Finding harmony across borders

When violinist Noam Yaffe steps onto the stage this week with the Australian World Orchestra (AWO), he’ll be returning to familiar ground, both musically and personally. Born in Sydney but now based in Tel Aviv, Yaffe has built a career that bridges continents and cultures.

“This is now my third year playing with the Australian World Orchestra, and each time it is an immense honour,” he told The AJN ahead of the orchestra’s history-making performance of Mahler’s Fourth and Fifth Symphonies. It’s the first time the two pieces will be performed together in the Southern Hemisphere. “For a musician still at the beginning of my career, it is a privilege to be able to make the annual pilgrimage to play with some of the world’s greatest orchestral musicians. The orchestra is a delight to play with; it feels like being swept up in a wave of energy.”

The AWO will be conducted by Artistic Director and Chief Conductor Alexander Briger, and the ambitious program will see the musicians onstage for more than two hours.

“This concert is a testament to the exceptional quality of the Australian World Orchestra, comprised of the finest musicians from Australia and around the globe,” Briger said. “Their extraordinary talent and dedication allow us to present such an ambitious program. By performing these two symphonies in one evening, we aim to create an unforgettable experience that celebrates the power of music to transcend boundaries and touch the soul.”

For Yaffe, his love of the violin started at the age of five.

“Both my parents love music, but Dad always had classical music playing in the house,” he recalled. “I think probably violin because that’s often what you can hear most prominently in orchestral music. I wasn’t pushed into it. It just happened organically, and then it gradually got more serious.”

After studying at the Conservatorium High School in Sydney, Yaffe moved to Israel in 2019 to complete a master’s degree in Tel Aviv. “The most important thing when you’re choosing a music degree is the teacher,” he explained. “And I also didn’t want to just follow everyone to Europe or the States. Israel was a really good third option, especially for me because I have citizenship and I have the language.”

Yaffe admitted that while he loves playing with the AWO, the upcoming concerts are also a nice respite from what’s going on in Israel at the moment.

“The orchestra is a delight to play with; it feels like being swept up in a wave of energy. But beyond all that, I must admit it is nice to take a few weeks’ respite from the chaos of my home country, or what we in Hebrew call the ‘balagan’,” he said.

And, he said, he has a special affinity for the music they’ll be playing this time around.

“Mahler’s fourth and fifth symphonies are two of the reasons why I fell in love with orchestral playing,” Yaffe explained, saying he’s deeply connected to the repertoire of Jewish-born composer, Gustav Mahler. “I have played each several times, and it is always fascinating to hear what approach different conductors and orchestras take. I’m excited to hear what fresh interpretation Maestro Briger and this all-star ensemble bring to the pieces.”

Yaffe explained to The AJN that Mahler himself often grappled with his identity, saying he often said that he was thrice homeless – as a native of Bohemia in Austria, as an Austrian among Germans, and as a Jew throughout the world. And Yaffe admitted that he can relate to the final description, especially having landed in Sydney on Sunday August 3, as hundreds of thousands of people took part in the ‘March for Humanity’.

“Visiting Australia this year, the sense of being a ‘Jew throughout the world’ is certainly more pronounced than ever,” he said. “It is a strange experience to land in Sydney on the same day that 100,000 people are marching across the Harbour Bridge vilifying the very country you flew from. I am now cautious whenever someone asks where I am from, which I have never had to be in the past. In a sad cycle of history, Mahler’s sense of being a Jew throughout speaks strongly to my own sense of being an Israeli throughout the world.”

Yaffe also explained that reality recently intruded onstage.

“This year I played Mahler 4 with my orchestra, the Israeli Opera Orchestra. Halfway through the third movement the concert was interrupted by the blare of air-raid sirens. A ballistic missile from the Houthis was being intercepted above our heads. The concert paused, and the orchestra and audience sheltered in place. Many of the concert halls in Israel are reinforced and double as shelters.”

Yet despite the challenges, Yaffe remains steadfast in his belief in music’s unifying power. “Having ‘Noam Yaffe – Israel’ in the programme is bound to furrow the brows of some people who forget that music is about connecting people and crossing borders,” he said. “It is a courageous decision by the AWO … for which I am extremely grateful.”

For Yaffe, returning to Sydney is also deeply personal.

“Given the charged political situation, and the depths to which my home country has sunk in global public opinion, I am aware that my being invited to play this year cannot be taken for granted,” he said.

Above all, Yaffe never loses sight of the privilege of his profession. “My favourite thing about being a traditional orchestral musician is that you get to spend all day, every day in the presence of the greatest masterpieces of human creativity,” he told The AJN when chatting in 2022. “Sometimes I have to take a step back and just remind myself … this is just the work of an absolute genius.”

AWO will be in concert at Melbourne’s Hamer Hall on September 3 and the Sydney Opera House on September 4.