HOW MUSIC HELPED IRAQI TEENAGER ZUHAL SULTAN THROUGH WAR
Deborah Haynes in Baghdad
The Times
March 28, 2009
An Iraqi teenager who braved the violence of the war and insurgency
to keep on learning the piano is to give her first British recital
next week.
Zuhal Sultan, 17, was forced to teach herself between 2004 and
2007 as her country descended into chaos and her piano teacher quit
because of the dangers — musicians became one of the many targets of
the insurgents, with several killed or forced to flee. "Many music
teachers stopped showing up at school, most left the country," said
Zuhal, in perfect English.
A gifted child, she earned a place at the once prestigious Baghdad
Music and Ballet School, where she studied until the 2003 invasion. A
drop in violence in the past year means it is much safer to attend
school, but many teachers and pupils have yet to return.
Zuhal receives intermittent coaching via a webcam from Reiko Aizawa,
a renowned Japanese pianist who lives in the United States. Both have
a laptop near their pianos so that Zuhal can hear Ms Aizawa play and
then follow suit.
"I am super-excited and super-nervous," she said. She is also in
Britain to promote her latest project: the creation of a national
youth orchestra in Iraq.
"I have always want ed a youth orchestra in Iraq," she told The Times
in Baghdad before her departure. "Music will make young people listen
to each other and interact."
Zuhal started to play the piano aged 6, after her mother noticed
how she would try to mimic television theme tunes on a toy piano
at home. During the worst of the violence she tried to continue her
classes despite the risk of travelling to and from school.
"This situation went on for a long time so just to sit back and say
‘Oh I can’t go out, I can’t go to school’ is absolutely ridiculous,"
Zuhal said with determination. "We must go on and we must do whatever
it takes to help things get better."
Her favourite piano music includes Mozart’s piano concerto No 23, as
well as the Rachmaninov Preludes and Maurice Ravel’s Piano Concerto
in G major.
She was invited to join the Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra as
an accompanist but now appears with them as a soloist. It was this
experience with the orchestra that triggered the desire to form a
youth version. "I felt like I was part of a big family and I really
wanted to make everyone have that feeling," she said.
Her idea was supported by the British Council in Baghdad and Musicians
for Harmony, a US-based organisation that promotes peace.
Zuhal was put in touch with a Channel 4 project called Battlefront,
which is following 20 teena gers over nine months as they campaign
for issues they care about.
If all goes well, Iraq’s first summer academy for young musicians
will take place in Sulaimaniyah, Iraqi Kurdistan, in August. About 50
youngsters aged 14 to 29 have applied to take part. Those selected
will play together for two weeks before going on tour to Armenia
and Georgia.
Zuhal hopes to become a professional pianist and Iraq’s first female
conductor. As if that was not enough, she also wants to be a lawyer.