Spirit of Fez festival starts itinerary in 17 us cities
Morocco-USA, Culture, 3/9/2004

The annual Fez festival of sacred music premiered started on Saturday its 17-city outreach itinerary dubbed "the spirit of Fez" at the Library of Congress in Washington.

Part concert tour, part peace mission, the Spirit of Fez Festival is an ecumenical lineup of musicians from the Middle East and the United States who perform music from Muslim, Jewish and Christian traditions across 11 centuries. It also features women's voices: the Algerian Jewish singer Francoise Atlan, the seven-woman Hadra des Femmes de Taroudant from Morocco and the Anointed Jackson Sisters gospel singers from North Carolina.

The concert began with an invocation sung by Yacoub Hussein, a Palestinian musician living in the United States, and Gabriel Meyer, a rabbi's son from Argentina who now lives in Israel and directs the Sulha (reconciliation) Peace Project there. The concert's finale had all the musicians performing an American Indian song translated into English, Arabic, Hebrew and Spanish.

The Spirit of Fez tour was inspired by the annual Fez Festival of World Sacred Music, which takes place May 28 to June 5 in Fez, Morocco. That festival is now in its 10th year.

More than 30,000 people will get the chance to live an unprecedented experience of song and dance from the Christian, Jewish and Muslim traditions. Some of the world's most revered artists from across the globe will be present to promote the "Spirit of Fez."

The Festival of World Sacred Music held each June in the Moroccan spiritual capital city of Fez is designed to help people reach out across their differences to build bridges with diverse communities through the power of music and to produce evidence that in a world where globalization and politics are heightening tensions, which are rapidly destroying communities, art and culture are powerful catalysts for civic dialogue as they transcend geographic, cultural and social boundaries.

"Without peace, there can be no values," Royal advisor, Mohamed Kabbaj, told a conference held at the Library of Congress, before stressing the intrinsic link that exists between the cultural credo and the promotion of peace, economic and social development and governance. Kabbaj, who heads the Fez-Saiss association that spearheads the annual event, also highlighted the status of Morocco in facilitating dialogue.

For advisor to the World Bank president for development values and ethics, Katherine Marshall, the present period in human history is at the same time the best and the worst one, as two sides of the same coin are apparent: a side marked by concerns over insatiable profit-seeking and environment degradation and another side reflecting triumph over poverty, misery and diseases, the planet preservation and world peace.

She stressed the importance of initiatives like the Fez festival of sacred music in the quest of a better future.

Introducing the festival goals, Faouzi Skalli, manager of the annual event, said it reflects the internal beauty of the world cultures and proposes to ponder on reason and heart in a way to make globalization more human.

Previous Stories:
  'Students in free enterprise' organization launches morocco branch   (2/12/2004)
  US expert pleads for highlighting the spirit of Fez in the world   (6/13/2003)
  US peace corps general manager in Morocco next week   (6/8/2002)

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