:00:00. > :00:00.to the children of Gaza. We were given exclusive access to film the
:00:00. > :00:14.restoration of the piano and its first playing by some of
:00:15. > :00:16.The astonishment was enormous when we came to this place
:00:17. > :00:22.It's the only concert grand piano in Gaza,
:00:23. > :00:38.somehow still standing in the shell of a bombed-out theatre.
:00:39. > :00:42.In a place where some belief that music is forbidden by God...
:00:43. > :00:44.We are teaching a new, whole generation music is something
:00:45. > :00:52.Can a little piece of beauty be rescued from so much destruction?
:00:53. > :00:56.Music might not build you a house or might not give you your loved
:00:57. > :01:18.ones back, but it makes you feel better.
:01:19. > :01:21.Through the squalor of Gaza, a young French piano restorer
:01:22. > :01:42.This is what remains of one of Gaza's very few theatres,
:01:43. > :01:46.half destroyed in last year's conflict with Israel.
:01:47. > :01:55.But come inside, something even rarer has survived.
:01:56. > :02:18.Claire is about to get a first look inside.
:02:19. > :03:18.So it's not just a matter of the strings, it's a matter
:03:19. > :03:21.of the dampers, it's a matter of the hammers,
:03:22. > :03:29.So all this will have to be completely taken off.
:03:30. > :03:31.So this is one of the worst you've seen?
:03:32. > :04:13.The first task is to move the piano somewhere safe.
:04:14. > :04:14.Now Claire, with two Palestinian apprentices,
:04:15. > :04:22.must take it apart in this disused wedding hall and then rebuild it.
:04:23. > :04:50.Claire was brought here by Music Fund, the Belgian charity
:04:51. > :04:53.which helped discover the piano, in a project sponsored
:04:54. > :05:06.The piano came here in the late 1990s from Japan.
:05:07. > :05:11.But it ended up in the hands of hard-headed businessman Sa'ad
:05:12. > :05:25.He bought it just over two years ago as part of the theatre and adjoining
:05:26. > :05:27.leisure complex that he spent a fortune refurbishing.
:05:28. > :05:32.And then the latest war with Israel struck.
:05:33. > :05:37.500 here, and in the wedding hall, another 500.
:05:38. > :05:47.His new restaurant block took a direct hit.
:05:48. > :05:58.So this is the casing, the outer casing of the missile
:05:59. > :06:00.itself with the number on it and everything.
:06:01. > :06:03.This is actually part of the actual missile that hit this building?
:06:04. > :06:06.Tell me, you'd spent more than $800,000 restoring the space?
:06:07. > :06:39.Not about the money, this is my dream.
:06:40. > :07:10.But despite all the damage, the piano survived unscathed.
:07:11. > :07:11.Mr Herzallah's other business interest is food,
:07:12. > :07:20.He didn't know the piano was unplayable when he bought it,
:07:21. > :07:54.People have told me that they came to this theatre 15 or 20 years ago,
:07:55. > :08:04.They say there was once music, comedy, even satire.
:08:05. > :08:06.But in recent years there's been nothing like that.
:08:07. > :08:09.The space, the public space for music, has gotten
:08:10. > :08:17.Gazan society, always conservative, has become gradually more so.
:08:18. > :08:20.Many here rejects music as haram, religiously prohibited.
:08:21. > :08:23.And while there is no ban on music, since 2007, rule by the Islamist
:08:24. > :08:36.militants Hamas has brought more cultural restrictions.
:08:37. > :08:38.Of course that hasn't stopped big noisy weddings like this,
:08:39. > :08:41.but people who love traditional celebrations don't always approve
:08:42. > :08:50.So Gaza's only music school keeps a low profile
:08:51. > :09:02.Behind the doors of the local branch of the Edward Said Conservatory,
:09:03. > :09:11.they're patiently cultivating Gaza's top musical talent.
:09:12. > :09:21.The administrator is Khamis Abu Shaban.
:09:22. > :09:24.During an audit of the territory's dozen or so pianos by Music Fund,
:09:25. > :09:29.Just one small difference between oud and guitar
:09:30. > :09:45.This is something that you can't do on the guitar.
:09:46. > :09:50.But his band, which he says was the first to play live in Gaza,
:09:51. > :09:59.To perform on stage has been really difficult.
:10:00. > :10:02.I don't speak about the people, normal people, I am speaking
:10:03. > :10:10.We organised for a concert, we booked the place,
:10:11. > :10:12.we printed the tickets, we started selling the tickets,
:10:13. > :10:21.and two days before the concert they cancelled everything.
:10:22. > :10:22.Obviously there's music, indeed, modern music,
:10:23. > :10:32.in cafes, in restaurants, on car radio.
:10:33. > :10:37.as you are performing it, it's different.
:10:38. > :10:39.So they consider us extremists in what we do.
:10:40. > :10:42.At our concert, girls and the guys, they stood up and they started,
:10:43. > :10:49.I don't know, this was considered the strangest thing that
:10:50. > :10:58.Like other musicians here, Khamis is doubly trapped.
:10:59. > :11:11.Part of a besieged profession within a besieged territory.
:11:12. > :11:20.It's a trap that Yelena Lidawi walked into from outside.
