West-Eastern Divan (orchestra)

The West-Eastern Divan is a symphony orchestra. It was named after an anthology of poems by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

It was founded by the Argentinian-Israeli conductor Daniel Barenboim and the late Palestinian-American academic Edward Said. The young musicians who play in the orchestra are Israeli, Palestinian, Lebanese, Syrian, Jordanian and Egyptian. The aim of the West-Eastern Divan is to promote understanding between Israelis and Palestinians and pave the way for a peaceful and fair solution of the Arab-Israeli conflict. The orchestra has performed around the world, including Israel and the Palestinian territories. It has an annual summer school in Seville.

Since 2002,when the workshop was finally established in Seville, young musicians from Spain also take part in orchestra.

The West-Eastern Divan Workshop takes place during several weeks each summer in Andalusia. Once the working period is over, the concert tour of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra starts. The orchestra has been awarded several prizes since its creation, among them the Prize Príncipe de Asturias of the Concorde in 2002 for Said and Barenboim, the Premium Imperiale awarded by the Japan Arts Association as well as an Emmy International award for its DVD Knowledge Is The Beginning.

In 2004, the Barenboim-Said Foundation, based in Seville and financed by the Junta de Andalucía (Regional Government of Andalusia), was established with the purpose of developing several education through music projects based on the principles of coexistence and dialogue promoted by Said and Barenboim. Therefore, the Barenboim-Said Foundation not only manages the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, but also other projects such as the Academy of Orchestral Studies, the Musical Education in Palestine project and the Early Childhood Musical Education Project in Seville.

In 2007 the Orchestra has been awarded the Praemium Imperiale Grant for Young Artists.

A film by Paul Smaczny about the Orchestra, "Knowledge is the Beginning," won the Emmy Award for best documentary related to arts of 2006. [http://www.clevelandfilm.org/ciff_films_find-details.php?fid=2468]

See also

*Breaking the Ice
*Projects working for peace among Israelis and Arabs

External links

* [http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Humanities_Center/events/orchestrabio.html Information about the orchestra]
*
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/reith2006/lecture4.shtml Lecture 4 of the 2006 Reith Lectures] is largely about the West-Eastern Divan
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/the_ticket.shtml The Ticket] Documentary from the BBC World Service in which Daniel Barenboim talks about the importance of his West-Eastern Divan Orchestra.