Barenboim set for Egyptian debut
By Wire News Sources on April 16, 2009
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Israeli-Argentine conductor Daniel Barenboim is to lead the Cairo Symphony Orchestra in Egypt in his first visit to the Arab world’s largest country.
The performance is also believed to be the first by a prominent Israeli musician in Egypt.
On the eve of the landmark visit, he called on Arabs to visit Israel to further mutual understanding.
Mr Barenboim has been a supporter of Palestinian statehood and a critic of Israeli policy toward the Palestinians.
Mr Barenboim founded the joint Arab-Israeli orchestra, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, with the late Palestinian-American writer Edward Said in 1999 to further cultural exchange between young people in Israel and the Arab world.
His views earned him an honorary Palestinian Authority passport in 2007.
‘Mutual ignorance’
Speaking after a rehearsal with the Cairo Symphony Orchestra on Wednesday, Mr Barenboim said he had always been curious about life in Arab countries.
The conductor, a former child prodigy pianist who moved to Israel from his native Argentina at the age of nine, said too few Israelis were curious about their neighbours.
He said the ignorance went both ways.
"To put all Israelis in one basket and say we boycott, we don’t want anything to do with them, anyone who goes there is an enemy, this is no good," he said in Cairo.
"It would be much better that Egyptians, and Syrians, and Palestinians, and Jordanians, and Lebanese, will go to Tel Aviv, and explain their point of view."
His visit is the result of an invitation from the Austrian embassy in Cairo.
It has been largely welcomed in Egypt, but has been criticised by some who feel Egypt should resist closer ties with Israel until a final peace deal is reached with the Palestinians.
Egypt and Israel signed a peace deal in 1979.
Despite leading the Divan Orchestra around the globe, the Cairo performance is only Mr Barenboim’s third in the Arab world, after performances in Morocco in 2003 and the West Bank city of Ramallah in 2005.
Two concerts in Qatar and Egypt were called off in January because of safety concerns for the Divan Orchestra musicians during the Israeli offensive against the Gaza Strip.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
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