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Six months ago Zuhal Sultan stood in the 1)wings of a 2)makeshift concert hall in northern Iraq watching young musicians run through final rehearsals ahead of their first public performance. “I was crying a bit because it was so emotional. The progress they had made was unbelievable after all they had been through. I was so happy,” she says.
Sultan had every reason to be proud. 3)Single-handedly, she had brought together professional musicians from some of the world’s leading cultural institutions and 33 Iraqi youngsters to form the National Youth Orchestra of Iraq (NYOI). The 18-year-old from Baghdad 4)secured funding from organizations including the British Council and persuaded the deputy prime minister of Iraq to make a donation.
Her efforts 5)culminated in an intensive two-week summer camp in the 6)Kurdish city of 7)Sulaimaniya last August, with a concert that allowed the Iraqi teenagers to demonstrate their talents in a war-torn country where classical musicians live in constant fear of 8)reprisals from Islamic 9)fundamentalists. “There are so many exciting things I would like to do with the orchestra,” she says. “These young people who have gone through so much with the war are coming together through music. I want to keep that going.”
Sultan’s achievements are remarkable. Still a teenager, she has created a flourishing orchestra in a politically unstable country devastated by war. Along the way, she 10)garnered support from musicians at11)the Juilliard School in New York, the 12)Royal College of Music, and 13)the London Symphony Orchestra, giving Iraqi youngsters a unique opportunity to learn from professionals.
How did she tackle such a project?
“I don’t really know,” she laughs. “When I had this idea, I realized there were three main ingredients I needed to make it work: A conductor, musicians, and funding. I wrote a 14)press release saying, ‘Iraqi teenager seeks musicians’ and put it online.”
Paul MacAlindin, the 15)Aberdeen-born conductor, was sipping coffee in an 16)Edinburgh café when he read Sultan’s message. “I thought it sounded interesting,” he says. “I made contact with Zuhal by email. What really grabbed me about her was her purity of intent. She was very clear about what she wanted to happen. I was impressed by her vision.” Sultan was equally impressed by MacAlindin and appointed him NYOI’s musical director. “The idea of the orchestra excited him and he was so energized about it. He had a few ideas for it, too, so I felt very strongly he should get the job.”
The next challenge was to find musicians, aged between 14 and 24, to make up the orchestra. In Iraq, where carrying a musical instrument in the street can lead to trouble with 17)hardliners, there was no obvious pool of talent. Again, Sultan turned to the Internet. She posted a message in English, Arabic, and Kurdish and received 53 applications. After 18)whittling the number down to 33, she arranged for the youngsters to receive online 19)tuition from music teachers in the UK and America. “When the war broke out, most of the music teachers in Iraq disappeared. They either left the country or stopped teaching. Many young musicians in Iraq are self-taught. It is the only way,” she says.
Finally, she sought funding for her 20)venture. “I was staying up late at night sending 40 emails a day to anyone I could think of,” she says. “One day I found that the deputy prime minister [of Iraq] was on Twitter, so I sent him a message, with an article about me and the orchestra, and asked him if he would be interested in supporting us. Two days later I met him and he gave me $50,000. It was the quickest $50,000 I ever got. After that, I was 21)ecstatic because I just knew it was going to work out.”
Members of the orchestra and the musicians from abroad met for the first time last August. “The Iraqi musicians were from all over the country and spoke different languages. At first they stayed in different groups, with people from their area. But as soon as they sat down to play music, they all came together. It wasn’t perfect from the start. The first rehearsal was a disaster. The instruments were of poor quality and with so many people being self-taught, there were problems. But they worked so hard. They rehearsed from 7 am to 7 pm, and late at night I would hear them practicing till the early hours of the morning. One day during rehearsals the electricity shut off and all the lights went out, but the musicians just kept going.”
The final concert, which included a mix of music by Iraqi composers, Beethoven and22)Haydn, was performed in front of an audience of almost 1,000. “It was amazing,” says Sultan. For her, as well as for the musicians, the experience was entirely new. “In Iraq every single aspect of culture is 23)frowned upon by some people,” she says. “Musicians carrying their instruments would disguise them in shopping bags to avoid trouble. There are very few public concerts.”
