{"id":13418,"date":"2019-07-30T16:47:46","date_gmt":"2019-07-30T23:47:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/?p=13418"},"modified":"2019-07-30T16:49:35","modified_gmt":"2019-07-30T23:49:35","slug":"guitars-help-syrias-orontes-quartet-escape-the-horrors-of-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/guitars-help-syrias-orontes-quartet-escape-the-horrors-of-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Guitars Help Syria\u2019s Orontes Quartet Escape the Horrors of War"},"content":{"rendered":"
BY SUSAN MCDONALD | FROM THE SUMMER 2019 ISSUE OF CLASSICAL GUITAR<\/a><\/h6>\n

[Editor\u2019s note: In our Spring 2017 issue, we published an article by Susan McDonald about her work with Syrian war refugees as head of the guitar program at the YES Academy at Notre Dame University in Louaize, Lebanon.<\/strong><\/a> This article focuses on one recent success story.] \u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

As the ship pulled away from the coast and rumbled purposefully towards the west, I glanced at the shadowed faces of my companions. The sun set quickly at that time of year.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, guys!\u201d I motioned towards the bright line of sunset which illuminated the sea and islands in the distance, transforming the hazy purple outlines into molten gold. As they turned away from the east, the light caught their faces. Even after almost 20 hours of travel, weighted by the knowledge that something could go wrong, that it could all still fall apart, they looked so much younger than when we\u2019d first met in Beirut, three years earlier.<\/p>\n

Thanks to a handful of fellow obsessional dreamers, the Orontes Guitar Quartet had finally arrived in Canada from Syria, with all of its mortars, violence, and fear of extremist Islamist groups such as ISIS and the Al Nusrah Front\u2014as well as its ancient history, artists, still-vibrant cafes, and the shattered beauty of its elegant courtyards, many now reduced to rubble.<\/p>\n

When Orwa, Gabriel, and Nazeer first arrived in Beirut in 2015 to audition for my guitar program at YES Academy, I thought they were middle-aged men. Thin, intense, and reeking of the cigarettes they perpetually smoked back then to calm their nerves, they looked battle-weary. I had no idea how they\u2019d managed to cross the border into Lebanon, but when I heard each of them play it no longer mattered.<\/p>\n

\"\"(L to R) Orwa, Meer, Gabriel, Nazeer<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

They were brilliant. Their hands and shoulders held a great deal of tension, and their technique and sound needed some work, but their level of virtuosity spoke to the intensive and disciplined training they\u2019d received in Damascus. When I asked if there was anyone else in Syria who played as well as they did, they graciously replied, \u201cEveryone at the Higher Institute plays like us.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The next day, I noticed that they looked younger. The day after, younger still. After a concert we performed together for kids who\u2019d been traumatized by violence, I overheard them saying, \u201cThe sky is blue. The birds are singing.\u201d I asked if the climate in Damascus, only 80 kilometers away, was similar. They laughed. \u201cNo, in Syria the sky is black. And the bombs kill all the birds.\u201d I soon learned that they were only 22 years old\u2014in my country, barely old enough to legally drink.<\/p>\n

By the time they shyly asked if I could help them find a safe place to relocate, I was already working on ideas. <\/b>They\u2019d told me of their lives in their beloved but war-torn homeland: the shelling, the military checkpoints, the constant noise of the generators that kicked on every time the power went out, the shrieking of military planes overhead, the percussive sound of gunfire, blood on the ground, the air thick with smoke, the nearby ISIS tunnels from which terrorists would emerge to create roadblocks, searching their victims for alcohol, cigarettes, tattoos, or signs that they were musicians\u2014a transgression punishable by execution or amputation.<\/p>\n