Historical Summer 2008 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
Last summer I caught a couple of movies at the St. Louis Jewish Film Festival. One in particular made a profound impression on me. Knowledge is the Beginning is a documentary about the work of the Barenboim-Said Foundation. Daniel Barenboim, a worldrenowned conductor and pianist and Edward Said, a former professor of Middle Eastern Studies at Columbia University, joined forces to create the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra.
This orchestra is comprised of young musicians from Israel, Palestine, Egypt, Syria–countries one might not expect to produce classical musicians and certainly not classical musicians who would work together to make music.
The documentary shows the power of music to transcend politics, religious ideology, and racism.
These musicians put aside the differences and fears that had been ingrained in them since birth and related to each other on a purely emotional level.
It also showed that, even though these young musicians lacked many resources their counterparts in our country might take for granted, their love of music and desire to create beauty make up for anything they might not have.
As a musician and teacher, I was so moved by what I saw, I was determined to go to the West Bank to teach and perform this summer. Around this time, a friend of mine, Marc Thayer who is the Vice President of Educational Programs for the Saint Louis Symphony, informed me that he was going to Iraq for two weeks to teach at the Unity Youth Performing Arts Academy, under the auspices of American Voices, an organization dedicated to bringing arts and cultural events to places that might not have such access.
In the fall, I received a call from my dear friend Leslie Scheuler, who asked me to go with her to a fundraiser for American Voices. There, I met John Ferguson, the Executive Director, who asked if it was possible to arrange my time in the West Bank before the Unity Academy so I could come to Iraq and teach at the academy.
He said, “All you would have to do is make your way through Syria and Jordan and you’d be right there.” This struck me as one of the funniest things I had ever heard.
From that point all the reports were not positive.
This project had been funded by the United States Department of State.
But there was no more money for Cultural Diplomacy. Being very resourceful, John Ferguson put the funding together from a number of different sources including the Kurdish Government and Iraq’s Cultural Ministry.
The final pieces of funding fell into place.
In July I will leave St. Louis for Erbil, Iraq.
I will work with string players- -violinists, violists, cellists and bassists ranging in age from 8 to 25.
After two weeks in Erbil, we will move on to Sulamanyeh for another two-week workshop with different students.
In both places I’ll be teaching cello, conducting youth orchestras, performing and working with Iraqi string teachers to help them develop and refine their teaching skills.
I can’t imagine what lies ahead of me on this trip.
I know it will be wonderful.
I also feel certain that I will learn more from the students I encounter than they will from me. Editor’s Note: James Nacy, who lives on the 5900 block of Waterman, invites friends and neighbors to visit his blog http:// iamacellistiniraq@wordpress.com during the summer to share his experiences.
Original photograph caption
Musician and teacher James Nacy. Photographer not credited.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, Summer 2008.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Archival transcription note: Printed blog address uses @ in iamacellistiniraq@wordpress.com; historical source address retained and flagged, no silent working URL invented.
Original source: SD_Times2008_06.pdf, printed page(s) 6; PDF page(s) 6.
