More than 25 years since its founding by star conductor Daniel Barenboim, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra's mission to foster dialogue in the Middle East endures -- including among its own members.
"Our message of peace must be louder than ever," Barenboim, who formed the ensemble alongside US-Palestinian intellectual Edward Said in 1999, told AFP ahead of a week-long festival celebrating the organisation in Berlin.
The event aims to share the orchestra's work with an "even larger audience," said the 83-year-old, an Argentine-Israeli citizen who was granted Palestinian nationality in 2008, via email.
The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra has long brought together around 100 musicians from Israel, the Palestinian Territories and Arab states, seeking to promote understanding through a shared love of classical music.
Given their different backgrounds and political views, relations between the members are complex, all the more so since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza.
Initial conversations between the musicians were at times "heavy" and "inflammatory," Israeli violist Tal Riva Theodorou told AFP.
"Spending time together and understanding and trying to listen to each other, we have come closer," said the 44-year-old, a member of the orchestra since 2004.
Close proximity on the orchestra's intense tours through Europe has also driven dialogue between the musicians, said Palestinian double bassist Fadwa Qamhia.
