Around the Music Festival

Israel’s Jerusalem Chamber Music Festival has announced that it will cancel this year’s event. The festival, founded in 1998 by pianist Elena Bashkirova, wife of conductor Daniel Barenboim, has served as artistic director since its inception, and was scheduled to open this year on September 3.

According to the announcement, the main reason for the cancellation is that many of the participating artists are unable to enter Israel, and major airlines have canceled future flights due to the fighting that began on August 25 between the Israeli army and Ḥizb Allāh, a Shiite Islamist group based in southern Lebanon.

PHOTO：Jerusalem chamber music festival