An Iraqi teenager who braved the violence of the war and insurgency to keep on learning the piano is to give her first British recital next week.

Zuhal Sultan, 17, was forced to teach herself between 2004 and 2007 as her country descended into chaos and her piano teacher quit because of the dangers — musicians became one of the many targets of the insurgents, with several killed or forced to flee. “Many music teachers stopped showing up at school, most left the country,” said Zuhal, in perfect English.

A gifted child, she earned a place at the once prestigious Baghdad Music and Ballet School, where she studied until the 2003 invasion. A drop in violence in the past year means it is much safer to attend school, but many teachers and pupils have yet to return.

Zuhal receives intermittent coaching via a webcam from Reiko Aizawa, a renowned Japanese pianist who lives in the United States. Both have a laptop near their pianos so that Zuhal can hear Ms Aizawa play and then follow suit.

The teenager will give a lunchtime recital with the tenor Andrew Staples at Wigmore Hall on Thursday.

“I am super-excited and super-nervous,” she said. She is also in Britain to promote her latest project: the creation of a national youth orchestra in Iraq.

“I have always wanted a youth orchestra in Iraq,” she told The Times in Baghdad before her departure. “Music will make young people listen to each other and interact.”

Zuhal started to play the piano aged 6, after her mother noticed how she would try to mimic television theme tunes on a toy piano at home. During the worst of the violence she tried to continue her classes despite the risk of travelling to and from school.

“This situation went on for a long time so just to sit back and say 'Oh I can't go out, I can't go to school' is absolutely ridiculous,” Zuhal said with determination. “We must go on and we must do whatever it takes to help things get better.”

Her favourite piano music includes Mozart's piano concerto No 23, as well as the Rachmaninov Preludes and Maurice Ravel's Piano Concerto in G major.

She was invited to join the Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra as an accompanist but now appears with them as a soloist. It was this experience with the orchestra that triggered the desire to form a youth version. “I felt like I was part of a big family and I really wanted to make everyone have that feeling,” she said.

Her idea was supported by the British Council in Baghdad and Musicians for Harmony, a US-based organisation that promotes peace.

Zuhal was put in touch with a Channel 4 project called Battlefront, which is following 20 teenagers over nine months as they campaign for issues they care about.

If all goes well, Iraq's first summer academy for young musicians will take place in Sulaimaniyah, Iraqi Kurdistan, in August. About 50 youngsters aged 14 to 29 have applied to take part. Those selected will play together for two weeks before going on tour to Armenia and Georgia.

Zuhal hopes to become a professional pianist and Iraq's first female conductor. As if that was not enough, she also wants to be a lawyer.

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