"You have nourished our spirits." It was exactly one month ago that we heard these words from one of the community leaders at Za'atari Refugee Camp in Jordan after our third and final concert of our Music for Za'atari Residency, bringing chamber music and the thrill of music education to vulnerable Syrian refugee youth and children. It was the deeply moving fulfilment of the promise made at our Shostakovich for the Children of Syria at Carnegie Hall last January to bring the power of music to the Children of Syria in person.

Mary Ann Mumm, Violin, MET Orchestra (former); Professor at John J Cali School of Music, Montclair State University,

Deborah Greitzer, Violin, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra

Craig Mumm, Viola, Associate Principal Viola, MET Orchestra, 

Professor, Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University,

Rosanna Butterfield, Cello, New World Symphony "America's Orchestral Academy" & Verbier Festival Orchestra, Switzerland

We had three extraordinary concerts, each followed by exciting music instruction sessions for the Syrian refugee children and their mentors in Za'atari Camp at the campus of our amazing partner organization Questcope. You can read their impressions and report here.

This is music at work. Led by Questscope's extraordinary mission to create empowerment and agency for vulnerable youth who are often left with nothing, we found that music and especially joint music-making became a vehicle of enabling those who are often labelled "vulnerable and needy" to become the leaders, teachers, and hosts of our joint enterprise. In that moment of their leading us, we became part of a unique relationship with the refugee community - one where they were critical and important partners and stakeholders in our enterprise, not just the recipients of food, medical aid, shelter or even education.

Needless to say, we were completely bowled over by the warmth and enthusiasm of the response of the Syrian community at Za'atari Camp and especially by their deep appreciation of the new possibilities for opportunity and community building afforded by music. Thank you again to our partners Questscope and to the visionary support of our friends at the Tufts University Institute for Global Leadership and Parsons & Whittemore Inc. and George Landegger, Chairman. We are also deeply grateful to the 60 donors who supported our Kickstarter Campaign supporting this residency.

In addition to our concerts in the Zaatari Refugee Camp, the quartet and George Mathew were part of three musical events in Amman. 

We spent a wonderful day in masterclasses with the gifted string and piano students at the National Music Conservatory in Amman, the leading Music Academy in Jordan, an initiative of the King Hussein Foundation. We also coached Conservatory's "Children's Orchestra," a beautiful orchestra of 7- to15-year olds. We are very grateful to Maestro Mohammad Sidiq, Director of the Conservatory, who made this residency possible.

We ended our week in Jordan with a "formal" concert of quartets by Haydn, Shostakovich, Borodin, Syrian composer Kareem Roustom and the music of Arab composers Riyad Sombouti, Sayeed Darwish, and Mohammed Sidiq, music director of the Jordanian National Orchestra, hosted by the Embassy of the United States in Jordan and US Embassy Cultural Attache Tobias Bradford at his home. A perfect ending to a truly life changing week for all of us.

Tobias Bradford, cultural attaché at the US embassy in Amman introduces Music for Life International, Questscope and the Za'atari quartet to the audience

Thank you again for joining us and the Children of Syria at Za'atari Refugee Camp on this wonderful adventure, and on a new one that may be just beginning. 

Gratefully Yours,