Cultural-fusion music” by David Patrick Stearns, Philadelphia Inquirer Classical Music Critic

Cellist Udi Bar-David hopes to promote Arab-Israeli understanding. By David Patrick Stearns Inquirer Classical Music Critic

MADRID - The small band of musicians took the stage looking like they'd slept in airports and left it applauded like rock stars.

An idealistic sidelight to the Philadelphia Orchestra's current European tour has been a pair of far lower-profile concerts - one on Thursday here, another yesterday in Valencia - spearheaded by rank-and-file cellist Udi Bar-David as part of his ongoing program called Intercultural Journeys. It also included meeting with humanitarian foundations as the orchestra traverses Europe - as if anybody on tour needs to sleep even less and do even more.

Bar-David's endeavor seems quixotic, on some days even impossible: Arab-Jewish musical fusion.

"Since 9/11, I've been horrified by the lack of willingness of each side to understand the others . . . but it's really the artistic chemistry that pushes this and makes it possible," said Bar-David, 50, a longtime orchestra member who grew up in Israel. "We recently had a grant that afforded us to go to college campuses and bring Arab and Jewish student groups together. . . . All I'm asking is to have people listen. Listening isn't agreeing, but it's a huge step, and it doesn't cost anything."

Bar-David's six-year-old Intercultural Journeys only formalized what he's been doing for years. Though his recent Philadelphia Orchestra Access Concert at the Kimmel Center explored connections with Native American cultures, the Arab-Israeli activities have dominated the organization, a loose collective of a dozen or so carefully chosen collaborators who have the chops for musical stretching and the commitment to bend their lives around brutal travel schedules.

Though the connection with the Philadelphia Orchestra is slender - Bar-David is the only member involved - Intercultural Journeys came to the attention of Ibermusica, the presenting organization for the orchestra's concerts in Spain. The result was the early-afternoon gig at Universidad Autonoma de Madrid for which the quartet of musicians zoomed in from multiple hemispheres.

Guitarist Adam del Monte came from Los Angeles, Hanna Khoury from a visit with his family in Tel Aviv, and Puerto Rico-born Rolando Morales-Matos (brother of Philadelphia Orchestra clarinetist Ricardo Morales) from Philadelphia. Bar-David flew from Lisbon ahead of the orchestra's evening Madrid concert, arriving at the airport at the painful hour of 5:45 a.m. All had tales of travel hell and gratitude for iChat, which allowed a rehearsal without their being in the same city.

"I don't know if you can literally play in front of the computer," said Bar-David, "but believe it or not, we got a lot done, at least as far as mapping out the program is concerned, figuring out the maze of these different compositions. Thank God we improvise."

It's a mind-set that also helps him roll with the punches: At the university, the auditorium was busy with new-student orientation, so rehearsals took place in crowded hallways. Still, there was progress.

"Tempos have moved up!" exclaimed Bar-David. "Finally!" cracked del Monte.

As classical players go, Bar-David is surprisingly comfortable with improvisation. The concert began with violinist Khoury improvising in a typically high-energy Arab style while Bar-David entered, softly yet purposefully, on a simple note suggesting a synagogue chant. Could anything that effective be made up on the spot? It was.

As the concert continued, the ebullient Morales-Matos brought down the house with a Middle Eastern metal drum. With del Monte bringing in a high-energy flamenco element, the Arab-Israeli-Spanish fusion felt almost like cinematic crosscutting, with a klezmer phrase cheek-by-jowl with something quintessentially Arab. It sounded effortless.

"Everybody brought their own recipe into the music. Sometimes I say that klezmer is just Arabic music without the quarter tones," said Khoury.

"The DNA of the music has so much in common that it's easy to fuse those styles," del Monte said, noting that the fact that they're in Spain, where Jews flourished under Moorish rule, adds another layer: "This is where peace and creativity happened 600 to 700 years ago, hence the name 'the Golden Era.' That's where the flow of ideas and tolerance was the order of the day."

