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March 19, 1999/2 Nisan 5759, Vol. 51, No. 25
Ensemble rallies for peace through music
TAMI BICKLEY
Staff Writer
Every so often, life imitates art.
Moshe Bukshpan is hoping this will be the case when, in a performance at the Kerr Cultural Center in Scottsdale on Sunday, March 28, Israeli and Palestinian musicians join together in concert and play a selection of Israeli folk tunes, Sephardic pieces and Arabic music.
Bukshpan says that through this special musical event here in Phoenix, he hopes to send a message overseas to Jews and Palestinians in his native Israel. He would like the long-time rift between the two cultures to close. And he says he looks forward to a time when Israeli and Palestinian children can play together worldwide without fear or controversy.
In addition to playing music together, the musicians will converse loudly enough for the audience to hear between musical numbers, Bukshpan says, as proof that, aside from relating to one another musically, they, as Israelis and Palestinians, can also relate to one another personally.
Bukshpan, an Israeli Jew and violinist, moved to the United States from Israel in 1976. He received his master's degree in music from Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Ill., in 1979. He then moved around the midwest, performing in various orchestras before settling in Arizona in 1981. He taught private music lessons and played in local music groups for the next 12 years.
Six years ago, Bukshpan created the Mosaic Chamber Ensemble, a string quartet, in Phoenix. He says he chose the name because "a mosaic is an inlay of different pieces that come together." This is reflective of the local musicians with diverse backgrounds who make up the quartet.
Bukshpan is the only member of the Mosaic Chamber Ensemble participating in the concert at the Kerr. Joining him on stage will be: Simon Shaheen, a Palistinian violinist; Ohad Bar-David, an Israeli cellist; and Keiko Sato, Bar-David's wife, a pianist.
Shaheen began studying music when he was 5, with his father, Hikmat Shaheen, a composer and teacher of Arab music. Currently, Simon Shaheen is an independent musician who lives in New York City and performs at venues including Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York. He is expected to play some Arab and Palestinian selections at the upcoming concert, including one that he composed.
Sato teaches at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Bar-David has played with the Philadelphia Orchestra since 1987. This will be his second concert with Bukshpan.
Last year, Bar-David joined the Mosaic Chamber Ensemble as a guest artist in a concert at Temple Chai in Phoenix. He says he looks forward to performing Israeli, Arabic and Palestinian songs, which he feels will send a message of peace locally and to Israel, where he occasionally performs.
"I think it's great to bring Jewish and Arab musicians together," he says. "I believe that music is probably the most cosmopolitan language, and could contribute to co-existence better than any other language."
Bar-David is co-chair of an organization that supports a community in Israel that offers peaceful co-existence between Israeli Jews, Christians and Arabs. Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam ("Oasis of Peace" in Hebrew and Arabic) is a community of 35 families on a hilltop between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Since the late 1970s, the community has been an example of tolerance and understanding among Jews, Muslims and Christians, Bar-David says. Residents of the community govern the land.
The American Friends of Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam organization is made up of Americans who want to see the small community in Israel thrive and grow, Bar-David says. Some notable supporters are actors Dustin Hoffman and Richard Gere. The organization is co-sponsoring the concert at the Kerr, along with the Goodwin Foundation, led by Philadelphian and Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam supporter Richard Goodwin.
The Mosaic Chamber Ensemble is supported through donations and money earned in private performances, such as weddings and parties. Bukshpan says the ensemble would like to become a non-profit organization soon.
Also, Bukshpan would like to increase the number of ensemble concerts from a few a year to between four and six per year, he says.
And depending on the success of the upcoming concert, this may not be the last time that musicians rally for peace by way of strings in Phoenix.
"I think that all peace lovers who are willing to listen should be attracted to this kind of dialogue," Bar-David says. "This is a (unique) dialogue based on the arts, and our hope is that it will affect enough people and create new ways for communication between Arabs and Jews."
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