Music, and peace, from the heart

Yair Dalal is a man of the world, a man of culture, a musician, and a seeker after peace. Born into a family of Iraqi Jews who emigrated from Baghdad to Israel, he grew up in the city of Ramat Hen, where most of the residents were Jewish Iraqis.

A violinist, oud player, and singer, Dalal weaves his artistic message from many folk strands. He sings in Hebrew, Arabic, ancient Aramaic, and several Arabic dialects, and he plays music drawn from all over the Middle East. But he also has collaborated with such classical music masters as conductor Zubin Mehta, violinist Shlomo Mintz, and the Israel Chamber Orchestra.

Dalal, who last performed here in 2003, gives a concert Sunday, April 17, at the Railyard Performance Space. Pasatiempo spoke to him by phone at his home in the Tel Aviv suburb of Hod HaSharon.

Pasatiempo: Is this a long tour?

Yair Dalal: It's like a smaller one, medium one, something like that. It's part of a tour that I will start in Michigan, in Ann Arbor. Then I go to Boulder, Colo. Then I have Santa Fe and Taos.

Pasatiempo: Have you been in the United States recently?

Dalal: In February I was in California -- that was a very big project. I got a grant to be there for more than a month, to be the artist in residence. I did a lot of workshops around the Bay Area, in schools, private schools, universities like Stanford, San Francisco State. It was in collaboration with the Jewish Music Festival in Berkeley.

I did some concerts also, and it was very, very interesting and very good to be in places that I don't see every day on my tours. Middle schools, high schools. Even in West Oakland, for instance -- which is not an easy place, you know -- I enjoyed it very much. It was every day working, every day.

Then I was in Australia and New Zealand to participate with the WOMAD Festival, which was incredible. It was fantastic! It's a huge festival.

It's beautiful, the location is beautiful, the artists are beautiful, the production company is beautiful. This is like paradise on earth.

Pasa: How many people came?

Dalal: Thousands. In Australia, I think there were 70,000 people. In New Zealand, I think it was about 35,000. There was a lot of peace there.

I was saying to myself, and also for the press, we need to make a special festival for politicians. So maybe peace will come down and down and reach their souls. They will live in peace after that and go each one to his country and say,

"It's worth it."

Pasa: Did any of the students you met in California express interest in learning Middle Eastern music?

Dalal: Yes, it was nice. I conducted some youth orchestras there and taught them Middle Eastern music and Jewish-Arabic music. It was really fun, because they had never played that stuff before. They'd never played a quarter tone before. It was really fun to be there and see their enthusiasm. One of the schools will include one of the pieces in their spring concert in May.

Pasa: What musicians will play with you here?

Dalal: In Santa Fe, I will be with the beautiful tabla player from California, from San Francisco, Jim Santi Owen. He is a nice guy. We played together seven years ago, and when I cannot bring musicians from Israel, I play with him.

Pasa: Your musical luggage must be interesting to see.

Dalal: I take my violin and oud. Sometimes I take a violin, viola, and oud. Your instrument is your instrument, and I like the sound of my own instrument.

Pasa: Do airport security checkers make you take out the violin and play it to make sure it's really an instrument?

Dalal: Sometimes. It's fun.

Pasa: The last time you were here, you took part in a peace lecture. Will you speak your thoughts on peace at this concert?

Dalal: They asked me to. I don't know. I don't consider myself a speaker. But I found out that when I start to speak, people like it somehow, because I really say what I have in my heart. So I will do that. I will speak what I have in my heart to say, and I hope I speak my truth.

Pasa: The last two years since you were in Santa Fe have been full of trouble for the world. Do you still think music can help?

Dalal: Even more than before. Those festivals, the more than a month I spent in California --

I found out that now it's more important than ever before. Music is the only thing that can deal with our soul and heart. Look what's happening with the tsunami tragedy. Many musicians in the world contributed their efforts, their talents.

It cannot solve all the problems in the world, but we can heal ourselves with music -- to feel more, you know? Because otherwise we will get very sick; we will be very sick with those problems, and we won't know how to function.

Music can heal our souls and give us power and encourage us to live, to change, to try to accept the things we cannot change. But especially, to try to change. To make the move, to see the change. To see the light. Q

details

Yair Dalal

7:30 p.m. Sunday, April 17

Railyard Performance Space

1611 Paseo de Peralta

$15 in advance, $18 at the door;

992-3398 or 982-8309