Cellist brings sounds of ‘peace, coexistence’ to ruins of Iraq’s Mosul

MOSUL: Iraqi cellist and conductor Karim Wasfi has played a concert for “peace and co-existence” amid the ruins of Mosul, almost a year after Iraqi forces ousted the Islamic State group from the capital of its self-declared “caliphate”.

Dozens of people attended on Friday as Wasfi, in full concert dress, played on a makeshift stage among the most iconic religious monuments of Iraq’s second city.

The venue lay between the Catholic church of Our Lady of the Hour with its famed clock tower and the remains of the iconic Hadba (“hunchback”) leaning minaret next to the Nuri Mosque, destroyed during the battle for the city.

Wasfi was joined by the violinist, guitar and oud players of local band Awtar Nerkal.

“This music is a message from Mosul to the whole world, of the concepts of security, peace and coexistence,” said Wasfi.

The dual Iraqi-US national is former conductor of Iraq’s National Symphony Orchestra and has been nicknamed “Iraq’s Rostropovich” after the Russian maestro cellist.

The music was “a call for companies, investors and organisations to come and take part in the reconstruction of the city, especially its destroyed Old Town”, the bearded and bespectacled artist said.

The impromptu concert came in the same week that Iraqi authorities finally launched clean-up operations in the city the terrorists held for three years until their ouster in July 2017.

Several times over the past three years, Wasfi, who was born in Cairo, has taken his cello onto the streets of Baghdad to play at bomb sites shortly after attacks.