Sister Marie Keyrouz, a Lebanese-born Maronite Christian, is one of these all-round people who continually amaze: she holds a Ph.D. in Religious Anthropology as well as in Musicology from the Sorbonne University and she sings. Her repertoire is one at a crossroads between East and West, between Maronite, Byzantine or Aramean songs and Ambrosian or Gregorian ones; it also includes classical pieces of sacred music by composers such as Mozart, Bach or Gounod. Her musical strategy is to recycle rhythms and melodies, tempos and techniques that date back to the beginning of our era.She founded the "Ensemble de la Paix" in 1984 during the civil war in Lebanon, a multicultural, multiconfessional orchestra that defies political, racial and political categories. She then went on to create "Enfance pour la Paix", a charity which aims at fighting ignorance and poverty, mothers of all evils in her opinion. All profits made from her concerts and CD's go towards it.
It was for a such fund-raising evening that she organised a Christmas concert at the UNESCO in Paris last December. A very emotional occasion indeed after the assassinations of high-profiles Lebanese political figures (in the Gemayel and Hariri dynasties) and the occupation and attack of South Lebanon by the Israeli Army.
Let us hope that an end can be put to this constant spiral of violence and attacks in the country: they must be stopped in order to avoid a complete collapse of Lebanon.
"Singing is praying twice", Sister Marie Keyrouz said...
