Award-winning US musician travels to Israel at the request of the Arab Government of Nazareth and was caught in bombings. Returning home, she continues this type of work with children, peace-making
July 26, 2006 (Press Release) --
U.S. PERFORMER CAUGHT IN MIDEAST CONFLICT AREA WHILE TEACHING MUSIC WORKSHOPS FOR ARABIC CHILDREN
“I have the coolest job in the world” says local performer, Daria who just returned from Northern Israel. “I get to travel the world and sing for peace”. This last trip – especially the timing – proved to be more eventful then almost any of her other musical trips outside of US borders.
Philadelphia area resident, Daria (Daria Marmaluk-Hajioannou) performs a unique blend of world music for international audiences and throughout the US. Given two national awards for her last cd release “I HAVE A DREAM- World Music For Children” , Marmaluk-Hajioannou was also selected as one of five national HONDA-STOMP teaching artists for her work with unusual and world music instruments. Last year, she was invited to be a part of a special camp for Arab children in the Galilee region of Israel. During that trip show would also have the chance to perform at a large Israeli Collective farm, thus being able to sing for both Jewish and the Arab communities in the state of Israel. So she agreed to go.
“ I was especially excited about the chance to spend two weeks in the predominately Arab city of Nazareth doing musical workshops with the children. It was very interested in working in both Arabic and English language and also wanted to see which types of the music the children enjoyed the most.” So from July 1 – 17th, Daria set up shop in one of the hilltop neighborhoods of Nazareth, experimenting with the 185 children to create music and songs they could showcase for their families and community. “During those weeks we built a pow-wow drum and the power and force they put into playing it was just amazing! “Says Daria: “ I also had the chance to purchase traditional drums and finger cymbals in the market, and we asked local residents to do mini-workshops on these traditional instruments as well.”
The experience was wonderful, until the second week when the conflict began to heat up between Hezbollah and the Israeli army. Within a few days, missles were reaching the nearby port city of Haifa and the neighboring cities of Afula and Tiberius. In fact, the camps last day field trip was cancelled because of missle fire into the neighboring city of Tiberius. On Saturday, several other camp volunteers were evacuated and left early to fly out of Tel Aviv. Daria, who was also traveling with her 11 year old daughter, held airline tickets for Sunday, so she spent the last day visiting and made her way to the airport, past some very difficult checkpoints and security stops.
Say Daria” We really had an awesome time with our Arab hosts in Nazareth and in the Jewish Community of Moshav Amirim. I would love to return and perform again, but hope to do so when the area is safe for everyone. Although there are clearly issues of discrimination and inequity – the majority of people I spoke with simply wanted to solve the existing problem and live in peace”.
For more information or wonderful photos of the kid’s workshops, please contact Daria at: 610-346-9087, or visit her website at
www.dariamusic.com.
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“I have the coolest job in the world” says local performer, Daria who just returned from Northern Israel. “I get to travel the world and sing for peace”. This last trip – especially the timing – proved to be more eventful then almost any of her other musical trips outside of US borders.
Philadelphia area resident, Daria (Daria Marmaluk-Hajioannou) performs a unique blend of world music for international audiences and throughout the US. Given two national awards for her last cd release “I HAVE A DREAM- World Music For Children” , Marmaluk-Hajioannou was also selected as one of five national HONDA-STOMP teaching artists for her work with unusual and world music instruments. Last year, she was invited to be a part of a special camp for Arab children in the Galilee region of Israel. During that trip show would also have the chance to perform at a large Israeli Collective farm, thus being able to sing for both Jewish and the Arab communities in the state of Israel. So she agreed to go.
“ I was especially excited about the chance to spend two weeks in the predominately Arab city of Nazareth doing musical workshops with the children. It was very interested in working in both Arabic and English language and also wanted to see which types of the music the children enjoyed the most.” So from July 1 – 17th, Daria set up shop in one of the hilltop neighborhoods of Nazareth, experimenting with the 185 children to create music and songs they could showcase for their families and community. “During those weeks we built a pow-wow drum and the power and force they put into playing it was just amazing! “Says Daria: “ I also had the chance to purchase traditional drums and finger cymbals in the market, and we asked local residents to do mini-workshops on these traditional instruments as well.”
The experience was wonderful, until the second week when the conflict began to heat up between Hezbollah and the Israeli army. Within a few days, missles were reaching the nearby port city of Haifa and the neighboring cities of Afula and Tiberius. In fact, the camps last day field trip was cancelled because of missle fire into the neighboring city of Tiberius. On Saturday, several other camp volunteers were evacuated and left early to fly out of Tel Aviv. Daria, who was also traveling with her 11 year old daughter, held airline tickets for Sunday, so she spent the last day visiting and made her way to the airport, past some very difficult checkpoints and security stops.
Say Daria” We really had an awesome time with our Arab hosts in Nazareth and in the Jewish Community of Moshav Amirim. I would love to return and perform again, but hope to do so when the area is safe for everyone. Although there are clearly issues of discrimination and inequity – the majority of people I spoke with simply wanted to solve the existing problem and live in peace”.
For more information or wonderful photos of the kid’s workshops, please contact Daria at: 610-346-9087, or visit her website at
www.dariamusic.com.
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