Musical Medicine

Music cuts to the core of what makes us similar — and human. “It’s a direct channel to the heart,” says Shaul Gabbay, director of the Institute for the Study of Israel in the Middle East. “I think that art in general speaks to part of us as human beings that other methods do not reach.” That’s why an event like Light From the Desert, an Israeli-Palestinian peace concert, is so important.

Crossing borders and cultures, war and hatred, musicians Yair Dalal, Naser Musa and Ty Burhoe bring together a Middle Eastern musical tradition that reaches from the Balkans to India. “This is really de-politicizing the issues and showing that music and art transcend political division,” says Georgina Kolber, media contact at the Mizel Museum. “It’s really a subtle, organic way of saying that you take away this political mess and you have people who appreciate art and life and peace.”

Light From the Desert starts tonight at 8 p.m. at Old Main Chapel on the University of Colorado at Boulder campus; it replays tomorrow at 6:30 p.m. at the University of Denver’s Newman Center for the Performing Arts, 2344 East Iliff Avenue. Tickets are $20 to $28. For more information, call 303-394-9993, ext. 104 (Old Main), or 303-830-8497 (Newman Center).
Sun., Dec. 7, 6:30 p.m., 2008