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Song of Peace Events: Photos, Testimonials, and Audio Excerpts

Below are submissions from participants in March 2008 Song of Peace events.

Hope for Peace & Justice, March 1, Dallas, Texas

The Dallas Voice described the March 1 event as "an inspirational call for peace":

The audience packed the Meyerson Symphony Center to celebrate the living legend at the first annual Voices of Peace Award ceremony. The award was bestowed by Hope for Peace & Justice, a human rights and peace activist committee.

The afternoon program started with a bonanza of musical performances, video montages and speeches. The Meyerson stage was overflowing with a staggering number singers and symphonic musicians: members of the Turtle Creek Chorale, The Women’s Chorus of Dallas, The Cathedral of Hope Sanctuary Choir, The Vocal Majority, Oak Lawn United Methodist Church and New Texas Symphony Orchestra. And then director Tim Seelig welcomed another group, the First Baptist Church male chorus that spiced up the prevailing solemn flavor with a boogie-worthy version of “Down By the Riverside.”

But 10-year-old dynamo Dalton Sherman winner of a Martin Luther King Jr oratory contest practically stole the show with his spirited analysis of MLK’s sermon “The Drum Major Instinct.”

And then, with the help of a wooden cane, Angelou made her entrance. Her hour-long talk was inspired by a lyric: “When it look like the sun ain’t shining no more, you become my rainbow.” And like the master wordsmith she is, Angelou spun the stanza into gold.

While we enter the fifth year of Operation Iraqi Freedom, the sky looks dreadfully cloudy, but the Meyerson was filled with rainbows of hope.

Another participant in the Hope for Peace and Justice event sent these comments:

We are all very excited to be part of this world wide project, as well as being gratified that we as everyday folks can do something tangible for peace and an end to violence.

Click the images below for videos from the Hope for Peace & Justice Event:

Nannup Music Festival, March 1 & 2, Nannup, Western Australia

What a wonderful idea! Both of our workshops went well with lots of new people learning Dona Nobis Pacem for the first time.

First Parish in Lexington, March 2, Lexington, Massachussets

This article appeared in the local paper on February 27:

On March 2, First Parish in Lexington, Unitarian Universalist, will take part in the international Song of Peace project with a worship service entitled “Creating Peace." During the 10:30 a.m. service, artists from the First Parish congregation will speak, including assistant minister Rev. Laura Cavicchio and music director Dr. Suzanne Jubenville. The service will explore the ways in which the creative arts can be used to build a better world. The First Parish Adult Choir will sing Neil Ginsberg’s “Bells Ring for Peace,” which concludes with a prayer for peace in eight languages. After the service, the First Parish congregation will exit the church singing “Dona Nobis Pacem” as a public statement of their commitment to creating peace.

Sanctuary Concert Series, March 2, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

We had a wonderful concert here in Pittsburgh on March 2. Our total attendance was about 250 people and everyone I talked to after the concert was so impressed and moved by the experience. We think this was the best of any of the now over 50 concerts we have produced, and it made a statement that went beyond music. We want to thank you for inspiring us to do the best job that we could do.

Click here for more photos.

World Children's Choir, March 8, Arlington, Virginia

Song of Peace, March 8, Albany, Western Australia

We had a joyful celebration yesterday afternoon - the church was filled to capacity with just over 200 of us gathered there. I had done a radio interview earlier in the week, and following that I received phone calls from folks 100 km north and west of Albany who then travelled in to be with us. As people arrived in the afternoon, several said how much they were looking forward to the community singing a the end. We sang "By the Waters of Babylon", conducted by Teresa as a round including all two hundred of us, plus Amazing Grace, Morning Has Broken and Lord of all Hopefulness which is based on an Irish melody and reminded us to think of that country with thankfulness. Many people wanted to pay as they came in but instead we encouraged them to make an offering to the Red Cross International as they left - there was Aus$430.00 in the bowl! I was delighted at school today to hear from many others how much they appreciated the celebration on Saturday. Several people said afterwards that they were looking forward to 2009 but warned that we may need a bigger venue!

