The Pianist of Syria

The Pianist of Syria is a memoir written by Aeham Ahmad.  It is a story of growing up in a refugee camp in Syria.  Aeham is a second generation Palestinian growing up in a suburb outside Damascus.

Aeham is the son of a blind violinist, who plays at wedding receptions.  His father fled Palestine in 1948 during the Naqba.  His love of music lead him to try and open a music store, which he runs with Aeham and his brother.  It is filled with guitars, pianos, violins and about 200 ouds.
His father is very talented and has also taught himself carpentry to make a living.  Later on, when he decides that his son should learn to play the piano, he gets a second hand instrument.  When he cannot get a piano tuner to come to their neighborhood, he teaches himself to tune the piano. 

Aeham's mother is a school principal at the school Aeham attends early on.  She makes a point to treat him equally with all the other students and not play favorites.  He has a rough time in school.  But then he discovers music and attends a special music school.  He does much better there, though there are many incidents described in the book about how hard it is for him.  The school is mainly populated by children from wealthy families.  He has to travel by public transportation that can take two hours to get each way.  He overcomes many obstacles to continue his music education.

He attends The Damascus Music School and then graduates to studying music pedagogy at Al Baath University in Homs.  Then everything changes.  Ahmad describes the difficulty of living as a Palestinian in Syria, writing about how beginning in July 2013 the refugee camp of Yarmouk was without electricity or hot water.   He is thirty years old, he and his new bride have had their first son when Syrian tanks role through Yarmouk.  The city was then completely sealed off, with no water, food or electricity, and was besieged by the Syrian Army as they hunted for rebel forces.

Though his hand is injured while serving falafel to his neighbors, and then repaired by a carpenter, he continues to love music and wants to play his piano and also writes songs.  He puts the instrument on wheels and two friends help him move the piano out into the streets.  He plays in the streets with the idea of playing the piano amid the wreckage of war as a way to protest against the actions of President Bashar Al Assad’s regime. Appalled at the carnage around him, he says he wanted to “counter violence with art”.  He says in the book,   "I'm a pianist, not a political activist.  My revolution is music.  My language is music. Music was going to be my form of protest, even if no one heard me.  It was January 28, 2014."

Then he has to escape Syria and after an incredible ordeal arrives in Germany, leaving his family behind.  After his picture and music videos are uploaded to YouTube and published in newspapers, then photographer is arrested.  His piano is burned by ISIS and Ahmed realizes it is time to leave the country.  When his family tries to escape they are caught and arrested.  After they are released, Ahmed travels to Germany and then later his family emigrates.  They all live in Germany now and Aeham Ahmed continues to perform bringing Syrian music to a wider audience.