Her work with the orchestra led to an invitation to join Musicians for Harmony, an American organization that promotes peace through music. “I felt very lucky and I wished that other young people in Iraq could have the same experience, and that is really where the idea for a youth orchestra came from.”
Much of her time is taken up with planning the next gathering of the NYOI in July. Her ambition is to one day be the first Iraqi female conductor of a leading orchestra. “There hasn’t been one before,” she says. “I care passionately about the orchestra and what I am doing.”
六个月前，祖哈尔·苏坦站在伊拉克北部一个临时搭建的音乐厅的边厢里, 观看年轻音乐家们在首次公众演出前的最后彩排。“我热泪盈眶，因为场面太感人了。经历过那样的劫难，如今有这番进展简直令人难以置信。我太开心了，”她说。
苏坦完全有理由感到自豪。她凭借一己之力，将来自某些世界顶级文化机构的职业音乐家及33名伊拉克青年聚集起来，组建了伊拉克国家青年管弦乐团。这位18岁的巴格达姑娘从包括英国文化协会在内的组织机构那里获得了资金，还成功说服了伊拉克副总理为其捐款。
她的努力终于让安排紧凑、为期两周的夏令营活动于去年八月在库尔德人的城市——苏莱曼尼亚举行。期间，有一个由伊拉克青少年演奏的音乐会，意在让伊拉克青少年在这饱受战争摧残的国土上展示才华。这片国土上的古典音乐家们一直生活在恐惧之中——他们害怕来自伊斯兰教原教旨主义者的报复。“我想和这个管弦乐团一起做的事太多了，”她说，“这些在战争中经历了如此之多的年轻人因为音乐走到了一起。我想让这个乐团一直持续下去。”
苏坦取得了非凡的成就。二十岁不到，她就在一个饱受战争蹂躏、政局动荡的国家里组建了这么一个朝气蓬勃的管弦乐团。这一路上，她获得了来自纽约茱莉亚音乐学院、皇家音乐学院以及伦敦交响乐团的音乐家们的大力支持，这使这些伊拉克青年获得了一个难得的师从专家的机会。
她是如何做好这项“大工程”的呢？
“我其实也不知道，”她笑着说，“当初有这个想法时，我意识到要做成这件事，以下三点必不可少：找乐队指挥，找音乐家，还有筹集资金。我写了一篇题为‘伊拉克青少年寻求音乐家’的新闻稿并发到了网上。”
保罗·迈克阿林丁是一位出生在英国阿伯丁的乐队指挥家，看到苏坦发布的消息时，他正在爱丁堡一家咖啡馆里喝着咖啡。“我当时觉得这应该很有趣，”他说，“我通过电子邮件与苏坦取得了联系。使我真正感兴趣的是她那单纯的目的。她非常清楚自己想要做什么。她的洞察力给我留下了深刻印象。”迈克阿林丁同样也给苏坦留下了深刻印象，苏坦委任他为伊拉克国家青年管弦乐团的音乐总监。“创办管弦乐团的想法令他十分兴奋，他对此充满干劲。对于管弦乐团，他也有一些自己的看法，所以我强烈认为他应该担任此职。”
接下来的挑战是寻找年龄介于14至24岁的音乐家来组建管弦乐团。在伊拉克，拿着乐器行走在大街上都会招来强硬分子制造麻烦，所以音乐人才并不好找。苏坦再次借助互联网。她用英语、阿拉伯语和库尔德语在网上发贴，收到了53封申请书。她筛选出33个，并安排这些年轻人在线接受英国和美国音乐老师的授课。“战争爆发后，伊拉克大部分音乐老师都消失了。他们要么离开了伊拉克，要么不再教书。伊拉克很多年轻音乐家都是自学成才的。自学是唯一的办法，”她说。
最后，她得为自己的事业筹集资金。“我晚上熬夜，给任何我能想到的人发邮件，一天就发了40多封，”她说，“有一天，我发现（伊拉克）副总理在推特上，于是我给他发了一条信息，并附上了一篇关于我和管弦乐团的文章，询问他是否有兴趣支持我们。两天后，我见到了他，他给了我5万美元。这是我到手最快的5万美元。之后，我欣喜若狂，因为我就知道这件事情肯定会成功的。”
去年八月，管弦乐团的成员与国外的音乐家们首次见面。“我们的伊拉克音乐家来自全国各个地方，说着不同的语言。起初，他们总是与来自同一个地方的人呆在一起，形成了各个不同的群体。但他们一旦坐下来开始演奏音乐，就融为一体了。刚开始演奏并不完美。第一次排练简直像一场灾难。乐器音质太差，而且很多人是自学的，所以问题很多。但是大家都非常刻苦，从早上7点一直排练到晚上7点，深夜时分我还能听到他们在练习，直到凌晨。有一天，排练时停电了，所有的灯都灭了，但音乐家们并没有停下来。”
最后一场音乐会上，管弦乐团演奏了一曲混合了伊拉克作曲家、贝多芬和海顿音乐风格的曲目，当时现场观众有近千人。“这太奇妙了，”苏坦说。不管是对于她，还是对于那些音乐家来说，这都是一种全新的经历。“在伊拉克，有关文化的方方面面都不被一些人看好，”她说，“拿着乐器的音乐家们得用购物袋遮住乐器以免惹麻烦。公开的音乐会非常少。”
她在管弦乐团上花的心血使她收到来自“和谐音乐家协会”的邀请，这个来自美国的协会旨在通过音乐促进和平。“我觉得自己非常幸运，我希望伊拉克的其他青少年可以拥有和我一样的经历，这正是创建一个青年管弦乐团的缘由。”
