The Score | Seattle Welcome

Overflow crowds turned out for Seattle Symphony’s free “Music Beyond Borders: Voices from the Seven” concert in February, which was arranged immediately following President Donald Trump’s executive order halting refugee admissions and temporarily barring people from travel to the U.S. from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. At the Seattle Symphony’s Facebook page, an additional 1.5 million people watched a live stream of the concert, which featured music by Iraqi-born Rahim AlHaj and two Iranian-born composers, Gity Razaz and Alireza Motevaseli, among others. (Iraq was later dropped from the list of banned countries.) Seattle Symphony President and CEO Simon Woods called inclusivity a “core value” of the orchestra, noting, “We hope that we can bring our community together to celebrate the freedom of expression and open exchange of ideas which the arts have always stood for, especially in times of division and conflict.”