The Palestine Youth Orchestra (PYO) performed two sold out concerts for Gaza at the Amman Academy in Jordan on 15 and 16 July 2024. The concerts, which highlighted the outstanding talents and determination of the young Palestinian musicians, followed 10 days of intensive rehearsals and included music performed with the Aman Choir.
The PYO was created in 2004 by the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music with the vision of bringing together young Palestinian musicians, aged 13 – 27 years, from across the globe. Young musicians come back year after year, describing the PYO as ‘family’ and a way to ‘recharge their souls’ for the following 12 months.
This year the PYO was conducted by Lamar Elias. Lamar started her musical journey at the age of 9 at the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music in Bethlehem. She continued her violin studies at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Toulouse. Her passion for conducting emerged at the age of 13. She obtained her DNSPM diploma at the Higher Institute of Arts in Toulouse, in partnership with the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse.
The thought-provoking concert program included Western Classical and Arabic music:
Ahmad al Arabi – Marcel Khalife
Finlandia – Jean Sibelius
Adagio for Strings – Samuel Barber
Salam li Gaza – Suhail Khoury
1812 Overture – Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Remembrance – Salvador Arnita
Mary of Gaza- Suhail Khoury
The PYO is a leading youth orchestra with c.80 musicians, which has toured worldwide. Over the past decade, the orchestra has performed internationally, to include in Palestine, Germany, France, Jordan, Syria, Bahrain, Lebanon, Greece Italy and Turkey. In 2016, PalMusic organised an ambitious UK tour, which culminated at the Royal Festival Hall in London.
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With thanks to those who supported the professional musicians to coach the orchestra sections including Kun Europe Ltd.