If not for the war in Syria, the world might never know about the pianist of Yarmouk.
“I want to change everything with music and I want to make the sound of the piano better then the sound of fighting.” Aeham Ahmad Aeham Ahmad became a symbol of hope when this video of him playing the piano amidst the rubble in Yarmouk camp caught worldwide attention.
The life of Aeham Ahmad changed when the Syrian War broke out in 2011. He suffered a shrapnel wound to his hand; it was a blow to his dream of becoming a classical pianist. So he took his piano to the street and started playing it to protest against the war. His music not only comforted himself but also the other refugees living in horror inside Yarmouk camp.
Starvation abound in the camp as food supplies were deliberately blocked by the Syrian army. A teenager was shot dead while picking leaves to eat. People were so hungry that they resorted to eating cats and dogs.
When the Islamists took over the city in 2015, they banned music and set Ahmad's piano on fire. Fearing for his life, he fled to Germany, joining thousands of other refugees on a perilous journey to freedom. After settling down in Germany, he started playing the piano again and won the nation's hearts. He was awarded the first Beethoven Prize for Human Rights, Peace, Inclusion and the Fight Against Poverty. A year later, he was granted asylum in Germany.
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In 2017, Ahmed's memoir was first published in German as Und die Vögel werden singen. To him, writing his life story was both healing and haunting at the same time.
“I tried to describe everything that happened in a very clear mind, but it wasn’t clear for me until now. I tried to write a life story about my family, Yarmouk, people, the community, and I tried to write also the life story of the Syrian people. I tried to focus not too much on politics, but I tried to [explain] our opinion of politics.” The English-translated edition is now available. (288 pages / $21).
One morning in war-torn Damascus, a starving man drags a piano into a rubbled street. Everything he once knew has been destroyed by war.
Amidst ruin and despair, he begins to play. He plays of love and hope, he plays for his family and his fellow Syrians. He plays even though he could be killed for doing so.
As word of his defiance spreads around the world, he becomes a beacon of hope and even resistance. Yet he fears for his wife and children - the more he plays, the more he and his family are endangered until, finally, he must make a terrible choice . . .
Aeham Ahmad's spellbinding and uplifting true story tells of the triumph of love and hope, the incredible bonds of family, and the healing power of music in even the very darkest of places.
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