The Ramallah Experience

MUSIC EDUCATION IN PALESTINE

The Barenboim-Said Foundation is currently developing various music education projects in the Palestinian Territories. These projects contribute to educate and promote tolerance and peaceful coexistence.

Since 2004, the Barenboim-Said Foundation, in collaboration with Palestinian Medical Relief Society, manages the Edward Said Musical Kindergarten, which hosts children between 3 and 5 years of age from the city of Ramallah and from the refugee camps of Al Amari, Kaddura and Jalazoun. Likewise, since 2005, the Foundation collaborates with the non-profit association Al Kamandjâti by managing the Barenboim-Said Music Centre in the city of Ramallah, which takes music education to the children from the refugee camps and the villages of Deir Ghassana, Jenin and Tulkarem. The objective of both projects is based on a music education that enables, as far as possible, a balanced cognitive, social and emotional development, offering through music new channels of expression and the development of their imagination, creativity and personality in a cultural and socially neglected environment.

The Foundation organizes orchestral workshops, as well as regular concert series and has recently produced the first Palestinian opera, The Sultana of Cadiz, which is based on a popular Arab tale and with music inspired in the Spanish composer Juan Crisóstomo de Arriaga’s works. The opera opened last July 14th at the Cultural Palace of Ramallah. This production was possible thanks to the support of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation, which also supports other projects.

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