“The Seattle Symphony’s ‘Music Beyond Borders: Voices from the Seven’ was announced last week and almost immediately sold out,” writes Patti Payne in Thursday’s (2/8) Puget Sound Business Journal (Washington). The free February 8 concert featured music by composers “from some of the seven countries included in President Donald Trump’s recent executive order that banned immigrants from those countries [including] Rahim Alhaj of Iraq, Kinan Azmeh of Syria, Alireza Motevaseli and Gity Razaz from Iran, Ali Osman of Sudan…. At the end, the crowd joined in singing ‘America the Beautiful.’ The 2,400-seat S. Mark Taper Foundation Auditorium in Benaroya Hall was full, and the overflow crowd saw a simulcast in the adjacent 500-seat Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall…. The program was online via livestream on the Seattle Symphony’s website and Facebook page, as well as on Periscope, another live-streaming service. Judging from the roaring approval of the crowd which jumped to its feet, blocking the camera several times, the concert was a big success. Approximately one quarter of the Seattle Symphony’s musicians are immigrants.” Seattle Symphony President and CEO Simon Woods said, “At the Seattle Symphony, inclusivity is a core value.”
Posted February 9, 2017
