Philip Clark

Playing for high stakes

Remaining ferociously upbeat in the heat, the conductor Paul MacAlinden teaches the group — riven by factionalism and with no classical grounding — to play Beethoven, Haydn and Mendelssohn

issue 20 August 2016

Now that even candidates for President of the United States can rise up from the undead dregs of reality television, it comes as no surprise to read that the National Youth Orchestra of Iraq owes its origins to a conclave of television execs. In 2008, Channel 4 and the independent production company Raw TV took upon themselves to campaign for a youth orchestra in Iraq, focusing their programme around the story of Zuhal Sultan, a 17-year-old Iraqi pianist.

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