conservatory

The teachers - who are using whatever borrowed instruments they can find - include former students of the Conservatory, such as 16-year-old violinist Sama Nijim.

Such versatility on the part of the staff can also be seen in teacher Osama Jahjouh’s fashioning of a nay - or traditional flute - out of a plastic pipe, because the Conservatory nays have been lost.

What he saw, at the Gaza branch of the Palestinian music school, the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music, was “a catastrophe”.

Altogether, the Gaza branch of the Conservatory used to have more than 400 instruments - both Western classical ones and traditional Arabic instruments such as the oud, qanun and nay, a type of flute.

Jones, a graduate of New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts, got his start at Upright Citizens Brigade, where he was in the main cast of “Asssscat,” one of the improv house’s signature shows.