Beethoven and more 2011 podcast #34: Big bang, and a prayer
October 14, 2011
Ali Authman
Invocation (commissioned by Deutsche Welle)
National Youth Orchestra Iraq
Members of the German National Youth Orchestra
Conductor: Paul MacAlindin
MP3 recorded on October 1, 2011 in the Beethoven Hall Bonn by Deutsche Welle (DW)
"Iraq isn't a war, it's a country" was the headline to an article on the performance of the Iraqi youth orchestra at the Beethovenfest. Founded by Zuhal Sultan, a young Iraqi pianist living in exile, the orchestra is made up of Arabs, Kurds, Sunnis and Shiites, thus uniting the various cultures, languages and philosophies of that complex land between the Tigris and the Euphrates. German President Christian Wulff saw in this "Campus Concert" 2011 "a strong sign of hope" for the future of Iraq.
Deutsche Welle commissioned two pieces of music for the concert, one from a Kurdish and one from an Arab composer. Ali Authman, born in 1973 in Iraq's Kurdish region, studied at the University of Baghdad but has lived in the Netherlands since 1997. His music is often inspired by the meeting of Eastern and Western cultures.
On his newest work, Authman wrote: "The first Big Bang and the beginning of white and black creation ... are an invocation asking to remove the differences of human beings such as color, language, thought and beliefs."
Author: Rick Fulker
Editor: Suzanne Cords