目前，她大部分时间都在筹划伊拉克国家管弦乐团在七月的重聚。她的愿望是希望有一天能成为伊拉克第一位指挥一流管弦乐团的女指挥家。“伊拉克以前是没有女指挥家的，”她说，“我对管弦乐团和自己正在做的一切都充满了激情。”
Sultan had every reason to be proud. 3)Single-handedly, she had brought together professional musicians from some of the world’s leading cultural institutions and 33 Iraqi youngsters to form the National Youth Orchestra of Iraq (NYOI). The 18-year-old from Baghdad 4)secured funding from organizations including the British Council and persuaded the deputy prime minister of Iraq to make a donation.
Her efforts 5)culminated in an intensive two-week summer camp in the 6)Kurdish city of 7)Sulaimaniya last August, with a concert that allowed the Iraqi teenagers to demonstrate their talents in a war-torn country where classical musicians live in constant fear of 8)reprisals from Islamic 9)fundamentalists. “There are so many exciting things I would like to do with the orchestra,” she says. “These young people who have gone through so much with the war are coming together through music. I want to keep that going.”
Sultan’s achievements are remarkable. Still a teenager, she has created a flourishing orchestra in a politically unstable country devastated by war. Along the way, she 10)garnered support from musicians at11)the Juilliard School in New York, the 12)Royal College of Music, and 13)the London Symphony Orchestra, giving Iraqi youngsters a unique opportunity to learn from professionals.
How did she tackle such a project?
“I don’t really know,” she laughs. “When I had this idea, I realized there were three main ingredients I needed to make it work: A conductor, musicians, and funding. I wrote a 14)press release saying, ‘Iraqi teenager seeks musicians’ and put it online.”
Paul MacAlindin, the 15)Aberdeen-born conductor, was sipping coffee in an 16)Edinburgh café when he read Sultan’s message. “I thought it sounded interesting,” he says. “I made contact with Zuhal by email. What really grabbed me about her was her purity of intent. She was very clear about what she wanted to happen. I was impressed by her vision.” Sultan was equally impressed by MacAlindin and appointed him NYOI’s musical director. “The idea of the orchestra excited him and he was so energized about it. He had a few ideas for it, too, so I felt very strongly he should get the job.”
