Four Palestinian musicians and teachers from the Magnificat Institute in Jerusalem share their stories during their vising experience at the Arrigo Pedrollo Conservator in Vicenza, held in Spring 2026. They trace a musical formation rooted largely in Jerusalem and describe their current work as conductors, singers, and instrumental teachers.
Through the JERUS-IT-ARTS project they had the chance to travel to Vicenza and hold intensive masterclasses, subjects of which choir conduction, with Maestro Ezio Spinoccia, and classical-guitar pedagogy, with Professor Stefano Viola, Riccardo Tamai and colleagues.
These encounters led to a transformative experience opening to new methods, repertoire, and ways of adapting teaching to students of different ages. The visiting musicians and teachers could also connect their experiences to wider project activities, notably the inventorying and digitisation of the music archive of the Custody of the Holy Land, carried out with the inventory compiled by Lucia D'Anna, and exchanges involving the Amwaj Choir (LINK) and visiting professors from the Vicenza Conservatory.
A recurring theme is music as a universal art and a bridge that transcends national, religious, and political divisions, where what matters is making music together rather than the identity of the people doing it. This idea is given emotional weight by archival discoveries such as the Requiem written by the Palestinian composer Augustin Lama after the 1948 war, a thanksgiving for survival and a prayer of hope, and by reflections on teaching as a way to pass on not only technique but values, helping students grow as people through music.
