A 34-year-old violinist from Nazareth has been named as one of the recipients of the 2012 Yoko Ono Lennon Courage Awards for the Arts. Nabeel Abboud-Ashkar is a member of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, and is the general director of the Barenboim-Said Conservatory in Nazareth and the Barenboim-Said Music Centre in Ramallah. In 2011 he co-founded the Polyphony Foundation to promote tolerance and co-existence through classical music education.

Ono wrote on her website: 'I recognise the courage required to bring children together from Israeli and Palestinian communities to find commonality in music as a very powerful and effective beginning towards peace.' The violinist will receive his award at a private dinner in New York on 26 February.

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