Daniel Barenboim's West-Eastern Divan Orchestra Performs at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance at Millennium Park December 17. Egyptian-born Chicagoan Mina Zikri, a DePaul music school graduate, takes us behind the scenes.
Written by Ellen Pritsker
In 1999, when 22-year-old Egyptian violinist Mina Zikri left Cairo for Weimar, Germany, to join the violin section of Daniel Barenboim's newly formed Arab-Israeli West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, he embarked upon a musical journey led him to Chicago and a promising conducting career.
Barenboim, an Argentinian-born Israeli, steps to the podium on December 17 at 2 p.m. at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance at Millennium Park, leading the 78-member youth orchestra that he co-founded with the late Palestinian author Edward Said, because both men believed that music could overcome divergent viewpoints and help connect various cultures. The program will include Beethoven's Leonora Overture, Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante in E-flat and Brahms' Symphony No. 1.
The concert-part of the Divan's three-city touchdown in the U.S. in 2006, was made possible when Chicago's Apollo Chorus, originally scheduled for the matinee slot, graciously agreed to move up its December 17 performance of Handel Messiah to 7 p.m. After Barenboim and his orchestra play at the Harris, they fly to Manhattan for concerts at the United Nations and at Carnegie Hall.
Their harmonious performance-musically and interpersonally-emerges from Barenboim's focus and commitment to the idea of an orchestra that overcomes barriers for both performers and audiences. When the Divan began, many of the young Arab and Israeli musicians harbored strong prejudices against one another. But Mina, who had been performing since age 8, had studied at music camp in America as a teenager and already recognized that Israelis were “not demons, but fellow-musicians and friends."
"When we first came together, many of us had grown up in an atmosphere of racial hatred against Arabs or Israelis," Mina said recently. "But Barenboim and Said-and now Said's widow, Miriam--started a Divan tradition of holding regular group discussions where hostilities and prejudices are aired and reconciliation can occur," he added.
Mina observes that at this point, his fellow-musicians' hostilities are more apt to be about personal animosities and 'normal human interaction,' rather than political disagreements. "We talk, we socialize and flirt in Hebrew or Arabic and we grow to understand one another," he added.
The West-Eastern Divan's 2006 tour was impacted by fallout from last summer's military confrontation between Israel and Lebanon. Some Arab members of the orchestra suggested a boycott to protest Israel's policies, which upset Mina because he believes West-Eastern Divan is "not about staying away, but about letting the music override personal feelings and serve as a universal language of healing."
Barenboim inspires orchestra members with his dedication and focus on excellence. Mina explains that many star conductors are either "arrogant" or "self-absorbed." But Barenboim is "enormously generous" with his time and talent, expecting the same 100% from his performers that he gives to them and the Divan.
When Barenboim, then principal conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, began rehearsals with his young musicians in Weimar in the summer of 1999, his friend Cliff Colnot, conductor of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and the DePaul Symphony Orchestra, joined him from Chicago. The two men learned about Mina'a longtime dream of studying at DePaul's acclaimed school of music, and made it possible for the young violinist to move to Chicago and attend DePaul that fall.
Mina has since earned both a BA and MA in Music and a Performer's Certificate from DePaul. He has performed with the Civic Orchestra for five years-three of them as a regular orchestra member-and has founded and conducts his own orchestra-the Oistrakh Symphony-composed of local performers from DePaul, Northwestern and Roosevelt universities.
Mina Zikri recently learned he is one of 12 finalists in the prestigious international Gustav Mahler Competition for Conductors, to be held in Bavaria in April, 2007. (There were over 200 entrants from 40 countries.) His budding career is blossoming.
But Daniel Barenboim remains his hero and greatest teacher. When Mina Zikri joins his fellow-members of the West-Eastern Divan to perform Hayden, Brahms, Beethoven, Wagner or Mozart, he is absorbing every gesture from the podium and basking in the honor of performing with the master.
West-Eastern Divan Orchestra performs at Harris Theater for Music and Dance at Millennium Park, 205 East Randolph, sun., Dec. 17, 2:00 p.m., tickets $52 to $98, call 312 334 7777 or visit the Harris Theater website, www.harristheaterchicago.org.
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