How was West-Eastern DIVAN orchestra co-created?

Curious about the originating of the West-Eastern DIVAN orchestra that we just heard in Oslo (20.8.2008, see blog entry 21 Aug), I visited the co-founder and conductor's own website, and want to share this story with you (courtesy to www.barenboim.com, accessed 24.8.2008, my excerpts and headlines):
-- A Chance Meeting:
"In the early 1990s, a chance meeting between Mr. Barenboim and the late Palestinian-born writer and Columbia University professor Edward Said in a London hotel lobby led to an intensive friendship that has had both political and musical repercussions. These two men, who should have been poles apart politically, discovered in that first meeting, which lasted for hours, that they had similar visions of Israeli/Palestinian possible future cooperation. They decided to continue their dialogue and to collaborate on musical events to further their shared vision of peaceful co-existence in the Middle East. This led to Mr. Barenboim's first concert on the West Bank, a piano recital at the Palestinian Birzeit University in February 1999, and to a workshop for young musicians from the Middle East that took place in Weimar, Germany, in August 1999."

-- Furthermore, we learn:
"The West-Eastern Divan Workshop took two years to organize and involved talented young musicians between the ages of 14 and 25 from Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Tunisia and Israel. The idea was that they would come together to make music on neutral ground with the guidance of some of the world's best musicians. Weimar was chosen as the site for the workshop because of its rich cultural tradition of writers, poets, musicians and creative artists and because it was the 1999 European cultural capital. Mr. Barenboim wisely chose two concertmasters for the orchestra, an Israeli and a Lebanese. There were some tense moments among the young players at first but, coached by members of the Berlin Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony and the Staatskapelle Berlin, and following master classes with the cellist Yo-Yo Ma and nightly cultural discussions with Mr. Said and Mr. Barenboim, the young musicians worked and played in increasing harmony.
The West-Eastern Divan Workshop was held again in Weimar in the summer of 2000 and in Chicago in the summer of 2001. It has since found a permanent home in Seville, Spain, where it has been based since 2002."
-- On performances:
"Each summer, following their workshop, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra gives public concerts; to date they have performed in Europe and North and South America, including at the BBC Proms and the Edinburgh, Lucerne and Salzburg festivals. In 2004, they performed a historic concert in Ramallah, the Orchestra's first concert in an Arab country. In December 2006, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra went to the U.S.A., performing at Carnegie Hall and ending the tour with a farewell concert at the United Nations for outgoing Secretary-General Kofi Annan. In 2007, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra was invited to be in residence at the Salzburg Festival."
....and we may add, in 2008 they have among several places performed with great success in Scandinavia including Oslo.
Birgit, 24.8.2008
PS Interestingly, also the excellently improvising cellist Yo Yo Ma has immersed himself in crosscultural efforts, see the SILK ROAD PROJECT: www.silkroadproject.org
And Daniel Barenboim has accepted several citizenships including Palestinian, see his website (link in the headline of this blog entry). For more background on Barenboim from other sources, see e.g., http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Barenboim