JERUSALEM, June 9, 2007, (WAFA)-Sounding Jerusalem Chamber Music Festival 2007 will be held on 22nd and July 7th 2007 in Jerusalem and West Bank.

In a press release, the festival's organisers said that over 30 internationally renowned artists will be performing in 22 admission-free concerts, which will be held in the West Bank, the Old-City of Jerusalem and West Jerusalem.

The festival will be presented by festival director Erich Oskar Huetter. Speakers are J?rg Ranau, Head of the Representative Office of the Federal Republic of Germany in Ramallah and Markus Bugynar, rector of the Austrian Hospice in Jerusalem.

The idea to create a cultural platform in the old city of Jerusalem came from the Austrian cellist Erich Oscar Huetter. The old city of Jerusalem symbolizes for him a unique cosmos, an immense source of inspiration - incomparable in its intensity and richness.

Sounding Jerusalem offers talented Palestinian music students the opportunity to work together with leading international musicians during the festival. They will have the chance to experience the everyday life of these artists and to join rehearsals with them in order to prepare themselves for public concerts at the festival. There they will perform together side by side in one chamber music ensemble. The young musicians will gain intense, challenging, and rewarding musical experiences inspiring them to continue their open-minded creative artistic work.

Chamber music itself symbolizes the creation of intimacy through the coming together of a small group of people communicating with each other through the universal language of music.

With the purpose of stimulating all senses and showing many different artistic aspects, the festival's rich and innovative programme contains masterpieces of the classical Western chamber music as well as exciting creations like world premieres of contemporary chamber music concerts and musical improvisations performed together with local artists contributing their musical heritage.

The Festival was initiated by the Austrian non-profit Association "A.MUS.E - Austrian Music Encounter" and the "Austrian Hospice" and supported by the "European Commission", the Federal Republic of Germany and several other European governments.

M.H.(12:05 P)(09:05 GMT)