The emblematic value of such collaboration is as important as the music - maybe more so, in Bar-David's view - and is something that's very much in the air. The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra's Tchaikovsky may not be better than anybody else's, but the idea of young Arab and Israeli musicians performing under conductor Daniel Barenboim indeed makes a statement. So does the new double-CD set Jerusalem by Spanish early-music giant Jordi Savall, who joins forces with musicians of often-opposed ethnicities in a speculative documentation of that city's musical life over the centuries.

Bar-David isn't after that kind of exterior visibility. Though he has a demonstration CD he uses as a calling card, he is about working from the inside, influencing student minds, playing private concerts for decision makers, and forming partnerships with like-minded but nonmusical foundations. If he has a role in changing the world, it's one-on-one, one person at a time.

That's how this part of his life started, roughly a decade ago. His humanitarian conscience led him to the Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh, who practiced in the south of France in a compound called Plum Village. Bar-David was asked to play cello; monks began chanting with him.

"It touched me in a deep place, a place that we're all so connected naturally," he said. "It goes to a place where all religions, all people have a meeting place. And it led us to form Intercultural Journeys."

The collective formed slowly among like-minded people; one of Bar-David's closest colleagues was Khoury, who was in the West-Eastern Divan in its early years, when the players stuck to their own ethnic groups when not playing. Returning years later, he noted that Arabs, Jews and Russians now mixed outside of rehearsals.

The Intercultural Journeys working atmosphere often has the players switching musical ethnicities to see what happens. It's also jocular - after the performance, when they were treated to lunch at the university commissary, no table was more uproarious than theirs. Arriving and leaving, they were stopped by admirers who had loved the concert.

Since Bar-David was an alternate for that night's Philadelphia Orchestra concert in Madrid, he was almost sure he wouldn't be needed and could spend time with his "intercultural" friends. No such luck: Looking pale and exhausted, he was onstage hours later, playing Prokofiev's Symphony No. 5 - but with his pals in the audience. You might guess that they like one another.

"Oh, there are some things I don't like about Hanna," said Bar-David, tongue in cheek, "like his crescendos. . . . "

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

"BEYOND THE MIDEAST CONFLICT: A SYMPHONY OF MUSIC, POETRY AND FOOD,"
A VISION OF PEACE - INTERCULTURAL JOURNEYS VISITS WHARTON'S VANCE HALL
ON WEDNESDAY, APRIL 9TH, AT 7:00 PM
__________________________________________________

At a time when tensions intensify around the world, a team from the Wharton School continues to believe in the ability of all people, including Jews and Muslims, to live together in harmony and mutual respect.

On April 9th, 2003, in an important milestone for our community, we will present in collaboration with Intercultural Journeys: "Beyond the Mideast conflict: A symphony of music, poetry and food." This is a cultural event where participants will experience the many similarities between Judaism and Islam. Participants will gain an understanding of the shared histories and the opportunity for peaceful coexistence between the two people. The event will be held at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Philadelphia Orchestra cellist Udi Bar David will lead the group of musicians. He is joined by the distinguished Middle Eastern percussionist Joseph Tayoun, cantor George Mordecai, 'Ud and Violin virtuoso Adeeb Refela, and Philadelphia Orchestra violinist Yayoi Numazawa. Egyptian love songs, cello music by Ernest Bloch, Sufi poetry, Ladino and Yemenite vocal music are examples of the ravishing repertoire you will hear.

Despite experiences on opposing sides of the Middle East conflict, the students are ardent supporters of peace and true harmony between the people of the Koran and those of the Torah. They are currently completing their MBAs at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Udi is a founding member of Intercultural Journeys. He seeks to break barriers and to shift the discourse about the Middle East from the political and military arena to the artistic celebration of the common Middle Eastern heritage.

