Edward Said National Conservatory of Music  The Edward Said National Conservatory of Music ( "Ma`had Edward Sa`īd al-Waṭaniy lil-Musīqā") is a Palestinian music conservatory with branches in Ramallah, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nablus and Gaza City. In total, there are more than 1000 students. It was established in 1993 as The National Conservatory of Music, with its first branch in Ramallah, opening in October of that year. In September 2004, the name of the conservatory was changed to The Edward Said National Conservatory of Music in honor of the Palestinian musician and intellectual Edward Said, the accomplished classical pianist and scholar of international studies, and a founder and benefactor of music for east-west dialogue (see the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra and Barenboim-Said Akademie). The ESNCM administrates the Palestine Youth Orchestra and the Palestine National Orchestra, in addition to a number smaller projects. The recently formed Palestine Strings ensemble performed with Nigel Kennedy in 2012, and toured the USA in 2011. Its youth orchestra - the PYO - has performed in Palestine, Italy, Jordan, Greece, Bahrain, Germany, Syria and Lebanon. It enjoys the support of international partner institutions including the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra. The ESNCM's professional orchestra - the PNO - formed in December 2010, has performed in Palestine, Jordan and Indonesia. Both orchestras have an agenda of promoting music by living Arab composers. The ESNCM Orchestra, the only Palestinian symphony orchestra performing in Palestine today where all the musicians are drawn from the local communities, promotes concerts throughout the year in the main Palestinian towns and cities. It performs an eclectic mix of film western classical music, opera, arrangements of Arabic music and film music. The ESNCM has several resident Arabic music ensembles, student and professional, which have toured throughout the world, and its students have taken part in collaborative projects with well-known international musicians. In addition to administrating two major festivals, the ESNCM promotes concerts of Arabic, western classical and jazz music throughout Palestine at all times of year. It is responsible for the annual Arabic music Layali Tarab fi Quds al Arab festival, and the mainly classical Jasmine Festival. In 1990, five Palestinian musicians and music teachers conducted a study on the status of music in Palestine upon a request by the Welfare Association. The preliminary findings of the study convinced the team that there was an urgent need to establish a music school to fill the huge gap in music education within the Palestinian society.