"I had no idea what to expect. How to talk to these people - they were just foreign creatures..."
~a young musician in the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra.
Nearly twenty years ago, conductor Daniel Barenboim and scholar Edward Said started a music workshop to bring together young Arab and Israeli musicians from across the Middle East together to play in an orchestra together, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra.
"The Divan" as the orchestra is known has continued to bring musicians together to study music at a high level, perform in major concert halls, and even become friends. Barenboim, profiled recently on 60 Minutes, says he has no illusions that this orchestra will create piece, but he says they work to build bridges, create a shared sense of purpose, and have the participants at least get to know each other and see each other as people. You can watch the story here:
"Daniel Barenboim tries bridging the Middle East conflict with music" (60 Minutes)
