Yuval Ron: Music as a Path to Wisdom
Miriam Knight: That’s such a beautiful story. And I have a great vested interest in seeing peace in the Middle East, as you know. And I’m wondering whether you saw rapprochement. What effects did you see your music in some of these really tense areas?
Yuval Ron: I can spend a few hours telling you all the stories and experiences that I created that I experienced and collected over the years. I can tell you a few of them.
A few years ago I was in residency at Yale University. I was the artist and resident in the Divinity School of Yale University, me and my whole ensemble. And we gave master classes and we gave workshops and we gave a concert. After the concert, a young student came to me, a really skinny, pale looking guy. And he told me, “Look, I am a voice major at Yale University and I’m going to graduate next year. I came to your concert, and I’m really inspired to do something with my music but I have no idea what. I want to do something good in the world with my music. Would you help me figure it out?” And I said to him, “Look, here is my e-mail and my phone number. Let’s keep in touch. I’ll be happy to mentor you. I’m happy to advise you.” So, this kid remained in touch with me, he told me later that he has this intuition that he needs to go to Jerusalem, that he needs to find what he will do with music in Jerusalem. I helped him and guided him to connect with musicians, Jewish musicians, Arabic musicians in Jerusalem who I know. And he went there on. He received a Fulbright grant to go to Jerusalem. He came up with a vision that he will create a choir of Jews, Christians, and Muslims, children in Jerusalem, and he called it the Jerusalem Youth Choir.
Can you believe that? Nobody ever dared to think even and come with this vision, because Jerusalem is so segregated because, they experience the hate, experience the anger. They are segregated physically. They’re divided mentally. He decided to go to all the high schools in Jerusalem and audition every child in Jerusalem in all the schools and find the best singers across that city from all the different neighborhoods and different religions and put them together. Can you believe this kid is going to talk to the principals of all those schools in that city? It’s a tough city.
Nobody wanted to talk to him. And you know what? I encouraged him to continue with his vision, and he made it. He created the Jerusalem Youth Choir. Now they’re giving concerts all over the world. They just finished last summer a tour of Japan. They are coming to sing in America. He connected families and kids from across the divide, and this all started with one concert that I gave in Yale University several years ago. Now, this is just one story. Now, we cannot measure it scientifically. We can see the impact of that in the future. The only thing one can do is to inspire good in the world, to inspire hope, and to inspire others to do the same.
