Ibrahim Muslimani, 30, speaks to a category a couple of piece of music mixing totally different eras and languages on the Nefes Basis for Arts and Tradition, which he based in 2016, in Gaziantep, Turkey, on Nov. 22, 2022.
Nicole Tung for NPR
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Ibrahim Muslimani, 30, speaks to a category a couple of piece of music mixing totally different eras and languages on the Nefes Basis for Arts and Tradition, which he based in 2016, in Gaziantep, Turkey, on Nov. 22, 2022.
Nicole Tung for NPR
GAZIANTEP, Turkey — When the highly effective earthquake rocked her residence in early February, 18-year-old Sidra Mohammed Ali awakened and considered one factor: her music faculty — was it OK?
The following day, as survivors throughout southern Turkey had been taking inventory of the destruction and checking on family members, Mohammed Ali rushed to the college, the Nefes Basis for Arts and Tradition, and took a deep breath of reduction when she noticed it was nonetheless standing, solely having sustained some minor injury.
“This faculty is my sanctuary from the stress of life as a Syrian refugee in Turkey,” she mentioned. “I could not bear the considered one thing taking place to it.”
The Nefes Basis was created by Syrian and Turkish musicians within the metropolis of Gaziantep in 2016. They’ve group courses the place they attempt to revive forgotten Syrian classics and combine Turkish and Syrian cultures with music that the 2 have shared for hundreds of years.
The college additionally gives non-public music classes on the piano and Center Jap devices just like the oud (a pear-shaped string instrument), the kanun (a plucked zither) and the ney (an end-blown flute).
However greater than six weeks after the Feb. 6 catastrophe, life within the earthquake zone is much from again to regular. The magnitude 7.8 earthquake killed greater than 55,000 individuals in Turkey and neighboring Syria. It broken or destroyed a whole bunch of hundreds of buildings and left 1.5 million individuals with no residence in Turkey alone, in keeping with the United Nations.
The college had not been in a position to resume courses till final weekend, when solely three college students, out of many dozens, confirmed as much as sing and play.
A consolation zone for refugees with a mission of integration
Earlier than the earthquake, the college could be packed on weekday evenings, with college students starting from ages 6 to 50, largely Syrian, however some Turks attended as effectively.
The courses are bilingual — in Turkish and Arabic. And that was particularly essential, in keeping with Ibrahim Muslimani, a Syrian classical musician from Aleppo, who’s the brains behind the group.
College students together with Rafeef Saffaf Oflazoglu (center) sing a 500-year-old tune from the Ottoman archives, on Nov. 22, 2022.
Nicole Tung for NPR
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“As a result of a number of the younger Syrian children have spent most of their lives right here in Turkey and are extra fluent in Turkish,” he advised NPR in November 2022. “We’re attempting to protect our Syrian cultural id but additionally attending to know the Turkish id by means of artwork.”
Turkey hosts 4 million refugees, the most important variety of any nation, in keeping with the U.N. refugee company. The overwhelming majority are Syrians who fled the civil warfare.
Within the early years of the Syrian civil warfare, which began in 2011, Turkey had a beneficiant open-door coverage towards Syrian refugees. However with out broad integration initiatives by the Turkish authorities, life for most of the refugees has been tough.
Extra lately, politicians in Turkey who oppose President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have scapegoated refugees for the nation’s financial issues, resulting in an increase in discrimination and hateful assaults.
“Racism has now, sadly, turn into a part of common life for us,” Muslimani mentioned.
However he is been working to foster integration by means of the college and its actions, akin to concert events. “We consider that the actions we’re doing right here will decrease the social tensions and spotlight the richness of our presence collectively as Turks and Syrians.”
Mohammed Ali, who research drugs at college and the kanun on the music faculty, mentioned final weekend the college has been a lifeline for her. She has a bleak outlook on her future, and does not consider that the individuals in Turkey will ever settle for her existence within the nation.
“However anytime I’ve an upsetting encounter, my Turkish academics and associates right here consolation me,” she mentioned.
A critical examine of music
What makes the college so particular for the scholars right here is that the courses delve deeply into music appreciation and idea.
Rafeef Saffaf Oflazoglu fled Aleppo in 2013 after a near-death encounter. She comes from a household that is obsessed with classical Arabic music. To have the ability to proceed exploring her love of music in Gaziantep was priceless, she mentioned.
The college additionally launched her to centuries-old Turkish songs from the Ottoman archives, and previous tunes that traveled from Istanbul to Aleppo. Learning these shared melodies made her really feel nearer to the tradition in her new residence.
Members of a category sing a tune mixing Arabic, Turkish, and Farsi, throughout a session run by Ibrahim Muslimani, the founder and CEO of Nefes Music College, in Gaziantep, Turkey, on Nov. 22, 2022.
Nicole Tung for NPR
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Members of a category sing a tune mixing Arabic, Turkish, and Farsi, throughout a session run by Ibrahim Muslimani, the founder and CEO of Nefes Music College, in Gaziantep, Turkey, on Nov. 22, 2022.
Nicole Tung for NPR
Having to go with out courses after the earthquake was more durable than she anticipated.
“After possibly 10 days, I simply discovered, just like the factor I miss most is artwork,” she mentioned, regardless that she was residing in her automotive on the time. “Individuals below trauma react in numerous methods. It is not nearly singing, you understand? It is religious.”
For Muslimani, the earthquake was a triggering reminder of how he had misplaced all the pieces a decade in the past in Aleppo.
The shaking was so violent, that he feared for a second he would not survive. He considered his two little youngsters and the previous Aleppan musical poems that he says solely he is aware of, those he discovered from his maestro again in Aleppo, that had been handed down by generations of Aleppan classical musicians.
The civil warfare in Syria destroyed a lot of the nation’s cultural output, together with the lives of hundreds of thousands of Syrians. Muslimani has a mission to maintain Aleppo’s conventional type of music, al-Qudud al-Halabiya, alive from Gaziantep.
He and different Syrian artists additionally file music at Nefes.
“I promised my instructor that I might immortalize these treasured items in one of the best kind potential,” he mentioned. “With the correct orchestra and the glory that they deserve.”
The way forward for the Nefes Basis is in danger
The earthquake profoundly disrupted life in Gaziantep, regardless that the town has much less injury than others within the area.
The Nefes Basis, which survived on donations and charges for personal classes, is now at critical threat of closing down, mentioned Muslimani. They do not have the funds to pay for subsequent month’s hire.
A banner on the entrance of the Nefes Music College reads “Two Languages, One Soul.”
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The shock and worry of the catastrophe right here stays, as quakes and aftershocks proceed. Lots of the households who fled the town nonetheless have not come again — and neither have the scholars of Nefes.
The lack of hundreds of houses has additionally created a housing disaster within the area, with hire costs greater than doubling in lots of cities. And demand for fundamentals like shelter, meals and water stays excessive.
“To think about the last decade of labor we put into this, and the great distance we’ve to go with regards to integration and maintaining our Syrian heritage alive,” he mentioned, pausing and blinking away tears.
“The mere considered shedding this place… it is insufferable.”
