Counterpoint Conference: Role of Arts in Interfaith Dialogue

This was Counterpoint International's () first one-day concert/seminar, held at the Cronkhite Graduate Center at Harvard. The Lebanese Club @ MIT helped organize this event and was present at the conference to promote Lebanon and the LCM.

The conference explored artistic and media-related responses to Christian-Muslim tension, as well as carried a focus on Lebanon and the lessons learnt from recent interreligious conflicts there. One of Counterpoints aims was to examine how music can be used within an academic setting to encourage a deeper, franker level of discourse.

Another aim was to use the conference as a springboard for their tour in Lebanon (more on Counterpoint Lebanon ) in the spring of 2005, attracting support and establishing credibility in the field.

Eminent speakers were invited from Christian and Muslim communities. The musical framework was provided by the Counterpoint Quintet and ZilZALA, a Lebanese ensemble that fuses Arabic music with Western influences. There were also 'cello and kanun solos.