Al Kamandjati Festival: The festival is organized by the Al Kamandjati nonprofit organization located in Ramallah. The organization offers music lessons to children and youth in Palestine, it was funded by the world renown Palestinian composer, musician and educator, Ramzi Aburedwan. The goal of the organization is to preserve Palestinian cultural heritage through education and creative development, as well as give youth an alternative to throwing stones (like Ramzi himself used to when he was young). Their vision: “to contribute to the building of a cohesive society that respects freedom of expression, pluralism, tolerance, equality and cooperation.”
The organization collaborates internationally and the Festival is a result of these collaborations, sponsored by the European Union, and in collaboration with many other local and international organizations. The Festival is on its 3rd year, traveling this April around Palestine to present a musical journey through world traditions. They are in Hebron from the 18th to the 21st with a fully packed schedule of music, dance, talks, handcrafts and food. After Hebron they will continue to Gaza and finishes with a concert at the Dead Sea close to Jericho.
Some of our volunteers made their way to some of the concerts in the Friendship Garden of the Old City and at the Issad Tofula Cultural Center close to our premises. During the inauguration ceremony presenters talked about the importance of music for the development of a cultural identity. Also stating that even though music doesn’t create immediate peace, it surely contributes to it. The goal of the Festival is to host musicians from different countries and backgrounds, sharing the beauty and power of music. The oral tradition of transmitting stories and history through music is very important, by bringing musicians from different backgrounds together, new music traditions can arise.
Al Kamandjati ensemble closed the festival on the 21st of April with a beautiful performance including voice, tabla percussion, ney (traditional flute) and the Arghul, an amazing instrument that sounds like bagpipes. Furthermore some of the volunteers got to experience other concerts, like the one on the first day of the festival with the greek oud player Kyriakos Kalaitzidis and the turkish singer Gulay Hacer Toruk singing traditional arabic music. Also The Diwan Ensemble and Ahbab Al Mustafa Ensemble played at the Friendship Gardens in the Old City of Hebron on the second day, filling the atmosphere with peaceful sufi incantation. Volunteers and locals alike truly enjoyed having the opportunity to listen to live music, it is not so often there are cultural events in Hebron and this was a real treat for our volunteers.
One of our volunteers translated a quote in the festival booklet for us, it read something about how people who do not know their cultural history are like trees without roots. Everyone agreed with this, music is a very important part of the cultural history of an area, it needs to be passed on from generation to generation. The Al Kamandjati organization does just that, while at the same time creates new cultural expressions through music, it was beautiful to experience.
