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Concert in Jordan a personal triumph for Zukerman

18.06.2008 21:02 Arts - Source: cbc.ca

Pinchas Zukerman, shown playing his Guarneri del Gesu violin, crossed the Israeli border into Jordan on foot Tuesday in advance of a Wednesday concert.

Pinchas Zukerman had breakfast in Tel Aviv and dinner in Jordan Tuesday, in advance of a concert that will mark a personal triumph for the Israeli-born music director of Canada's National Arts Centre Orchestra.

Wednesday evening, Zukerman is to play at the Petra Conference for Nobel Laureates, in Petra, Jordan, before an audience that will include Jordan's King Abdullah, Israel's Shimon Peres and the Dalai Lama.

However, it's not the guest list, which includes scientists and intellectuals from around the world, that has him so chuffed. It's the idea that a musician who was born a few months after the creation of the Israeli state and grew up thinking of his Jordanian neighbours as the enemy could come to Jordan and play for a group of 300 people from around the world.

"I can't describe it — what it was like to be crossing the border on foot and seeing the sign 'Welcome to Jordan,'" Zukerman told CBC News on Wednesday.

"To me personally, it's very historic in my own life," Zukerman said. "At six a.m. [Thursday] coming up, there will be a truce between Hamas and Israel. It will be a new beginning, and I think that's important to show people it can be done again."

Zukerman said he's dreamed for years of playing music on both sides of the Israeli border.

He traces the idea back to 1979, when he was at the White House to witness the signing of a peace pact between Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, negotiated with the help of U.S. President Jimmy Carter.

"That was a tremendous moment in my life. I turned 360 [degrees]completely," he said.

"I went to sit down at the peace signing about three o'clock in the afternoon and on either side of me were two Egyptian admirals. I thought that can't be my seat …We started chatting, and each one talks about music in Alexandria and music in Cairo, and my mind goes immediately to 1936 when the NBC Philharmonic was formed by Toscanini and their first tour was a Middle East tour — they went to Lebanon and Syria and all these countries and played music all over."

Since then, Zukerman said he has nurtured the hope that he could play throughout the Middle East.

Zukerman has attempted to cross the border to Jordan before — he had a trip planned in 2000 to Ramallah and Amman to do some music training.

He was travelling with Mitchell Sharp, the late Canadian foreign minister, who also dreamed of crossing the Jordan River into Jordan.

I said "Mitchell, We have to cross holding hands, arm and arm we'll cross that river," Zukerman recalled.

But the intifadah was beginning again, and after a few days in Israel, the musicians were advised not to make the trip.

"Politically, it would have looked very bad if Canada said at that time, let's go ahead and play," said Zukerman, who insists he does his best not to appear political.

Since then, Zukerman has travelled to Egypt, though not to perform.

During the concert Wednesday, he'll be playing violin in the Zukerman Chamber Players, a group that includes Yefim Bronfman on piano, Jethro Marks on viola, Amanda Forsyth on cello and Joel Quarrington on double bass.

"I can tell you from my heart that when you play and play well and it sounds good, people feel better," Zukerman said. "So if it makes a few hundred [people] in this area come to the purpose of creating peace in the world — to bring food and water and things that are so essential in this world and make it work — well then I've done by job."

With files from CBC Radio's Q

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