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Saving Gaza’s Grand Piano

How Gaza's only grand piano is being restored and how music - for so long played behind closed doors - is being reintroduced to school children.

It has been hidden away in a dusty corner of an abandoned theatre, unplayed and almost forgotten - a magnificent instrument allowed to moulder away in a territory whose Islamist rulers banned public performances of music. But now Gaza's only grand concert piano is getting a new lease of life. A small Brussels-based charity is restoring it to its former glory and at the same time is working to bring music back into schools. With Hamas control steadily weakening the charity has begun a unique project to train teachers in Gaza to reintroduce music into the curriculum - not through music classes but through subjects such as mathematics and geography. It is helping disturbed children in this war torn territory to concentrate - and it is exciting teachers. Tim Whewell gets exclusive access to the story of Gaza and its grand piano.

(Photo: Gaza’s only grand concert piano in the theatre half destroyed by a rocket attack. Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ copyright)

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28 minutes

Last on

Sun 7 Jun 2015 09:05GMT

Broadcasts

  • Thu 26 Mar 2015 02:32GMT
  • Thu 26 Mar 2015 16:32GMT
  • Thu 26 Mar 2015 20:32GMT
  • Sun 29 Mar 2015 09:05GMT
  • Sun 7 Jun 2015 09:05GMT

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