By Ruba Hattar
From a little boy who threw rocks at Israeli soldiers in defiance to a newspaper salesman in the Ameri camp in Ramallah to France to study music and become a gold medalist bouzuq and viola player, Ramzi Abu Radwan is now putting his talent and knowledge in the service of children in Palestine in a new form of resilience.
Ramzi grew up in Al Amari refugee camp in Ramallah, a camp his family was forced to relocate to in 1948. Like many other Palestinian children, his childhood was greatly marked by the violence of the occupation and by the first Intifada (1987-1992)
Abu Radwan brought back his knowledge of music from France to Palestine and established AlKamanjati center in France in 2002,
“to disseminate music culture among all members of the Palestinian society, to empower the creativity of young persons, make them aware of their Palestinian national identity, and contribute to the building of a cohesive society that respects freedom of expression, pluralism, tolerance, equality and cooperation.”
He and his associates began to organize cultural events in order to raise funds by organizing concerts, festivals and lectures, as well as collecting musical instruments and teaching materials, and work on raising public support for creating music schools for Palestinian children.
Al Kamanjati at UNRWA schools.
Al-Kamanjati in France also “seeks funding from different institutions in Europe and around the world, sends music instructors to Al Kamanjati in Palestine for one or two school years, facilitates music studies in Europe for talented Palestinian students, and sends instrument makers and repairmen to Palestine to repair the instruments and to transmit their know-how to Palestinian children.”
A prominent Al Kamandjâti network was also established early on in Italy, by Nicola Perugini and Marco Dinoi. The network included members of the Mozart Orchestra of Bologna directed by Claudio Abado, Paci Christi, the Sienna Municipality, the Region of Puglia and the city of Bari. Since then, Al Kamandjati’s Italian partners collect instruments, send music teachers and string instrument makers to Palestine, and host Palestinian musicians in Italy for collaborative work.
Al-Ksmanjati's Young Composer Program in Jenin
A notable collaborative production was the "Al Kamanjati Show", which was presented in Parca de la Musica in Rome. This opera, by Guido Barbieri and Oscar Pizzo, was co-produced by the Foundation Musica per Roma in Italy and the Oslo Ultima Festival, in Norway. Al Kamanjati’s has by now built a world-wide network of collaboration and support that includes artistic and educational exchanges with notable music institutions and with independent artists.
Over 300 children benefit from Kamanjati center in Palestinian cities, villages and camps.
From holding a stone to playing a viola, Abu Radwan continues to teach new generations of Palestinian youth how to express themselves and narrate their stories through the universal language of music that almost anyone and everyone can relate to and understand.
