接下来的挑战是寻找年龄介于14至24岁的音乐家来组建管弦乐团。在伊拉克，拿着乐器行走在大街上都会招来强硬分子制造麻烦，所以音乐人才并不好找。苏坦再次借助互联网。她用英语、阿拉伯语和库尔德语在网上发贴，收到了53封申请书。她筛选出33个，并安排这些年轻人在线接受英国和美国音乐老师的授课。“战争爆发后，伊拉克大部分音乐老师都消失了。他们要么离开了伊拉克，要么不再教书。伊拉克很多年轻音乐家都是自学成才的。自学是唯一的办法，”她说。
Finally, she sought funding for her 20)venture. “I was staying up late at night sending 40 emails a day to anyone I could think of,” she says. “One day I found that the deputy prime minister [of Iraq] was on Twitter, so I sent him a message, with an article about me and the orchestra, and asked him if he would be interested in supporting us. Two days later I met him and he gave me $50,000. It was the quickest $50,000 I ever got. After that, I was 21)ecstatic because I just knew it was going to work out.”
最后，她得为自己的事业筹集资金。“我晚上熬夜，给任何我能想到的人发邮件，一天就发了40多封，”她说，“有一天，我发现（伊拉克）副总理在推特上，于是我给他发了一条信息，并附上了一篇关于我和管弦乐团的文章，询问他是否有兴趣支持我们。两天后，我见到了他，他给了我5万美元。这是我到手最快的5万美元。之后，我欣喜若狂，因为我就知道这件事情肯定会成功的。”
Members of the orchestra and the musicians from abroad met for the first time last August. “The Iraqi musicians were from all over the country and spoke different languages. At first they stayed in different groups, with people from their area. But as soon as they sat down to play music, they all came together. It wasn’t perfect from the start. The first rehearsal was a disaster. The instruments were of poor quality and with so many people being self-taught, there were problems. But they worked so hard. They rehearsed from 7 am to 7 pm, and late at night I would hear them practicing till the early hours of the morning. One day during rehearsals the electricity shut off and all the lights went out, but the musicians just kept going.”
去年八月，管弦乐团的成员与国外的音乐家们首次见面。“我们的伊拉克音乐家来自全国各个地方，说着不同的语言。起初，他们总是与来自同一个地方的人呆在一起，形成了各个不同的群体。但他们一旦坐下来开始演奏音乐，就融为一体了。刚开始演奏并不完美。第一次排练简直像一场灾难。乐器音质太差，而且很多人是自学的，所以问题很多。但是大家都非常刻苦，从早上7点一直排练到晚上7点，深夜时分我还能听到他们在练习，直到凌晨。有一天，排练时停电了，所有的灯都灭了，但音乐家们并没有停下来。”
The final concert, which included a mix of music by Iraqi composers, Beethoven and22)Haydn, was performed in front of an audience of almost 1,000. “It was amazing,” says Sultan. For her, as well as for the musicians, the experience was entirely new. “In Iraq every single aspect of culture is 23)frowned upon by some people,” she says. “Musicians carrying their instruments would disguise them in shopping bags to avoid trouble. There are very few public concerts.”
最后一场音乐会上，管弦乐团演奏了一曲混合了伊拉克作曲家、贝多芬和海顿音乐风格的曲目，当时现场观众有近千人。“这太奇妙了，”苏坦说。不管是对于她，还是对于那些音乐家来说，这都是一种全新的经历。“在伊拉克，有关文化的方方面面都不被一些人看好，”她说，“拿着乐器的音乐家们得用购物袋遮住乐器以免惹麻烦。公开的音乐会非常少。”
Her work with the orchestra led to an invitation to join Musicians for Harmony, an American organization that promotes peace through music. “I felt very lucky and I wished that other young people in Iraq could have the same experience, and that is really where the idea for a youth orchestra came from.”
她在管弦乐团上花的心血使她收到来自“和谐音乐家协会”的邀请，这个来自美国的协会旨在通过音乐促进和平。“我觉得自己非常幸运，我希望伊拉克的其他青少年可以拥有和我一样的经历，这正是创建一个青年管弦乐团的缘由。”
Much of her time is taken up with planning the next gathering of the NYOI in July. Her ambition is to one day be the first Iraqi female conductor of a leading orchestra. “There hasn’t been one before,” she says. “I care passionately about the orchestra and what I am doing.”
目前，她大部分时间都在筹划伊拉克国家管弦乐团在七月的重聚。她的愿望是希望有一天能成为伊拉克第一位指挥一流管弦乐团的女指挥家。“伊拉克以前是没有女指挥家的，”她说，“我对管弦乐团和自己正在做的一切都充满了激情。”
