3-19-2014 Political Views Test the Harmony: Zubin Mehta, of the Israel Philharmonic, on That Nation's Affairs - CORINNA da FONSECA-WOLLHEIM New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/20/arts/music/zubin-mehta-of-the-israel-philharmonic-on-that-nations-affairs.html?hpw&rref=arts&_r=0

 

“I have such a love for this country, Israel, that I see it as a tragedy what’s going on,” the Mumbai-born Mr. Mehta, now 77, said recently…. “I speak openly about a country that I see, from my private musician’s perspective, as going in the wrong direction, as far as the settlements, as far as internal economic policies.”

 

… The Israel Philharmonic was founded on the eve of World War II… as the Palestine Orchestra in 1936 [with successive waves of musicians, Europeans Jews fleeing Nazism, Russians, and now sabras.]

But there are as yet no Arab Israeli members of the orchestra, and Mr. Mehthas thrown his weight behind an educational project run by members of the Israel Philharmonic that fosters talent in the predominantly Arab towns of Nazareth and Shfaram.... “So one of these days we’ll move the curtain at the end of an audition, and there will be an Arab boy or girl there,” he said. “It’s my dream.”

 

Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

 

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