Next week at WDCD Live we will discuss what design can do for Africa, for music and for refugees, but yesterday the Orchestra of Syrian Musicians together with several artists from Africa demonstrated in Amsterdam theatre hall Carré what music can do for refugees. Sold out to the last chair – 1756 seats – the hall exploded from enthusiasm and emotion under the tones of the musicians reunited for the first time in five years.
In attendance of former Queen Beatrix and 250 invited asylum seekers the concert in the Holland Festival program presented 30 current and former members of the Syrian National Orchestra for Arabic Music, a choir of 20 singers and different artists from Britain, Syria, Algeria, Lebanon, Mali, Mauritania, Senegal, Tunisia, led by Blur frontman Damon Albarn.
Guest performers
Albarn first played with the Syrian National Orchestra for Arabic Music musicians at the Damascus Opera House in 2008. For this special concert tour musicians who previously worked with Albarn, travelling from both inside and outside Syria, reunited for a heart-warming orchestral performance of Arabic music alongside Albarn and other guest performers.
Among them kora player Seckou Keita from Senegal, Bassekou Kouyaté, player of the ngoni, a West African lute, Syrian and Lebanese hip hop artists Bu Kolthoum, Eslam Jawaad, and Malikah, and singers Faia Younan from Aleppo, Noura Mint Seymali from Mauretania, and the Algerian singer and activist Rachid Taha. Also present Paul Weller (The Jam, The Style Council) who together with Albarn and the orchestra performed a version of the Beatle’s classic ‘Black Bird’.
A gap to fill
The concert was overwhelming and filledthe audience with joy and sympathy for the musicians who for so long hadn’t had the opportunity to perform together. Only after this special event there was a somewhat awkward moment, when the Dutch public, drinks in their hand on the terrace of a nearby café looked at the 250 invited refugees who, across the streets where waiting until they could board the busses that would bring them back to the asylum seekers centres. There was clearly a gap to bridge, proof that the many designer’s solutions in this field entered for the WDCD Refugee Challenge meet an urgent need.