Cellist performs 'peace' concert among Iraq's ruins

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Dozens of people attended a concert for "peace and coexistence" by Iraqi cellist and conductor Karim Wasfi amid the ruins of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

Wasfi, in full concert dress, played on a makeshift stage among the most iconic religious monuments of Iraq's second largest city on Friday, almost a year after the government forces ousted the extremist and terrorist group ISIL from the capital of its self-declared "caliphate."

The venue lay between the Catholic church of Our Lady of the Hour with its famed clock tower and the remains of the iconic Hadba ("hunchback") leaning minaret next to the Nuri Mosque, destroyed during the battles to take and retake the city.

Iraqi cello maestro Karim Wasfi wanders in Mosul's war-ravaged Old City on June 29, 2018. /AFP Photo

Wasfi was joined by the violinist, guitar and oud players of local band Awtar Nerkal.

"This music is a message from Mosul to the whole world, of the concepts of security, peace and coexistence," said Wasfi.

The dual Iraqi-US national is a former conductor of Iraq's National Symphony Orchestra and has been nicknamed "Iraq's Rostropovich" after the Russian maestro cellist.

The music was "a call for companies, investors and organizations to come and take part in the reconstruction of the city, especially its destroyed Old Town", the bearded and bespectacled artist said.

Famed Iraqi maestro and cello player Karim Wasfi performs in front of the Al-Hadba leaning minaret at the Great Mosque of al-Nuri in Mosul’s war-ravaged Old City. /AFP Photo‍

The impromptu concert came in the same week that Iraqi authorities finally launched clean-up operations in the city that jihadists held for three years until their ouster in July 2017.

Several times over the past three years, Wasfi, who was born in Cairo, has taken his cello on to the streets of Baghdad to play at bomb sites shortly after attacks.

(Cover photo: Iraqi maestro and cello player Karim Wasfi performs in front of the Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady of the Hour in Mosul’s war-ravaged Old City. /AFP Photo)

Source(s): AFP