Simon Hewitt Jones - The Violin Blog

Mar

31

Edward Said National Conservatory of Music

Filed Under Education, Travelblog | 

We visited Ramallah for the first time today, for a workshop on Mozart’s Requiem at the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music. The Ramallah Campus sits at the foot a hill in a peaceful area just outside the downtown area. As you approach, the gentle sounds of an Oud float down over the stone boundary walls; young Arab students of 14 or 15 stand chatting in the gravelly entrance yard. It looks like any young group of middle eastern students.

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The Edward Said National Conservatory of Music

Each Saturday morning, the students come to the Conservatory to receive their music tuition. But of course Ramallah is a closed city; a commute from outside means endless checkpoints (I’m writing this from the bus out - we’ve already had two thorough security checks, including a none-too-pleasing fingering of my violin’s varnish!), and an enormous hassle. Many of those at the campus will come from inside the city; only occasionally will students make the hours-long journey from Jerusalem and Bethlehem - a journey that used to take minutes before the Wall (and it is not a ’security fence’ but a big, solid wall) went up.

It’s worse for the students who are confined to Ramallah. There are no restrictions on travel for children under the age of 16, but the moment their 16th birthday arrives, that’s it… travel to Jerusalem is banned. Does this remind you of a certain recent piece of European history?

workshop ramallah
Violist Chris Brown leads a workshop on Mozart’s Requiem

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The Conservatory was established in Palestine in 1993, after a group of Palestine musicians and teachers studied the status of music in Palestinian society, and found an almost total lack of music education programs. The new-fangled conservatory was taken under the wing of Birzeit University, who have since overseen operations at the Conservatory’s campuses. The first branch of the ESNCM was in Ramallah, but branches have since opened in Jerusalem and Bethlehem (despite the enormous difficulty of running the organization in three different areas of closed-off, checkpointed land).

Today, there are over 500 students in total, 25 teachers, and 10 other staff members. The Conservatory’s current name exists in honour of literary theorist and Palestinian activist Dr Edward Said.

Conservatory of Music
The Edward Said National Conservatory of Music
From April 1st-15th, I’m blogging and videocasting directly from the Choir of London’s Palestine Mozart Festival in Israel and the Occupied Territories. If you wish to find out more, or to support the Foundation’s work, please click here to read more.

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