The next challenge was to find musicians, aged between 14 and 24, to make up the orchestra. In Iraq, where carrying a musical instrument in the street can lead to trouble with 17)hardliners, there was no obvious pool of talent. Again, Sultan turned to the Internet. She posted a message in English, Arabic, and Kurdish and received 53 applications. After 18)whittling the number down to 33, she arranged for the youngsters to receive online 19)tuition from music teachers in the UK and America. “When the war broke out, most of the music teachers in Iraq disappeared. They either left the country or stopped teaching. Many young musicians in Iraq are self-taught. It is the only way,” she says.
Finally, she sought funding for her 20)venture. “I was staying up late at night sending 40 emails a day to anyone I could think of,” she says. “One day I found that the deputy prime minister [of Iraq] was on Twitter, so I sent him a message, with an article about me and the orchestra, and asked him if he would be interested in supporting us. Two days later I met him and he gave me $50,000. It was the quickest $50,000 I ever got. After that, I was 21)ecstatic because I just knew it was going to work out.”
Members of the orchestra and the musicians from abroad met for the first time last August. “The Iraqi musicians were from all over the country and spoke different languages. At first they stayed in different groups, with people from their area. But as soon as they sat down to play music, they all came together. It wasn’t perfect from the start. The first rehearsal was a disaster. The instruments were of poor quality and with so many people being self-taught, there were problems. But they worked so hard. They rehearsed from 7 am to 7 pm, and late at night I would hear them practicing till the early hours of the morning. One day during rehearsals the electricity shut off and all the lights went out, but the musicians just kept going.”
The final concert, which included a mix of music by Iraqi composers, Beethoven and22)Haydn, was performed in front of an audience of almost 1,000. “It was amazing,” says Sultan. For her, as well as for the musicians, the experience was entirely new. “In Iraq every single aspect of culture is 23)frowned upon by some people,” she says. “Musicians carrying their instruments would disguise them in shopping bags to avoid trouble. There are very few public concerts.”
