There's a fascinating piece at NYT today about classical musicians in Palestine.

RAMALLAH, West Bank — The shy Palestinian teenager raised her flute and dispatched the courtly melodies and cascading runs of an 18th-century concerto with surprising self-assurance.

Over just three years of study the flute had become a near obsession for Dalia Moukarker, 16. She was practicing so hard — sometimes retreating to a bathroom in her crowded apartment, sometimes skipping meals — that her wrist filled with pain, limiting her to two hours a day. But in a classroom here recently, the discomfort was nowhere to be seen. For she had earned an almost surreal reward: a master class with her hero, Emmanuel Pahud, a major international soloist.

Young musicians in unfriendly circumstances have always found music to be both a way out and a sanctuary within, and Moukarker's is no exception to the familiar pattern. Hopefully the NYT will follow this up in a few months with an update.