I was seized in those days by a longing for music that I did not know how to feed, and a thirst for the arts that I did not know how to quench...

One day I came upon some broken musical instruments at school, thrown into one of the neglected, dark rooms, and I could do nothing but set about dusting them off and repairing them... until they were put right and became nearly serviceable... Then I gathered around them, in secret, a band of my schoolmates... and began working to train them and teach them the rudiments of playing... for I had learned something of those rudiments at home, at the hands of a German lady teacher... And then our doings were discovered... But instead of reprimanding me, the headmaster of the school gave me the key to the school's piano and permitted me to practice playing it whenever the opportunity allowed...

No sooner had I graduated from school than I enrolled in other institutes for the teaching of music, and I mastered playing on more than one instrument... I then set about teaching music myself... But I realized that individual work is of no avail... and that our country needs a comprehensive musical and artistic renaissance... So I could do no less than work to found this institute... My task was very difficult... for people here lack artistic and musical awareness, and teachers of the art are wanting among us... But this was not enough to dampen my resolve... for I believed in the mission for which I was working...

The Institute's Aim:

As for the institute's aim, it is not merely artistic so much as it is cultural and social... My purpose in founding this institute was to plant in children the love of the arts and of music from an early age... and then to sow in their souls the spirit of cooperation... that spirit which we lack in our social life in this country, and which the artist needs when he wishes to form with others a musical ensemble or a singing chorus... He thereby learns the life of cooperation and of give and take...

Then, too, those young men who have no concern in life but loitering in the streets, watching indecent films, or frequenting the cabarets and the houses of corruption, frivolity, and idle amusement, find a refuge in this institute... The doors of this institute are open to all — to grown-up and child, to student and employee, to poor and rich; he may come whenever he wishes, and find in it pleasure, solace, and profit...

Often all the members of a family join in taking music lessons at the institute, and once they have

mastered the rudiments of playing, they form a single harmonious, concordant ensemble, and come to have a common subject to talk about in their family circles...

Preparatory Classes for Children

Alongside the institute's present branches, in which the student learns to play on the various musical instruments... we shall work to establish preparatory classes for the little ones who have reached the age of three... We gather them at the institute to play on musical instruments made especially for the young; then we teach them a few songs; then we train them in the rudiments of reading the "notes" in an amusing, engaging, elementary manner... All of this serves as a preliminary artistic culture preparing them for the future...

The Lebanese Dabke

Then, in this institute of ours, we take care to revive the Lebanese artistic heritage...

Instead of our young people's boasting and priding themselves on the noisy dances — the "mambo," the "rumba," and the "boogie-woogie"... why do they