The Keshet Eilon summer course moves to safer confines, for now - review

As the horrors of October 7, and their continuing saddening aftermath, continue to reverberate around the country, the movers and shakers of the national cultural scene lick their own wounds and devise plans B and, possibly, C.

Nitza Avidan certainly went through the strategic wringer a few times, as she pulled out all the stops to ensure the much sought-after Keshet Eilon summer course was able to take place in this most troubling and challenging of years.

The Keshet Eilon Music Center, to give it its full titular due, is – normally – based at Kibbutz Eilon, located a stone’s throw from the Lebanese border.

“A few days after October 7, I think it was on the 10th, we were evacuated from the Kibbutz,” explains Avidan, who serves as the center’s general manager. “That was nine months ago. We never dreamed we’d still be unable to go back.”

Tragically, that is still the case, and Avidan and her colleagues have had to come up with creative initiatives in order to maintain their classical music instruction activities. The jewel in the center’s annual crown is the International String Summer Master Course, which has been drawing scores of talented young musicians to this part of the world for the past 34 years.

Avidan says they weren’t about to give up the ghost without a fight. “We made a calculated decision, with the management, not to cancel or defer any activities, or to lay off any members of staff or to put them on unpaid leave.”

Relocating to Spain amid security concerns

With that mindset in place, Avidan arranged, after plenty of shenanigans and great effort, to hold the summer course in Altea, on the Mediterranean coast of Spain, south of Valencia. It is due to start on July 21, running through to August 8. It took some organization, but Avidan et al. ultimately got it together.

Initially, the idea was to have the course at its usual berth, but security considerations, of the students, stymied that. “We sent out questionnaires. We said we were hoping to run the course in Israel, these are the options, what do you think? Almost all of them said they wouldn’t come. They were very polite but eventually said that Israel is a country at war and that they didn’t want to take the risk.”

That was after Avidan had checked out various sites around Israel, beyond Hamas missile range, in Jerusalem and other places. But that was to no avail. It was time for a radical rethink.

“I asked them what they would say if the course took place somewhere in Europe, and they all immediately replied they would attend,” the general manager happily adds. The change of geographic tack did the trick. “Over 130 people immediately registered. We accepted around 52.”

The next hurdle to overcome was settling on a location that ticked all the convenience, logistical, and security boxes. The UK was the first port of call.

“Selecting a venue was complicated,” Avidan says. “Our musical director [educator-violinist] Itzhak Rashkovsky lives in England. He teaches at the Royal College of Music [in London].”

A team duly set out for Britain but ran into all sorts of problems.

“The day we got to London, there was a massive pro-Palestinian demonstration. It was scary,” Avidan recalls. Alternative sites in the environs of London were explored but none met the requirements of the course structure. “We needed concert halls, several pianos – to accompany the violinists – and a place for people to sleep in, a sort of boarding school facility. And it had to be a safe and secure place.”

Public opinion and the mass media-promulgated view of Israel didn’t help matters. “We got all sorts of responses. They said all sorts of things – they weren’t sure, their place usually underwent renovations during the summer, and that sort of thing. No one said no outright.” That is in keeping with the PC-oriented and typically restrained British way. “There were lots of reservations with regard to an albeit international group, but one that is closely identified with Israel,” Avidan notes.

Etiquette may be pleasant, but it wasn’t going to help the Keshet Eilon summer course cause. Budapest was also considered but fell short on the comfort front. “We were welcomed with open arms there, but it transpired that there are no air conditioners in Budapest. We were told we might have temperate weather for two weeks and then, in the third week, you might have a weather nightmare.”

As is often the case, the eventual solution came via a personal connection. The doyen of the Keshet Eilon faculty and – indeed – the global classical music scene is former Israel Philharmonic Orchestra first violinist Chaim Taub, who will turn 99 years young during the Summer Master Course. His son Yaron just happens to have an American-style school in Altea.

Avidan boarded another flight and headed for the Iberian Peninsula. The place did not satisfy all of Keshet Eilon’s needs but came close enough.

“It is not a boarding school, so we had to find accommodation for everyone,” she says. “But the place is fenced off with an electric gate and it is remote.”

The security aspect is of the essence, and understandably so. “We’re not doing any PR in Spain, and the open classes and concerts will be solely for the participants and faculty and the friends of Keshet Eilon,” Avidan explains.

ALL THE trials and tribulations of being evacuated, having to hold the Keshet Eilon winter and spring programs in Ra’anana, where they were warmly received and embraced by the municipal facilities, with local residents hosting some of the students, and the trying run-up to the summer event in Spain have at least served to underscore one heartwarming fact.

The Keshet Eilon Music Center, located in the remote northern reaches of this little Middle Eastern country, is undoubtedly a recognized and respected global brand. There is no other explanation why so many gifted classical music students from around the world were so eager to attend the summer sessions, despite Israel’s appalling international public profile.

The same goes for the impressive teaching roster. This year’s faculty, besides centenarian-in-the making Taub, includes internationally regarded pedagogue Dr. Robin Wilson from the Australian National Academy of Music in Melbourne, Chinese-born American violinist Qian Zhou, and Swedish violinist and professor Ulf Wallin.

There is also a host of celebrated Israeli musician-educators, such as octogenarian violinist-teacher Shmuel Ashkenasi, Russian-born violinist Sergey Ostrovsky, Tel Aviv University professor-cellist Hillel Zori, and Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich principal violist Gilad Karni, with 39-year-old violinist Itamar Zorman putting in a shout for the younger crowd.

The programmatic spread stretches just a little further, into important technical realms, with Adam Korman running a violin-making workshop in Altea. There will also be a local musician on call, with Spanish harmonica virtuoso Antonio Serrano displaying some of the wonders of jazz and improvisation to the students and teachers.

And if that doesn’t do the eclectic trick, Rashkovsky will deliver a lecture on AI and how it can be utilized during the classical musical creative process. “I am delighted that we are able to look at innovation, too,” Avidan exclaims.

The former trendy Sheinkin Street, Tel Aviv, resident says she is looking forward to the Spanish venture and, after the choppy waters she has had to navigate en route, just hopes all goes well.

“I can’t wait for August 9, to breathe a sigh of relief,” she chuckles. “We have excellent students, and the course will be on a very high level. I am excited, but I don’t know how the students will react to the place and the classes. It is all well organized and high quality, but you never know.”

One thing is for certain, Avidan has done her bit. Let the show begin.

For more information: https://www.keshetei.org.il/en/homepage