Associated Press
December 24
arkhad Abdikadirov spoke no English when he arrived from Uzbekistan to study at Interlochen Center for the Arts. But he was fluent in the language that really mattered: music.
``When you are playing music, you don't think about anything except music,'' the 17-year-old violinist said. ``The person next to you ... you don't think about where he is from, what he is wearing, what he looks like.''
This holiday season, the Interlochen center, where it's a bedrock principle that music is the universal language of peace, is enlisting the young artists from its summer camp and academy in a campaign to promote friendship in a world shaken by terrorism and war.
The medium: a performance by the World Youth Symphony Orchestra, the premier ensemble at the summer camp held in northern Michigan.
All 123 members of this year's orchestra have been given a compact disc with their rendition of Howard Hanson's Symphony No. 2. Each agreed to send the CD to another young musician, who will be asked to listen to it, then send it to someone else with a request to keep it moving, something like a chain letter.
``The power of music to unite, to inspire and to educate is in your hands,'' Filip Lazovski, an orchestra violinist from the Republic of Macedonia, says in the recording's introduction. ``Please pass it along.''
Others can have the CD sent to them or can download the recording from Interlochen's web site, where the center also has an e-mail discussion group to promote peace.
The project isn't just a pipe dream, school president Edward J. Downing insists.
Art breaks down barriers on his campus, where being part of a multicultural student body provides lessons as valuable as those in music, writing, dance or drama - and it can do so elsewhere, he said. It might even change a few opinions in places such as the Middle East, where U.S. pop culture disproportionately shapes the image of America, he said.
``It's a small project, very personal,'' Downing said, ``but you never know who that one person is who can be really affected.''
The Hanson symphony, also known as his ``Romantic'' symphony, has a special resonance at Interlochen. He wrote part of the work while teaching there in the late 1920s, and it was performed at the summer camp in 1931 after its Boston Symphony premiere.
He allowed the school to adopt a slow, contemplative portion of the first movement as its signature theme. Interlochen orchestras routinely perform it as a concert encore.
Members of this year's World Youth Symphony came from 37 U.S. states and 16 countries. Some are no strangers to violence and political upheaval.
In Uzbekistan, a former Soviet republic that borders Afghanistan, the government is battling an Islamic insurgency. Abdikadirov lives in the capital city, Tashkent, the target of a series of bombings two years ago, including one near his father's workplace.
Abdikadirov plans to share his CD with other aspiring musicians in Uzbekistan.
``I believe that art can save the world,'' he said. ``In my city, mostly there's two kinds of kids. There's the kids which do music and the kids which just run around on the streets.''
Having friends from other countries also helped Interlochen's U.S. students deal with the trauma of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
``I couldn't believe it. I was scared to death,'' said Emily Thomas, 17, a flute player from Huntsville, Ala. One of her friends, a native of the war-torn Balkans, reassured her: ``Don't worry, America is really sound. You will get past this.''
Thomas is sending her CD to a friend in Iran. She is convinced such a small gesture can make a difference.
``You can't really get into a war with somebody over music,'' she said. ``It's about love and peace and harmony.''