Oscar-winning musician calls for peace at Istanbul concert

VERCİHAN ZİFLİOĞLU

ISTANBUL – Hürriyet Daily News

World-renowned musician Yuval Ron and his ensemble will call for peace in the world at a concert in Istanbul. ‘Teach your children the teaching of Musa [Moses], which is [love your fellow man as yourself] and remember the teaching of Jesus Christ [to love your enemy],’ says the Israeli-born winner of Oscar and Grammy awards

Award-winning Israeli musician Yuval Ron, the leader of an ensemble of Arabic, Jewish and Christian artists, will call for peace in the world at his concert Thursday night in Istanbul’s Sultanahmet neighborhood.

“The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a wound I carry with me every day. It is a family fight because Arab and Jews, we are a family. You may say we are cousins but we are actually half-brothers, we have the same father,” the Israeli-born, U.S.-based musician told the Hürriyet Daily News after arriving in Turkey for the concert.

“When Abraham died, both his sons came together to bury him. They came together out of respect and love for their father, even though they were not on friendly terms during their lives and their mothers were in conflict,” Ron said. The leader of the Yuval Ron Ensemble, he has won a Grammy and many other awards, including an Oscar for the short musical film “West Bank Story,” to which he wrote the score.

Speaking about last year’s deadly attack by Israeli commandos on the Mavi Marmara, a ship carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza, Ron said: “It was a very unfortunate event of violence; unnecessary violence saddens me very much.”

Nine Turkish activists were killed onboard the vessel, souring relations between Turkey and Israel.

“It is important Turkey becomes a trusted leader of peace in the Middle East and is able to gain the friendship of both sides in the conflict,” Ron said.

The Mavi Marmara is to set sail to Gaza again in late June as part of an international group of 15 ships. According to convoy organizers with the Humanitarian Relief Foundation, or İHH, 500,000 people applied to join the second flotilla, which will carry approximately 1,500 activists from about 100 countries, as well as humanitarian aid and medical, school and construction materials.

Three Abrahamic traditions

Ron’s Istanbul concert will be held at 9 p.m. Thursday at the Amphi Theater in Sultanahmet Square. During the performance, three religious figures – a muezzin, who leads the call to prayer at a mosque, a cantor, or chief singer in a church choir, and a hazan, who sings or chants prayers in a synagogue – will take the stage to represent the three faiths.

“We will bring sacred music and singers from the three Abrahamic traditions, who will sing together to show people the beauty and harmony of all of us,” Ron said. “We will have a whirling dervish from the Mevlevi order and a Sufi master singer from Pakistan with us, as well as a singer from Yemen, a singer from Morocco and great masters of various musical instruments of the Middle East.”

The musician called for Istanbul to be “the leader of peace in the Middle East and a leader in peace between the East and West.”

“Istanbul is the meeting point of Asia and Europe, of East and West. Istanbul is the middle, and according to the mystical teaching of Judaism, Sufism and Buddhism, the ‘middle’ is the place of wisdom,” he added.

“Teach your children the teaching of Musa [Moses], which is to ‘love your fellow man as yourself’; remember the teaching of Jesus Christ to ‘love your enemy.’ Answer hate with love,” Ron said.

Ron’s concert is Istanbul is being organized in collaboration with the Intercultural Dialogue Platform, or KADIP, Kültür A.Ş. and the Koza Foundation. Admission to the concert is free but reservations must be made by emailing a ticket request to: [email protected].

via Oscar-winning musician calls for peace at Istanbul concert – Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Review.