Composing Peace: Omar Harfouch on Music’s Power to Unite and Heal | S2:E64

0:05Hey everyone, welcome back to Founder Story. We have a really, really special guest today. and I love that he has impact at the core of his mission because that's what we do at Founders Story this is impact tv but it's Omar Harfouche he is a pianist and a composer and his new composition is Concerto for Peace and we're going to dig into everything there before we really dive into what it's about and who it's for what was the reason that you even came up with this? I was born in Lebanon during the civil war. And all my childhood, I spent it in time of war. And the piano protected me when I was a kid.

0:50And he protected me physically because when we had bombing, I was always sitting. And the piano is on my back to protect me from the bombs. and it's also helped me to not to go to war and to stay like in music and I started to play and to compose when I was 12 years 13 years until I was the winner of a European big contest and the the prize was to leave Lebanon and to go to Europe to study music and which was a kind of miracle for me so the piano and the music they helped me to survive uh to survive physically and mentally also and then um i lived in an ex-soviet union i studied in moscow i studied in ukraine and then there i was when uh it was the end of the soviet union i was in ukraine when ukraine became independent i was studying there and i left ukraine then to paris but i continue you go to Ukraine, because it's like my second country where Europe started.

2:04I'm a witness on the day when Europe opened all the borders and we could go walking from Belgium to France to Switzerland. So I'm a witness of big changing of all the region in the Middle East and also in Europe. And now we are living a very dark period. It is war everywhere. All the places where I was in peace. I just said that I left Lebanon in war to go to study music and to play music in peaceful countries. Those countries are now on fire, under fire. Ukraine is occupied. In Paris, we live daily the situation that are living in the Middle East. People, of course, we don't have kids dying in France, but we have the same hate.

2:54The people here want to go to war. They want to go to war against Russia. They want to go to do war in Israel and Palestine. A lot of people I know here from Paris, they left France to go to take weapons and to do war in the Middle East. And all this I'm seeing daily. And it's like if my childhood is coming back, are we going to live civil war here in Europe? Are we going to live a global war? And everything that we can say we will never be right we will be wrong because people they are dressed against each other the words they don't have the same meaning anymore you talk politics they will say you are islamophobe you talk you talk analyze they will say you're anti-semite and whatever so the words are very dangerous they became very dangerous exactly the same when i was in lebanon when I was supposed not to speak because when you speak, you risk to die.

3:58So the music helped me when I was in Lebanon and I am doing the same thing. I am composing and I want to survive again. But this time I am not a small boy anymore. I have influence in Europe. I have influence in the Middle East. And I want people to come all together to my concert in Paris. It's a big theater, Theatre de Champs -Élysées. it is for about 2 ,000 persons they will come and the people who decide are coming, ambassadors ex-ministers, actual ministers congresswomen and men and also artists from the show business from cinema and we all will try to live about 17 minutes it's the time of my concerto for peace to only think about peace and to forget hate, I'm not just going to play for the first time for peace this time.

4:52I already did it twice, even three times. I played after the 7th October tragedy, I played a composition that I did it for the situation in the European Commission in Brussels. It was the first time of the history of the European Commission they organized, they allowed orchestra to come to play and it was for peace. And I saw that it was helpful. And that day I understood that I have mission to do because people, they came to me after and they said, we don't see the end. We need hopes and you are giving us hope. Then I played again in Paris and a very famous place. It's called the Institute of the Arab World.

5:40It's very prestigious place in Paris. And people also, it was for 100 stars. The people were all of them very known persons. And then I played it with a philharmonic orchestra in a small town in France. It's not very small, but it's one of the oldest towns. The name is Bezier because I did orchestration for big orchestra, symphonic orchestra. And it was a success. People did about 10 minutes standing ovation. That moment I understood that I should continue. After that, because the media in France was talking very good about my initiative, I was invited to play at the United Nations. I'm going to play at the United Nations December 10.

6:28I am invited by the Vatican to play on November 14. And I'm going to play on September 18 for the French people here in Paris in the Théâtre de Champs -Élysées. And what is amazing is that I have a lot of media. They propose to be partners and they are doing promotion. And I am going to be for five years. This concert is going to be broadcasted on TV for five years all over the world via Mezzo TV channel. It's the famous TV channel for classical music. And this is for me, it's a kind of recognizing of my music, but also to promote peace. And the last thing I want to say is that even if only one person will be convinced by my project, it's going to be very good because if I help one person not to go to war and not to hate the other person, it's also a success.

7:31I am sure that I will have more than one person, maybe 100. And if 100 person will decide to save each of them one life, we will save altogether 100 time the whole humanity. Yeah, that's amazing, right? It's like this exponential growth. You help one person, they help 100 people, you help 100, they help 100, they help 1 ,000. Now you're at a million, then you're at a billion. How do you feel or what would your younger self think about where you are now? Looking back to how music really saved your life, and now you're using music to save other lives. But thinking about when you were that child learning to play the piano during those tumultuous times, what would they be thinking about your success now?

