In Ramallah, after the Jordanian musician left, Ramzi continued to spend hours with his viola every day, playing Oriental melodies that he knew by heart from listening to his grandfather’s radio. Later the same year a group of musicians from an American chamber music festival came to Ramallah to perform and teach at the conservatory, now known as the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music. The chamber music concert they played was the first Ramzi had ever heard and his first experience of Western classical music. Oriental musicians, when playing in a group, always played the same melody together simultaneously; he was bewildered by the diversity of voices in this music – five different musicians, all playing different parts at the same time. << less