets, which can stand as tall as a truck, and they are drafting legislation to remove what they view as a street nuisance. Performances featuring the puppets — originally used by Jakarta’s Betawi people to ward off evil spirits — would be allowed only at set events. The ban could leave many ondel-ondel buskers in Jakarta jobless. “I am confused and anxious. I fear getting raided or even
‘ARBITRARY’ CASE: Former DR Congo president Joseph Kabila has maintained his innocence and called the country’s courts an instrument of oppression Former Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) president Joseph Kabila went on trial in absentia on Friday on charges including treason over alleged support for Rwanda-backed militants, an AFP reporter at the court said. Kabila, who has lived outside the DR Congo for two years, stands accused at a military court of plotting to overthrow the government of Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi — a charge that could yield a death sentence. He also faces charges including homicide, torture and rape linked to the anti-government force M23, the charge sheet said. Other charges include “taking part in an insurrection movement,” “crime against the
RSS