Solo Concert & Reading by Elena Cheah

Music is  the universal language. We’ve all heard that one before. Yet the language itself doesn’t start a conversation. Listening does.

A group of young Israeli and Arab musicians most certainly started listening to each other in 1999 when Edvard Said and Daniel Barenboim founded the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. In 2006, when the Lebanon war had broken out, a number of musicians from Syria and Lebanon were prevented form attending the regular summer workshop. This is when Elena Cheah, cellist, writer and an American of Chinese and Jewish roots, became a member of the orchestra. Along with a number of other professional musicians she was asked to join and strengthen the orchestra that summer. However, Elena stayed in the orchestra even after the war had ended. Moved by her experience within it and inspired by personal stories of the members of the orchestra, she decided to give them a voice in her book An Orchestra Beyond Borders.

Elena Cheah will give a unique performance. She will perform solo pieces by Bach, Crumb, Carter, Cassado and read excerpts from the book An Orchestra Beyond Borders.

A conversation about the book will be conducted after the performance.

to find out more about Elena Cheah, please visit: elenacheah.com

Location: ACUD Theater, Veteranenstraße 21, 10119 Berlin

Entrance: 7,- € / reduced 5,- €

Organizer: HAMAKOM