8:21My success now is important to promote peace. This is what my small Omar, let's say, as he was saying, he will see the old Omar now. Because it will be a crime if after all what I had lived in Lebanon, to do nothing. It's very easy to hate the other person. It's very easy to go to war. but it's very hard to go against all the hate and to take a risk because we still remember that most of the people who talked about peace they were killed. Rabin was killed in the United States also a lot of I don't remember now the names but I'm sure that there are people who talked about peace like John Leland or others they was killed because nobody wants peace and I feel it daily I can give you an example.

9:20The theater is so big that everybody can come, but I still have people, important and influential people who are asking me if this person is coming, I will not come. But it's about peace. Come on, guys, let's come all together to sit and to sing about peace. We cannot do peace with only people who agree with themselves, between them. We can do peace only with the people who are not agree with us. So it's still a long road to the peace, but I have the determination that I don't want anybody to live the childhood that I have. Hey, everyone. I'm not sure if you've heard, but our show Founders Story is now available on the iHeartRadio app.

10:07So check that out. iHeartRadio online or you grab the app. It's super easy. You can listen to all of our episodes wherever you enjoy your podcasts, whether that's iHeartRadio, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and many more. But check it out. Beach, like for example, in Gaza or on Ukraine, in Mariupol, or even in Russia, because they're also underbombing now, or in Nagorno-Karabakh, or in Sudan, in Libya, in Iraq, in Syria. And you see them playing soccer, for example, and you imagine that all is all right. Everything is fine. But actually, those small boys, it's me. It's me who was also playing during the war.

10:51And I know that they are suffering. I know that they are not good at all. And I have the legitimacy to tell this. I am Lebanese. And I'm talking about peace. Lebanon is in war with other countries. And when you see that at least there is one Lebanese who wants peace, and if we'll become two or three from both sides or from all the sides, we can show the new generation, the kids and the children, that they can have hope. So I am convinced that what I'm doing now should be more with other people should do the same. In the United States of America, I see also what's going on in your country. the Yaws and the new generation, they are fighting daily.

11:42For what they are fighting? I mean, you are not right. I am right. This is only the, they are fighting for this, but actually we are all right. And we are not right all also at the same time. So why don't we just sit and And sing together how to build a new life and new situation to let the new generation coming and to live in peace. Yeah, that's amazing. I mean, I think most of us really want peace. We want love and peace. We want, like you're saying, we want people to get along. Because I think humans generally want the same thing, right? Like we want our families to survive. We want to provide to them.

12:25We want a good life. We want to be happy. I think most of us really want that. So it's great that you're really standing up for peace. My last question is, was there somebody who really inspired you in your life? Maybe another composer, maybe someone else that was a professional piano player. Was there somebody out there who also inspired you beyond when you were a kid playing? But did you meet someone who you said, wow, I really want to be even better than this person? Thank you for this question. This question is really important for me because I have seen when I was a student pictures of Vladislav Rostropovich playing cello under the Berlin War, which was existing, separating two parts of Berlin and two Europe.

13:16and he played just a small melody for peace. This is my first image and I think that this picture, because at that time we could see only black and white picture, I think that Rosropovich showed me the first way, how to go, how to try to change things by music. And the second was when Daniel Bernbeu, he is an Argentinian Jewish pianist and composer. He's one of the best pianists who played Beethoven. And he's director. He's now directing in Berlin. And he's known all over the world. When he met with Eduard Said, who is a Palestinian writer and professor. And they, together, built the Diwan East-West Orchestra.

14:10It's a small thing that they have done, but it is the only orchestra existing in the world for Israeli and Palestinian musicians. They play every day together. They travel all over the world together, and they never fight. They see what's going on in the world, but they come to play music together. So, Edward Said and Daniel Barunboin are an inspiration for me. and the orchestra D1 S2S is for me example that everything is possible. So yes, I am inspired by Roslopovich and by Daniel Berenboin, who is both of them musician, and by Edward Said, who was writer, poet, and philosopher. Wow, thank you for sharing that, Omar.

14:57I mean, that's what a beautiful story. You know, like people really walking the walk, talking the talk, and really making it happen. So if others want to see your concert, your composition, if they want to get in touch with you and find out more information about what you are doing in the future, how can they do so? They can just go to my website, omarharfush.com, and they will see my actuality or just Instagram. This is the best way. It's also omarharfush. I think that it's at omarharfush or something like that. But it's just my name and they will find my page and I daily put everything I'm doing.

15:37And by the way, also your interview is going to be on my stories. And thank you so much for giving me this chance to talk to people in the United States of America. Yeah, Omar, I'm deeply inspired. I wish I could make it out to France to see. I mean, it sounds amazing. I hope I get to watch it on social media. But I'm just deeply inspired by what you're doing and giving your life for an amazing cause. Just speaks wonders about who you are as a person. So thank you so much, though, for joining us today on Founder's Story. Thank you so much.