Playing for Peace: Music by Karim Wasfi
The 9/11 Memorial & Museum will host a free performance by and talk with renowned cellist and conductor Maestro Karim Wasfi on Thursday, October 17, as part of the Memorial Museum’s fall 2019 public programs series.
Maestro Wasfi, the former conductor of the Iraq Symphony Orchestra, gained international recognition in 2015 when he gave improvised performances in the streets of Baghdad at the sites of recent car bombings. These performances juxtaposed beauty and crisis and served as an act of resistance to support those affected by violence and terror.
As the president and founder of the Peace Through Art Global Foundation, Maestro Wasfi has expanded his reach and mission to perform music that promotes healing, cross-cultural integration, de-radicalization and counterterrorism. The Peace Through Arts Foundation has helped thousands of people in areas of crisis to rise from violence, fear, and intimidation of terror.
As stated in our mission statement, the 9/11 Memorial & Museum “attests to the triumph of human dignity over human depravity and affirms an unwavering commitment to the fundamental value of human life is to honor and remember the strength of human compassion in the moments, days, and weeks following the attacks on 9/11.”
Maestro Wasfi’s site-specific performance will honor those killed in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the 9/11 attacks and will affirm the mission, which also states, “May the lives remembered, the deeds recognized, and the spirit reawakened be eternal beacons, which reaffirm respect for life, strengthen our resolve to preserve freedom, and inspire an end to hatred, ignorance, and intolerance.”
View a performance by Maestro Wasfi on YouTube.
Tickets for the October 17 program are still available, and the event will also be live streamed beginning at 7 p.m. Reserve your ticket today.
By 9/11 Memorial Staff
Thanks to generous support from American Express, the Museum’s conservation team, along with consulting conservators, imaging and preservation specialists, architects and engineers, have been working over the past two years to record the storied history of the slurry wall and scrutinize and document its materials and condition. This information will influence approaches to conservation treatment and the long-term preservation of the wall.
Last week, the 9/11 Memorial & Museum hosted a free performance by and talk with renowned cellist and conductor Maestro Karim Wasfi in a public program in the Museum’s auditorium.