Intercultural Journeys is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting understanding among people of diverse cultures through artistic dialogue and the presentation of world-class performances of music, poetry and other art forms. Please refer to www.interculturaljourneys.org

To contact the participants:
Udi Bar David, 610-457-3025, ubdavid@mac.com

TURNING HIS DREAMS INTO ACHIEVEMENTS
Lesley Valdes, INQUIRER MUSIC CRITIC

A good many virtuosos try out their concert ideas in Philadelphia before they take them to Carnegie Hall. But when Philadelphia Orchestra member Ohad Bar-David decided to experiment with a program of Middle Eastern chamber music, the cellist chose this tony desert resort where his family vacations for the "run-out" concert.

Bar-David, who is Israeli and lives in Wynnewood, is a busy fellow with big dreams. At the Philadelphia Orchestra, where everybody calls him "Udi," he's known for pursuing grand visions with the pragmatism of an entrepreneur.
Bar-David's current dreams concern cross-cultural collaborations. He wants to hear concerts of newly composed works that will bring together Buddhist chants and Beethoven, or bluegrass worked into a Western concerto. He wants to collaborate on a symphony that joins Arab and Jewish musical themes.

"This is the right time, the world is changing, these things are important to spiritual growth. And they are marketable," he says. Bar-David emphasizes that the Philadelphia Orchestra Association has not signed on to any of them. Yet.

Lest you think them pipe dreams, one of his cross-cultural ventures has already happened. Remember the "Hear O Israel" joint concert the Philadelphia Orchestra and Israel Philharmonic gave to celebrate Israel's 50th anniversary of statehood in January last year? Bar-David was artistic coordinator - as he puts it, "the matchmaker" - for the successful event at the CoreStates Arena.

Turning a dream into an achievement takes many steps. Before he could present, in a world-class venue, the harmonies common to people whose politics are in conflict, Bar-David knew he'd have to start small. So the cellist asked Simon Shaheen, Palestinian virtuoso on the oud - the short-necked, plucked lute of the Arab world - to play the modest, 200-seat Kerr Cultural Center here for a concert last Sunday. Taking a cue from the Oslo peace talks, Bar-David and Shaheen billed their concert "A Musical Dialog Between Palestinian and Israeli Musicians."

The dialogue wasn't about when or whether Palestine will achieve nationhood, or about the first Arab to run for Israeli prime minister. This back-and-forth was purely musical.

Arabs and Jews rarely perform together in public in this country or in Israel, given the volatile state of Middle Eastern affairs. It was only two months ago that conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim made headlines for his recital at the National Conservatory of Palestine. For an encore, Barenboim, an Israeli Jew, shared the keyboard with an Arab student in a sonata for four hands.

While most Arab musicians are familiar with the classical music of the West, it's not often that a Jewish musician can tell you the difference between a "taqasim" and a "theme and variation." (A taqasim is an improvisation.)

Bar-David wants Western players and listeners to stretch their minds and ears. Israelis and Palestininans "come from the same land, and it is inevitable there are intervals and themes that we share in our music," he said.

To show these commonalities, Sunday's program juxtaposed Hasidic songs and a composition by Israeli composer Paul Ben-Haim with music by Shaheen and the Egyptian Riyad Sambati. [See accompanying review.]

Bar-David's Middle Eastern dream coalesced in November, when he and a group of Philadelphians, including orchestra board member Carole Haas, visited a village in Israel where a small group of Arabs and Israelis coexist. It's called Neve Shalom-Wahat al Salam, the Hebrew plus the Arabic name for "Oasis of Peace."

When he returned to Philadelphia, Bar-David began giving concerts to benefit Neve Shalom-Wahat al Salam. But he wanted to go further - to include Arab music that he didn't know. "Whenever I would talk to my Arab friends about what we could do to help Neve Shalom," Bar-David said, "Simon's name would come up. He is so highly respected."

Shaheen, who also plays violin, is considered the leading interpreter of Arab classical and traditional music, a sort of oud-playing Yo-Yo Ma. The virtuoso has five lauded recordings - including The Music of Mohameh Abdel Wahab on Axiom, and Saltanah on Water Lily; he has composed several film scores, including for The Sheltering Sky and Malcolm X. He has played Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center and other major venues with the Near Eastern Music Ensemble; he conducts workshops on Arab music, including an annual summer retreat for Arab Music at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts.