Her work with the orchestra led to an invitation to join Musicians for Harmony, an American organization that promotes peace through music. “I felt very lucky and I wished that other young people in Iraq could have the same experience, and that is really where the idea for a youth orchestra came from.”
Much of her time is taken up with planning the next gathering of the NYOI in July. Her ambition is to one day be the first Iraqi female conductor of a leading orchestra. “There hasn’t been one before,” she says. “I care passionately about the orchestra and what I am doing.”
六个月前，祖哈尔·苏坦站在伊拉克北部一个临时搭建的音乐厅的边厢里, 观看年轻音乐家们在首次公众演出前的最后彩排。“我热泪盈眶，因为场面太感人了。经历过那样的劫难，如今有这番进展简直令人难以置信。我太开心了，”她说。
苏坦完全有理由感到自豪。她凭借一己之力，将来自某些世界顶级文化机构的职业音乐家及33名伊拉克青年聚集起来，组建了伊拉克国家青年管弦乐团。这位18岁的巴格达姑娘从包括英国文化协会在内的组织机构那里获得了资金，还成功说服了伊拉克副总理为其捐款。
她的努力终于让安排紧凑、为期两周的夏令营活动于去年八月在库尔德人的城市——苏莱曼尼亚举行。期间，有一个由伊拉克青少年演奏的音乐会，意在让伊拉克青少年在这饱受战争摧残的国土上展示才华。这片国土上的古典音乐家们一直生活在恐惧之中——他们害怕来自伊斯兰教原教旨主义者的报复。“我想和这个管弦乐团一起做的事太多了，”她说，“这些在战争中经历了如此之多的年轻人因为音乐走到了一起。我想让这个乐团一直持续下去。”
苏坦取得了非凡的成就。二十岁不到，她就在一个饱受战争蹂躏、政局动荡的国家里组建了这么一个朝气蓬勃的管弦乐团。这一路上，她获得了来自纽约茱莉亚音乐学院、皇家音乐学院以及伦敦交响乐团的音乐家们的大力支持，这使这些伊拉克青年获得了一个难得的师从专家的机会。
她是如何做好这项“大工程”的呢？
“我其实也不知道，”她笑着说，“当初有这个想法时，我意识到要做成这件事，以下三点必不可少：找乐队指挥，找音乐家，还有筹集资金。我写了一篇题为‘伊拉克青少年寻求音乐家’的新闻稿并发到了网上。”
保罗·迈克阿林丁是一位出生在英国阿伯丁的乐队指挥家，看到苏坦发布的消息时，他正在爱丁堡一家咖啡馆里喝着咖啡。“我当时觉得这应该很有趣，”他说，“我通过电子邮件与苏坦取得了联系。使我真正感兴趣的是她那单纯的目的。她非常清楚自己想要做什么。她的洞察力给我留下了深刻印象。”迈克阿林丁同样也给苏坦留下了深刻印象，苏坦委任他为伊拉克国家青年管弦乐团的音乐总监。“创办管弦乐团的想法令他十分兴奋，他对此充满干劲。对于管弦乐团，他也有一些自己的看法，所以我强烈认为他应该担任此职。”
接下来的挑战是寻找年龄介于14至24岁的音乐家来组建管弦乐团。在伊拉克，拿着乐器行走在大街上都会招来强硬分子制造麻烦，所以音乐人才并不好找。苏坦再次借助互联网。她用英语、阿拉伯语和库尔德语在网上发贴，收到了53封申请书。她筛选出33个，并安排这些年轻人在线接受英国和美国音乐老师的授课。“战争爆发后，伊拉克大部分音乐老师都消失了。他们要么离开了伊拉克，要么不再教书。伊拉克很多年轻音乐家都是自学成才的。自学是唯一的办法，”她说。
最后，她得为自己的事业筹集资金。“我晚上熬夜，给任何我能想到的人发邮件，一天就发了40多封，”她说，“有一天，我发现（伊拉克）副总理在推特上，于是我给他发了一条信息，并附上了一篇关于我和管弦乐团的文章，询问他是否有兴趣支持我们。两天后，我见到了他，他给了我5万美元。这是我到手最快的5万美元。之后，我欣喜若狂，因为我就知道这件事情肯定会成功的。”
去年八月，管弦乐团的成员与国外的音乐家们首次见面。“我们的伊拉克音乐家来自全国各个地方，说着不同的语言。起初，他们总是与来自同一个地方的人呆在一起，形成了各个不同的群体。但他们一旦坐下来开始演奏音乐，就融为一体了。刚开始演奏并不完美。第一次排练简直像一场灾难。乐器音质太差，而且很多人是自学的，所以问题很多。但是大家都非常刻苦，从早上7点一直排练到晚上7点，深夜时分我还能听到他们在练习，直到凌晨。有一天，排练时停电了，所有的灯都灭了，但音乐家们并没有停下来。”
最后一场音乐会上，管弦乐团演奏了一曲混合了伊拉克作曲家、贝多芬和海顿音乐风格的曲目，当时现场观众有近千人。“这太奇妙了，”苏坦说。不管是对于她，还是对于那些音乐家来说，这都是一种全新的经历。“在伊拉克，有关文化的方方面面都不被一些人看好，”她说，“拿着乐器的音乐家们得用购物袋遮住乐器以免惹麻烦。公开的音乐会非常少。”
她在管弦乐团上花的心血使她收到来自“和谐音乐家协会”的邀请，这个来自美国的协会旨在通过音乐促进和平。“我觉得自己非常幸运，我希望伊拉克的其他青少年可以拥有和我一样的经历，这正是创建一个青年管弦乐团的缘由。”
目前，她大部分时间都在筹划伊拉克国家管弦乐团在七月的重聚。她的愿望是希望有一天能成为伊拉克第一位指挥一流管弦乐团的女指挥家。“伊拉克以前是没有女指挥家的，”她说，“我对管弦乐团和自己正在做的一切都充满了激情。”