Amman Jazz Festival Celebrates International Jazz Day 2014 with Jazz for Syria
Amman – Beirut – Den Haag
If reconciliation starts anywhere, let it be music.
The art of music is the art of connection, collaboration and harmony.
Jazz for Syria, an international event raising awareness and support for Syrian refugees, will take place on UNESCO’s International Jazz Day Wednesday, 30th April, 2014. The event consists of three simultaneous concerts in Beirut (Lebanon), Amman (Jordan) and The Hague (The Netherlands) connected via Internet broadcast and virtual interaction.
International jazz day is organized by the UNESCO and involves its 195 member states to host jazz concerts and educational programs on International Jazz Day. This will give our activities great visibility to promote our messages of peace, unity and spread the love of music.
Amman will celebrate the International Jazz Day in collaboration with Syrious Mission and Syrian Music Lives on the 30th of April 2014 at Zara Expo, and the program will feature the following events:
• Syrious Mission (Holland) joined by Syrian refugee kids (a result of a series of workshops and music training with those children at the refugee camps).
• “Tribute to Paco De Lucia”, a concert by Andalucia (Jordan) featuring Laila Sabbagh from Palestine.
• Arabic Latin Jazz Concert by Andalucia Trio, Laila Sabbagh and guest artists.
Syrious Mission (www.syriousmission.org) developed successful ways to raise awareness, money and commitment in The Netherlands for a sustainable program of music workshops with Syrian refugees and the host communities in Jordan. The group worked without conventional funding and succeeded to organize training weeks for local musicians in Jordan on short notice by involving a large group of supporters in The Netherlands.
In addition to the main message of reconciliation and peace through music each of the concerts has its peculiar purpose, namely:
• The concert in The Netherlands aims to raise awareness about the situation in Syria. Its second goal is to raise funds to buy musical instruments for workshops with children in refugee camps in Lebanon and Jordan. The concert is hosted by Tony Overwater who will feature established Dutch artists such as Jan Akkerman, Freek de Jonge, Dick de Graaf, Gerard Kleijn and Konrad Koselleck accompanied by the Rembrandt Frerichs trio. All of these artists have played in Syria or have a special relationship with this country. They will share their stories and perform in Korzo, The Hague. Two days later the Rembrandt Frerichs trio will go to Jordan to deliver the instruments straight to Syrious Mission and the children of the Syrian refugee camp.
• The concert in Jordan is the official opening concert of the Amman Jazz Festival 2014 at the Zara Expo Theater. The main goal of this concert is to showcase the creative results of a one-week music workshop with Syrian children from the refugee camps initiated and held by SYRIOUS Mission.
• The main goal of the concert in Lebanon is to give Syrian jazz musicians and others a stage to share their musical message of Peace for Syria with the world. The program will feature well-known Syrian and Lebanese bands such as: Raed El Khazen Trio, Fatet Le3bet, Tanjaret Daghet, Mabrad, Omar Harb, Rasha Rizk, Ibrahim Sulaimany and Hani Sawah. Similar to the concert in Amman, the Beirut stage will turn into the place where Syrian refugee children from Shatila camp can present their collaborative music work created during the workshops held by the Hani Sawah team. The concert will take place in the Babel Theater in el Hamra.
Tickets are only available through Karasi and soon will be available through selling points, ticket prices are 5 JDs and the student Ticket JD 3.