In 1980, Shaheen emigrated to the United States, where he took master's degrees at the Manhattan School and Columbia University. He lives in the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn.

He is a Catholic Arab from the village of Tarshihi in Galilee. He studied with his late father, a distinguished professor of traditional music. Given the border restrictions and prohibitions Palestinians face in Israel, Shaheen had to come to this country in order to travel freely in his homeland, he has said.

Growing up in Tel Aviv, the teenage Bar-David and Shaheen played together in a student orchestra in the Rubin Academy.

Moshe Bukshpan, an Israeli violinist who lives in Scottsdale and participated in Sunday's concert, also played in that student orchestra. He and Bar-David shared teachers with Shaheen.

"Arabs were the minority at the Rubin Academy," Bukshpan said, adding that he had friendly relations with Shaheen though neither he nor Bar-David had known Shaheen well.

"Last year, Ohad [Bar-David] and I played a concert together at a synagogue. But bringing Simon with his background makes this concert really special," Bukshpan said.

"Politics are unavoidable, which is frustrating and sad. But the more you do with people of different backgrounds, the better. . . . People need to see that through culture, we can find ways to make a better world.

"When you go to Yusif's Grocery & Restaurant," Bukshpan continued, speaking about a Phoenix deli, "you'll see that Yusif does business with the Jewish community. He even carries products from Israel." Others in the community, he said, "are much more extreme. Some Jewish people, or Muslims, when you talk about this musical dialogue, they don't want to get involved."

Buksphan has mentioned Yusif's - run by Arab Joseph Najib - because it was a local supporter of Sunday's concert, whose major underwriters are Haas and Philadelphia philanthropist Richard Goodwin. In the fall, Haas and Goodwin intend to bring a revised version of last Sunday's concert to suburban Philadelphia. Under consideration for the site are a reformed synagogue on the Main Line, Haverford College, or Lang Concert Hall in Swarthmore.

Yusif's hosted a preconcert dinner March 27.

"We have peace here!" Najib told Bar-David, as Najib and daughters Lida and Lara brought out the hummus and falafel platters. Twenty-five people bought tickets for the dinner-and-concert.

The modest deli-restaurant, in a North Phoenix strip mall, is a far cry from chic, palm-laden North Scottsdale Road, where the music took place the following afternoon. Multiculturalism isn't just a buzz-word here. The diverse dinner group included a television newscaster of Lebanese descent, a rabbi who plays the piano, and an Egyptian opera singer. There was also the Borick family, whose late grandfather was a prominent oud player and whose granddaughter, Anne Borick, an internist, took her medical studies at Temple University.

Sitting at a nearby table were Philadelphians Haas and Emilio Gravagno, who plays bass in the Philadelphia Orchestra. Across from Gravagno, sipping Turkish coffee as a chaser for the Arab liquor called ara, was Kavichandran Alexander, from Isla Vista, Calif., by way of Ceylon. Alexander is the founder of Water Lily, an audiophile and world-music record label. Water Lily and the Philadelphia Orchestra are engaged in an experimental analog recording of Liszt and Dvorak to be released in May.

"I like this idea [because] it is the same thing I am trying to do with my label," Alexander said of the concert. "To bring together music from the Eastern and Western cultures, to find the music of the future," he said.

"This is a new idea, and I am interested to see how the musics will blend," said Najib, who has lived in Arizona 27 years and serves on the local and national boards of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. "Fifteen years ago we had a real crisis of identity. You didn't dare want to be identified as an Arab. People thought you were a terrorist.

"We have done many things to communicate, but we have not made music," Najib said of Arabs and Jews. "Music is an unspoken language that says a lot. It is so very important to the Arab world because through it we speak. If I would play a song for you, you would know my feelings - if there is anger, affection or love."