Cellist Elena Cheah has had a marvelous and broad career. After graduating from Juilliard, she was appointed principal cello of the Deutsche Oper Berlin and later was principal of the Staatskapelle Berlin under Daniel Barenboim. She is currently a professor at the Freiburg Musik Hochschule in Germany and a member of the Hegel String Quartet. In addition, she was a member of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, an ensemble consisting of Israelis, Palestinians and people from other Arab countries. She has written a beautiful and moving book about the experiences and views of a number of the orchestra's members.

In Part 1 of our conversation, we discuss how she first entered the Divan orchestra and then focus on the experiences of several people in the orchestra.

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