:11:21. > :11:22.She came here from Russia when she married a Palestinian 15
:11:23. > :11:26.years ago, long before this music school existed in a land then almost
:11:27. > :12:30.on a special concert to mark its restoration.
:12:31. > :12:32.All classical composters, they actually fought a lot and went
:12:33. > :12:49.So if they did that, then we can do that too.
:12:50. > :12:52.Meanwhile, Claire and her team are on day four of the rebuild.
:12:53. > :12:58.They're changing not just the strings but also the hammers
:12:59. > :13:15.Then after I'd just put it like I want, and it stays
:13:16. > :13:33.Everything in the piano is like that.
:13:34. > :13:36.LAUGHTER Do you think of it as something alive?
:13:37. > :13:51.In just a few days' time, Sara and Yelena are going
:13:52. > :13:59.I remember what it was before, and I also looked at strings.
:14:00. > :14:08.Sara, what do you think, looking at this?
:14:09. > :14:10.I'm kind of speechless and nervous at the same time.
:14:11. > :14:13.I don't know what to say, to be honest.
:14:14. > :14:23.For Yelena, it's an emotional moment.
:14:24. > :14:26.She's the only person in Gaza with much experience
:14:27. > :15:02.But in Gaza, where 100,000 homes were damaged in the last war,
:15:03. > :15:04.when nearly half the people are unemployed, where most
:15:05. > :15:13.of the water's undrinkable, isn't a grand piano abit a luxury?
:15:14. > :15:18.Lucas from Music Fund doesn't think so.
:15:19. > :15:21.For several years, his charity has been sending instruments to Gaza
:15:22. > :15:33.What I'm confronted with is people being very keen on wanting
:15:34. > :15:38.When you ask them why is it so important, some of them told me,
:15:39. > :15:40.well, it mixes us human and makes us feel...
:15:41. > :15:43.It is like a form of rebellion against being narrowly defined
:15:44. > :15:52.as living beings who are only in survival.
:15:53. > :15:59.And Lucas has found it's not just instruments that Gaza lacks.
:16:00. > :16:02.I was astonished to find a grand piano in Gaza,
:16:03. > :16:04.but I was also very astonished to never hear singing in classrooms.
:16:05. > :16:07.Almost all the teachers, they were not able to sing.
:16:08. > :16:15.I've never been confronted with this reality.
:16:16. > :16:18.The rescue of the piano is part of a wider effort by Lucas's
:16:19. > :16:20.organisation to bring music to Gaza, including getting schools to use
:16:21. > :16:27.The piano is a symbol of that work, and its restoration has now reached
:16:28. > :16:45.It is stabbing to kinds of aerate it?
:16:46. > :16:59.And just show me one that hasn't been done yet.
:17:00. > :17:02.And so you can hear, that's a much harder sound.
:17:03. > :17:04.So, for you, what kind of character, through this process,
:17:05. > :17:23.Are you taught to think about somebody?
:17:24. > :17:32.Are you taking out your anger on somebody?
:17:33. > :17:36.Mr Herzallah, the piano's owner, won't be here to see
:17:37. > :17:39.He's going to China to buy a crisp frying machine
:17:40. > :17:58.Still, he seems impressed by Claire's work.
:17:59. > :18:01.Mr Herzallah has promised that music students will be able to use
:18:02. > :18:06.the piano, but it has no permanent home.
:18:07. > :18:08.He wants to put it here in the restaurant block,
:18:09. > :18:10.but only when he's fixed the building up.
:18:11. > :18:25.After the situation in Gaza has changed and there's no problems.
:18:26. > :18:35.When will the situation here be stable?
:18:36. > :18:46.In the meantime, Mr Herzallah has a lot of competing interests -
:18:47. > :18:51.Is it strange to be thinking one moment about crisps,
:18:52. > :19:17.about sweets, another moment to be thinking about a piano?
:19:18. > :19:21.But it may be a long time before there are regular concerts here.
:19:22. > :19:23.When you look around, the state of this place,
:19:24. > :19:30.You really wonder how often, in practice, the piano
:19:31. > :19:32.is going to be played, and how often the public
:19:33. > :20:06.After ten days rebuilding, she's down to the final tuning.
:20:07. > :20:25.About to be played for the first time in years.
:20:26. > :20:30.Yelena and her pupils have all been preparing for this moment
:20:31. > :20:34.But the star tonight is Sara, bringing, as she plays Beethoven,
:20:35. > :21:45.some beauty that Gaza so badly needs.
:21:46. > :21:47.At the music school we are teaching a new generation.
:21:48. > :21:52.You have music on your body, in your heart.
:21:53. > :21:55.It will spread the idea that music is not haram,
:21:56. > :22:07.it is something that's really natural.
:22:08. > :22:10.Over 2,000 people actually died during the last war.
:22:11. > :22:14.I live at the seventh floor Of my building,
:22:15. > :22:23.so I kind of see everything that is happening, and the bombs
:22:24. > :22:25.so we just have to run for our lives.
:22:26. > :22:34.Music might not build you a house or might not give you your loved
:22:35. > :23:20.ones back, but it makes you feel better.
:23:21. > :23:23.Overall the weather patterns remain pretty