National Identity and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra

• Main Author: Solveig Riiser
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: University of Exeter 2010-01-01
• Series: Music and Arts in Action
• Subjects: music; peace building; middle east conflict
• Online Access: http://musicandartsinaction.net/index.php/maia/article/view/nationalidentity

This article examines the role of national identity in the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, an orchestra consisting of young musicians from Egypt, Israel, Palestine, Turkey, Lebanon, Syria and Iran. The article is built upon the idea that there are constant negotiations at play in the orchestra, including among the musicians internally, between them and the orchestra’s founder and conductor Daniel Barenboim, and between the orchestra and its larger political and geographical context. This article unveils the inner dynamics of the ongoing identity negotiations in the orchestra, and the politics and power-mechanisms informing and defining these negotiations.