by KYW's Dr. Marciene Mattleman

It’s rare that we see any photos of normalcy in Baghdad or reports that life goes on.  But an incredible story in the Los Angeles Times cites an oasis in a city of bloodshed where the Baghdad School of Music and Ballet has never closed and never stopped performances.

Admission is by audition; tuition and instruments are free. Academic classes are held in the mornings and the afternoons are for art.

The school, which offers both full time primary and secondary education hasn’t graduated a ballet-major since the mid-90s when Saddam Hussein started courting conservative tribal and religious leaders. From a population of 400, the school has dropped to 150.

Boys and girls of all religious and ethnic backgrounds attend classes, yet most of the students drop out when they’re 12 or 13, afraid of the Muslim extremists. Students leave their instruments in school for fear of attracting attention.

Yet, in the height of sectarian killing in 2006, the school put on a concert for peace—culture despite war.