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Peace symphony
It was just a tiny article in the Arts section of The New York Times.
Orchestra for Peace to Play in Jerusalem
Compiled by Julie Bloom
Published: September 9, 2008
The World Orchestra for Peace, which draws players from 70 orchestras in 40 countries, will be conducted by Valery Gergiev, in Jerusalem on Oct. 19.
I didn’t know that there was or had ever been a World Orchestra for Peace, did you? And what a wonderful metaphor for the process of making peace! Music, always inspirational, and more—players from seventy orchestras in forty countries. Seventy, or more, talented people gather in one play to collaborate and create something that has never had life before.
It will perform a program at the Jerusalem Theater that will include the premiere of a work by Roxanna Panufnik, Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 and the wedding march from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”
In Jerusalem—how perfect—that city of monumental spiritual tensions. The wedding march seems another ideal image. Weddings are all about synthesis, joining, melding, uniting, and so is peace. When people make peace, they allow spiritual tensions to be what they are and focus instead on what unites them rather than what divides them. All these musicians for peace will be playing the same music.
Here’s the history of the Orchestra for Peace. In July 1995 the Hungarian-British conductor Georg Solti was invited by Boutros Boutros-Ghali, then secretary general of the United Nations, to conduct a concert in Geneva to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the United Nations. The musicians who played formed the first World Orchestra for Peace to demonstrate, Mr. Solti said at the time, “the unique strength of music as an ambassador for peace.” Mr. Gergiev was invited to succeed Mr. Solti after Mr. Solti died in 1997.
I agree with Maestro Solti about “the unique strength of music as an ambassador for peace.” C’mon, admit it, they’re playing our song. Peace is the music that plays in every heart.
Visit Susan Corso’s spiritual blog or subscribe to Seeds at www.seedsforsanctuary.com.
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