It was in 2008 that conductor, Paul Macalindin www.facebook.com/macalindin
, was sitting at a window table in his favourite Edinburgh pub, The Barony,
reading an old copy of the Glasgow Herald when he saw the headline ‘Search for
UK maestro to help create an orchestra in Iraq.’
Sandstone Press http://sandstonepress.com/books/upbeat
have recently published Macalindin’s own
story from 2008 - 2014 with all the stresses and triumphs along the way.
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| Sandstone Press Ltd Hardback ISBN: 9781910985090 318 pages 62 colour photographs |
It was a 17 year old Iraqi pianist, Zuhal Sultan https://twitter.com/zuhalsultan who conceived the idea of creating a national
youth orchestra of Iraq. Born in Baghdad in July 1991, Zuhal, the youngest of a
scientific family of two boys and two girls, she started piano studies at the
age of six with the help of a private tutor. At the age of nine she received a
scholarship to study at the Music and Ballet School of Baghdad. After the 2003
Iraq War, Zuhal was left without a piano teacher but continued to teach herself,
as well as the younger students in her piano class. Despite all these
difficulties, she joined the Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra when she was
fifteen and has performed concerts both at home and abroad.
The result of reading the article in the Glasgow Herald started
Paul Macalindin on an incredible journey. From his first meeting with Zuhal via
Skype through the first two week summer course in Suleymaniyah, Kurdistan in
2009, subsequent summer schools, the orchestra’s appearance at the 2011
Beethovenfest in Bonn, appearing at the Edinburgh Festival/fringe in 2012 that
culminated in a concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London with Julian Lloyd
Webber, an appearance at Aix en Provence in 2013 to a failed US trip due,
initially to funding and immigration difficulties and then the rise of ISIL.
It is difficult to imagine the difficulties that Paul
Macalindin, his brave young players and the tutors gathered from a number of
countries had to overcome. The author certainly opens our eyes. First and
foremost was the problem of security, or lack of, in an unstable part of the
world. Auditions to join the orchestra had to be conducted by video. There were
cultural, ethnic and language difficulties as it was vital that the orchestra
should be inclusive and draw its members from all parts of Iraq including Arab,
Shia and Sunni and Kurds. Venues were often grand but lacking in reliable
air-conditioning, something essential in the summer heat. Accommodation for the
orchestra was sometimes appalling. Instruments
were often damaged or of poor quality. There was the Iraqi bureaucracy and most
of all perhaps there were funding problems.
The toll on Macalindin during his time at the helm of the
NYOI was considerable, emotionally, physically and financially. Nevertheless, in
his book he leads us on a story that is often very moving but essentially
uplifting. There is humour and above all tremendous hope and confidence in the
young musicians. His is a very honest, forthright account that doesn’t pull any
punches when criticising those who put up barriers and yet fulsome in praise
for those many people and organisations that went beyond what might be expected
to help the young players.
The young musicians themselves often experienced great
danger in pursuing their musical interests. In certain parts of Iraq it was not
acceptable for females to play an instrument, in other areas to be seen with a
violin, oboe or bassoon would in itself cause danger. Often the young people
had to carry their instrument disguised in a small suitcase or other bag.
There is no doubt that many barriers were broken down as the
young members of the orchestra, often already traumatised by the experiences
that they had been through, began to see each other just as musicians, learning
to work together to produce great music.
Paul Macalindin’s book is an engrossing read, cover to cover,
that enlarges our understanding of this troubled region. Above all it is a
tribute to those brave young musicians that came together as the NYOI.
There is a forward provided by the late Sir Peter Maxwell
Davies who sadly did not live to see the book in print.
The future of the National Youth Orchestra of Iraq is
inevitably bound up with the future of Iraq but one can only hope that the
young musicians of Iraq will go forward to achieve their musical goals.
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