The Art of Doing Good: Composer Malek Jandali made art for peace in Syria

100 decorated pianos were placed in public spaces around Atlanta. Wherever the instruments end up, Pianos for Peace pays for them to be tuned and maintained.

Jandali was born in Germany of Syrian parents. When Jandali was 5, his father, a prominent physician, returned to Syria with his family to start a private hospital. Jandali learned to love Western classical music from his father and went on to study music in Damascus and later at the Tchaikovsky Moscow Conservatory.

In 1995, he won a scholarship to the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, where he discovered he was more of a composer than a performer.

When civil war broke out in Syria in 2011, Jandali wanted to raise awareness about the humanitarian crisis there. He was one of the first Syrian artists abroad to speak out against Bashar al-Assad’s regime. He visited refugee camps to raise awareness and humanitarian aid for refugees and launched his world tour — “The Voice of the Free Syrian Children” — in 2013.

He received two prestigious awards for his humanitarian and peace activism and, in 2015, he founded Pianos for Peace in Atlanta, where he now lives. He also has a home in New York but noted that he keeps the jar of the Syrian soil that is so close to his heart here in Atlanta.

During the first year of Pianos for Peace, it was very much a DIY undertaking. Jandali and a friend procured a few pianos and rented a U-Haul truck to transport them to venues around Atlanta. They went late at night to avoid the traffic and used only one dolly.

Now the organization has a facility on Peachtree Street in Midtown where the pianos are stored — with 200 dollies — and it has 12 permanent employees, dozens of volunteers and partnerships with music therapists and other music professionals.

“Before we donate the pianos to the schools, we identify which schools we feel most need them, especially in underserved communities,” Jandali says. “There is a huge gap between the schools in Midtown and Buckhead, for instance, and those close to the airport. I am very keen as an artist and an American citizen to try and bridge this gap.”

Jandali is proud of the work Pianos for Peace has done in Atlanta. He is especially moved by the impact his pianos have in nursing homes. When residents hear the pianos being played, “they dance in their wheelchairs,” he says. “I cried when I saw that.”

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Gillian Anne Renault is ArtsATL’s senior editor for music and dance and has been an ArtsATL contributor since 2012. She has covered dance for the Los Angeles Daily News, Herald Examiner and Ballet News and on radio stations such as KCRW, the NPR affiliate in Santa Monica, California. Many years ago, she was awarded an NEA fellowship to attend American Dance Festival’s Dance Criticism program.