Annual-Report-2024 - Flipbook - Page 30
International Understanding and Coexistence
Building Bridges With Music
Where words fail, it is often music that can best express our hopes and emotions.
The Meeting’s final day on Mainau Island offered one last highlight beyond the Scientific
Programme: a concert by the West-Eastern Divan Ensemble led by Michael Barenboim.
Ever since the Mainau Declaration of 1955, the island of
Mainau has been associated with international understanding and coexistence. On the final day of the Meeting, this tradition found expression in a concert given
by the West-Eastern Divan Ensemble, whose origin and
history, in itself, reflects a profound commitment to
bridging divides through music.
The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra came to life 25 years
ago as the result of ongoing conversations about music,
culture, and humanity between renowned conductor
Daniel Barenboim and critic Edward Said. Convinced that
separation between peoples is not a solution for any of
the problems that divide them, they identified music,
particularly in the form of collaborative ensemble performance, as a means to promote coexistence and work
against mutual ignorance. Thus, from a workshop held
on the 250th anniversary of Goethe’s birth in 1999, an
orchestra named after his last great cycle of poetry was
born.
Comprised mainly of Israeli, Palestinian, and other
Arab members, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra has become known to distinguished concert audiences across
the globe. It has also demonstrated how – through music
28 | Responsibility Extending Beyond Science
and based on the principle of equality – unexpected
bridges can be built, and people can be encouraged to listen to each other’s narrative.
Five years ago, Michael Barenboim decided to launch
the West-Eastern Divan Ensemble in order to combine
the orchestra’s tradition and reputation with the more
intimate chamber music format. In 2023, the Ensemble
performed at the UN, and on Friday of the Lindau Meeting
they were warmly welcomed to Mainau Island. Here, they
played Beethoven’s E-flat major, Op. 20 – a piece that the
composer was particularly proud of and that expressed
much of the Lindau Meetings’ philosophy: joy and hope
for togetherness.
Michael Barenboim | Violin
Katia Abdel-Kader | Viola
Sary Khalife | Cello
Omar Farjoun Bishara | Double Bass
Jussef Eisa | Clarinet
Zeynep Ayaydinli | Bassoon
Bar Zemach | Horn