Berklee World Strings Collaborates with Iraqi National Symphony Conductor

The Berklee World Strings will perform two shows with Iraqi National Symphony Conductor Karim Wasfi, whose performance among the ruins of his Baghadad neighborhood hours after a bomb destroyed it made international headlines.

October 20, 2015

The Berklee World Strings, conducted by Eugene Friesenstrings professor, welcomes Karim Wasfi, cellist and Iraqi National Symphony conductor, for performances in Amherst and Boston. The Amherst concert takes place Thursday, October 29, at Bowker Auditorium on the UMass Amherst campus, 100 Holdsworth Way, at 7:30 p.m., $10 admission. The following night, October 30, in Boston, the group performs at the First Church Boston, 66 Marlborough Street, at 7:00 p.m., free admission.

Wasfi was thrust into the international media spotlight after his extraordinary response to events in Baghdad this past spring. Hours after a car bomb destroyed his neighborhood café, Wasfi took his cello to the site for an impromptu recital, improvising his emotions, and bridging political and religious differences with music as the community reeled. News of his act of artistic defiance quickly came to the attention of international media, and a YouTube video showing that sidewalk performance gained tens of thousands of views.  

Wasfi will perform “Memories for Three Cellos,” by Iraqi-born composer Mohammed U. Sidiq, and will conduct Tchaikovsky’s “Serenade for Strings in C,” with the Berklee World Strings. The program will also include works by Béla Bartók; Astor Piazzolla; Darol Anger, associate professor of strings; and Friesen.

The Berklee World Strings is the flagship string orchestra of the Berklee String Department. Its more than 40 members represent nearly every continent with students from Jordan, Spain, Ecuador, Turkey, Canada, China, and the United States, among other countries. Berklee World Strings performs original compositions and arrangements featuring the improvisational abilities of its players in music inspired by jazz and folk from all over the world. This new model of string ensemble provides opportunities for its players to compose, arrange, and solo while achieving a high standard of precision and stylistic diversity.

Friesen is a four-time Grammy Award-winning cellist and composer. He is also a member of the Paul Winter Consort and Trio Globo.

Wasfi’s appearance is thanks to the vision and generosity of Dean Cycon of Dean’s Beans, a fair-trade coffee import business based in Massachusetts. Cycon is a long-time supporter of peace and justice issues.