Daniel Barenboim, the acclaimed Israeli conductor, on Monday unveiled his latest initiative to help the Middle East peace process — a music kindergarten for Palestinian refugee children.
The kindergarten in the Palestinian town of Ramallah opened three weeks ago and is working extremely well, Barenboim said. Seven Palestinian four- and five-year-olds are attending music classes, including piano and violin.
”An hour of violin lessons in Berlin is an hour where you get people interested in music. But an hour of violin lessons in Palestine is an hour away from violence and fundamentalism,” said Barenboim.
He said he hoped the charitable foundation he started with Edward Said, the late Palestinian intellectual, would soon open another music kindergarten in the Gaza Strip.
”Classical music is not something one associates with Arabs. But if we can enrich their young lives, and give them pleasure from creativity … then we can build a bridge between Europe and the Middle East.”
In the interview, Barenboim, the musical director of both the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Berlin’s Staatskapelle Orchestra, also launches a swingeing attack on Tony Blair. He says the prime minister has shown little understanding of the Middle East. – Guardian Unlimited Â