Make music, not hate.

This is what they do, the musicians of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra — founded in 1999 as a workshop for young musicians from Israel, Palestine and other Arab countries, and continuing today with musicians from throughout the Mideast.

This month, UC Davis is hosting a five-member ensemble from the orchestra, for an evening program of music, a film screening and a roundtable discussion. The Nov. 15 program is free and open to the public, with seating limited to 200.

"This is an opportunity to listen to beautiful music and the harmonies that emerge when we work across our political and cultural divides," said Carolyn de la Peña, professor of American studies and director of the UC Davis Humanities Institute, who was instrumental in organizing the concert.

"Sometimes art can point the way to cohesion," de la Peña said.

(The ensemble is set to perform once more at UC Davis, on Nov. 16, during the closing ceremonies of the Governors' Global Climate Summit 3. This event is for registered participants only.)

Craig Cogut, founder and managing partner of Pegasus Capital Advisors, a U.S.-based private equity fund manager, is underwriting the ensemble's visit.

Campus sponsors for the Nov. 15 concert are the Hate-Free Campus Initiative (a program of the Office of Campus Community Relations), the UC Davis Humanities Institute, the Department of Music, the Middle East-South Asian Studies Program, the Religious Studies Program and the Jewish Studies Program.

"The Campus Council on Community and Diversity welcomes the opportunity to include this event, which reflects both our Principles of Community and our commitment to building a more inclusive campus climate, under the umbrella of our Hate-Free Campus Initiative,” said Rahim Reed, associate executive vice chancellor in charge of the Office of Campus Community Relations.

The public program is scheduled from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the Vanderhoef Studio Theatre at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts. Organizers said Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi will introduce the ensemble.

The program includes Mozart's Clarinet Quintet in A Major and the screening of excerpts from Knowledge Is the Beginning, a documentary about the orchestra

During the roundtable, the orchestra members are expected to discuss their experiences of creative collaboration and political engagement through music and performance.

Listening to the composer — and one another

The key, according to the orchestra's co-founder, Daniel Barenboim, is listening. “Every player listening intently to the voice of the composer and to each other,” he wrote on the orchestra’s website.

“Harmony in personal or international relations can also only exist by listening. Each party opening their ears to the other’s narrative or point of view.”

Barenboim, a Jewish composer, conductor and pianist, joined with Edward Said, a Palestinian-American literary theorist, in creating the workshop that led to the orchestra. Barenboim continues to lead the orchestra today; Said died in 2003.

The orchestra’s name is from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s collection of poems West-Eastern Divan, described on the orchestra’s website as “a central work for the evolution of the concept of world culture.”

According to the website, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra holds only one political conviction: “that there will never be a military solution to the Middle East conflict, and that the destinies of the Israelis and Palestinians are inextricably linked.”

“Through its work and existence, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra demonstrates that bridges can be built to encourage people to listen to one another.”

Now, more than 10 years after the orchestra’s founding, Barenboim wrote, “We have hopefully achieved an orchestra that is worthy of your ear. And one which shows that people who listen to each other, both musically and in all other ways, can achieve greater things.”

Indeed, just last weekend in Münster, Germany, the orchestra received the Westfalia Peace Prize — in a ceremony that featured a performance by a West-Eastern Divan ensemble, not the same one that is coming to UC Davis, but one that played the same Mozart piece: Clarinet Quintet in A Major.

The 100-plus musicians who comprise the full performance orchestra come together only once a year, for a summer session and tour. In recent years, the orchestra has been sending out smaller formations for performances like the ones at UC Davis and in Münster.

The orchestra boasts a membership that is equal parts Israeli and Arab, with Turkey and Iran also represented. So too is Spain, where the orchestra meets (in Seville) each summer.

AT A GLANCE

WHAT: Concert, film screening and roundtable discussion with a five-member ensemble from the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra

WHEN: 5:30-7:30 p.m. Nov. 15

WHERE: Vanderhoef Studio Theatre, Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts

ADMISSION: Free and open to the public.

THE MUSICIANS and their homelands:

• Kinan Azmeh, clarinet, Syria
  
• Michael Barenboim, first violin, Israel (he is the concertmaster of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra and the son of Daniel Barenboim)
  
• Tyme Khleifi, second violin, Palestine
  
• Laya Etemadi, viola, Iran
  
• Yael Rubinstein, violoncello, Israel

MUSIC PROGRAM:

• Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet in A Major, K. 581 ("Stadler")
  
• Prayer — A Tribute to Edward Said, solo clarinet piece by Azmeh (who is due to perform with the ensemble)
• Violin solo

THE REST OF THE PROGRAM:

• Film screening — Knowledge Is the Beginning (excerpts), a documentary about the orchestra
• Roundtable discussion — with members of the orchestra discussing their experiences of creative collaboration and political engagement through music and performance

•••

ON THE WEB

West-Eastern Divan Orchestra

Hate-Free Campus Initiative

Office of Campus Community Relations

Earlier coverage: "Campus intensifies efforts to stamp out hate" (Oct. 8, 2010)