Top conductor takes inspiration from Iraqi maestro to create UN of orchestras

Alan Gilbert

NEW YORK: In his eight years leading the New York Philharmonic, Alan Gilbert has witnessed the power of music to connect cultures — and watched as political strife consumes much of the world.
Closing his tenure in one of classical music’s most prestigious positions, Gilbert is planning a next chapter by creating a sort of UN of orchestras.
Dubbed Musicians for Unity, Gilbert envisions a group of artists from around the world who can come together at short notice.
The musicians will “play concerts that express hope for peace and cooperation and shared humanity,” he told AFP.
Gilbert has taken inspiration from Karim Wasfi, conductor of the Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra, who was among the guests for his Philharmonic finale.
Wasfi has turned up with his cello to play in the aftermath of bombings in Baghdad, assuaging pain through the soothing power of music.
Gilbert experimented with the idea last week as he led his last series at the Philharmonic’s home in Lincoln Center.
At his invitation, the orchestra was joined by musicians from 24 countries that often have sour political relations with the US or one another including China, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Russia and Venezuela.
If the project sounds utopian, Gilbert is clear-eyed about the limits.
He recalled that the New York Philharmonic in 2008 played a landmark concert in North Korea that brought some audience members to tears. Yet Gilbert acknowledged that tensions surrounding the nuclear-armed communist state have grown since.
Still, Gilbert believes that music can only be a positive force in a world where conventional diplomacy can come up short.
“I do think that in this day, the talking is not exactly working,” Gilbert said.
Gilbert on Tuesday began to guide the Philharmonic in a series of free concerts across all five New York boroughs, presenting well-known works including Dvorak’s “New World Symphony.”
Yet for his final series at Lincoln Center, Gilbert made eclectic selections including a piece by Kinan Azmeh, the Syrian-born clarinetist who marries Arabic and Western classical music.