programming springs from a fall festival of brightly colored pianos placed in public spaces around the city. At festival’s end, 88 painted Pianos for Peace are donated to schools, nursing homes, healthcare facilities and community centers. “Malek gets things done,” said Professor Nitsch. “He doesn’t
have a dull moment, and with this residency, he will be a brand new face of music creativity at Queens and in Charlotte.” Jandali views the artistic culture of his birth country as crucial
for his early love of music, notably Western classical music. Born in Germany to a Syrian couple, he was six when his family moved to Homs, Syria. Tough it was the third largest city in the country, there was no music school, so young Jandali took his own road to Damascus for music lessons, traveling weekly by “bus, train, however.” He also recalled times in high school when there was no electricity, and he studied by candlelight or generator power. His turn toward composing coincided with another important event in his life—becoming an American citizen in 2005. During
an emotional ceremony in Charlotte, congregants from nearby Concord’s St. James Catholic Church, where he was organist and music director, turned out in droves to support him. “I really felt the concept of citizenship,” he remembered. In 2011, the year of the Arab Spring, he performed I Am My
Homeland at a peaceful demonstration in front of the White House to support the Syrian people’s quest for freedom and democracy. Te next day at his family’s home in Syria, his mother was beaten while his handcuffed father watched helplessly. “I thought, ‘Someone across the ocean is making an executive
decision to beat my mother.’ I realized then that I have tools in my hands. Music is powerful. I didn’t realize that until then,” Jandali said. “One word can change the narrative, and that is what music is all about: changing the narrative through the soft power of the arts. I’m grateful to be able to do that now at Queens.”
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