Vocal Studio Performance Class, March 8, Los Altos, California

In order to participate in this project, a group of singers sang the Latin traditional round of Dona Nobis Pacem at my voice class today. It was very nice as our accompanist for the class Paul Rosas played piano for part of the 3-4 times we sang the round, and then dropped out and joined us singing. What an amazing project... I hope hoping more people can incorporate some form of participation into their lives, formally or informally.

Melody of Peace Choir, March 9, Nazareth, Israel

The 9th of March "Song Of Peace" Celebration is now available on our choir's homepage. The program in English is found under the heading "Our News" and the English translation of the songs is available upon request.  If you were not able to attend that special evening in Nazareth, now you can enjoy attending it anytime of the day and anywhere in the world!!!

Click the images below for videos from the Melody of Peace event:

Coastal Sound Children's Choir Tour to China, March 9-21, Canada & China

Choral Arts of Chattanooga & Lee University Chorale, March 13, Chattanooga, Tennessee

An article from the Chattanooga Pulse on March 12 promoting the March 13 concert:

On Thursday, March 13, Chattanooga joins the global link "Song of Peace" as Choral Arts of Chattanooga and the Lee University Chorale present the local premiere of “Dona Nobis Pacem,” Vaughan Williams’ powerful cantata for soprano and baritone soli, chorus and orchestra, set to words by Walt Whitman, Wilfred Owen and the Bible. Song of Peace concerts are taking place worldwide during March, and on the 13th, 14th and 15th alone, performances are scheduled from England to Israel to Australia, and in the U.S., from Maryland to California.

“Dona Nobis Pacem had been on my mind for some time, without knowing that this initiative was going on,” said Dr. William Green, CAC director. “It is very moving for me personally, and I had a passion to present it to our community.

“Vaughan Williams was a medic during World War I, and Walt Whitman was a medic during the Civil War. These were men who had lived through war. But I feel the appeal to peace is also about things like the recent school shootings—that we can solve problems without violence, that our ultimate goal is peace.”

Dr. Green read an e-mail from the organizers of the Song of Peace Project, he said, “and it was as though many minds were being pulled together by the magnet of the same idea.”

Touring Choir of the Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Performing Arts, March 16, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania

"O Lord, Remember" by Jane Marshall is a setting of a prayer written by a prisoner in a concentration camp, asking God to bring peace and forgiveness to everyone, including those who were persecuting her...a stunning poem and my students have connected with it - if we could love one another like this, peace would prevail.
 

San Francisco's Interfaith Community & Grace Cathedral Peace Vigil Recognizing the 5th Anniversary of the War in Iraq, March 19, San Francisco, California

We had a beautiful peace service on the steps of Grace Cathedral. About 500 people sang Dona nobis pacem to start it off. Then 23 interfaith people "clergy" read names of people who have died while the crowd sang quietly. It was very moving. Then about 350 of the people moved into Grace Cathedral through the beautiful Ghiberti doors behind the bishop and the interfaith rabbis, mullahs, Roman Catholics, protestants, alternative religions, et al into the service of Tenebrae in the Cathedral. There were hundreds of pairs of shoes on the front steps representing the civilians who have died and there were another100 boots in the Cathedral on the labyrinth, each with a tag showing whom they belonged to and when he/she died in Iraq.

San Francisco Choral Society, March 25, San Francisco, California

The San Francisco Choral Society would like to join your project through our final rehearsal. We are giving our second concert in our "Season For Peace" series of three, the first weekend in April. We are very heartened to discover our own reflection on the times coinciding with the Song of Peace Project's goal to raise international voices in a musical affirmation of the importance of peace in today's world.

Irvine High School Chorale, Irvine Singers, Treble Chorus and Bass Chorus, March 28, Irvine, California

We are going to join in this effort, although the actual concert will be just a wee bit tardy, and our participation date is our dress rehearsal. The high school Spring Concert is on April 2. We’ll conclude the concert with all the choirs and the audience singing “Dona nobis pacem” in a round. We’re giving this concert in my new church, so I think it will be a beautiful setting and a meaningful way to end the concert. Thanks for providing the incentive!

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