WORLD MUSIC COMES OF AGE: Crossing borders with Idan Raichel by Jacob Edgar Idan Raichel insists he never set out to change the world, yet the 29-year old keyboard player and composer from Israel has not only altered the face of his country’s popular music, he has become a symbol of peace in a region where conflict and violence dominate the headlines. Raichel’s unprecedented commercial success in his native land marks the maturity of world music, in which the sounds of the ‘other’ are made familiar. His example may be just the solution for the volatile clash of cultures burdening the Middle East, and a hopeful symbol for a world in which globalization has led people to cross borders while simultaneously fortifying the walls that separate them.