Harmony For Peace For Atomic Bomb Awareness Day

Today marks the 70^th anniversary of the 1945 bombing of Hiroshima, and Sunday, the 9^th , Nagasaki. Through the destruction and devastation, perhaps there was a light of hope initiated as the United Nations was founded in effect. Today, this worldwide organization works continuously so that no other nation or people have to experience such travesty. Today is, under the United Nations Resolution, Atomic Bomb Awareness Day.

For us at Harmony For Peace Foundation, we advocate for a world where nuclear weapons are not used, for the safety of all our children and eventually their children.  In reaching out to people around the world to promote cross-cultural understanding, which leads to tolerance and further, friendship, we aim for a world where nuclear weapons are not needed.

Naohiko Okamura "Bombs"

For the past few weeks, we have been working with the United Nations Office of Disarmament Affairs in Vienna as they organized a special event to observe Atomic Bomb Awareness Day. Today, among many other exciting initiatives, we are exhibiting in their Rotunda a selection of artwork from our 2011 worldwide art competition, where artists from diverse cultures united to appeal to the world with their messages of peace and hope through visual expression. The artwork once exhibited at the Chelsea Museum in New York, and has now made a global statement in Vienna.

Harmony For Peace finds its inspiration in the power of music and the arts, how they can be vehicles of a universal language, understood by many around the world.

Worldwide peace and nonviolence, especially today, is a grand mission. Yet it is the continuous efforts and peace-minded initiatives that give hope to such a cause.  Let us sing, play, dance and paint our way to peace, for the sake of the happiness, security and lives of all the peoples of the world, regardless of background, faith or nationality.

Shoko Ueno "Black Rain"

Toshiyuki Wantanabe “No More Hiroshima. No More Nagasaki”

Making Music, Making Peace; Harmony For Peace Concert

CURATED BY HARMONY FOR PEACE FOUNDATION

Tokyo Weekender reporter Sarah Custen attended our International Peace Concert in Tokyo Japan and talked to our special artists this past April. In a world where everyone is bombarded with messages, promotions and agendas, she says it takes experiencing our concert to to truly be moved and inspired, understanding a message for peace through music. 

FROM TOKYO WEEKENDER

This is Harmony’s second Japan-based concert in 2015, and is the latest in a series of international and internationally-minded concerts that began with the organization’s founding in 2009.

Harmony for Peace’s founder and executive director, Tomoko Torii, has been actively promoting intercultural exchange since her late teens, with a focus on the inclusion and well-being of children. In response to the general decline of musical education U.S. schools, Torii sought to emphasize “the richness of multicultural understanding” through music, founding her first NPO (Intermusica) in 1999, followed by Harmony for Peace, a decade later. “I felt a desire to build an international platform for musicians and artists,” she said, “to use their talents to inspire change within a world full of social, religious and political turmoil and conflict.”

Continue Reading on Tokyo Weekender ... 

A Talk with "Art For Peace" Winner Haruka Shoji

In time for the launching of our "Peace Art Journey" Exhibit at the Former Bank of Japan in Hiroshima (Now Open!) and our Peace Concert in Hiroshima, we talked with Haruka Shoji, the first place winner for our Art For Peace Contest back in 2012. Haruka's work, "Someday," will be on display during the exhibit, along with 11 other works by peace-minded children around the world.

Check out the inspiration behind "Someday"

"Maybe it is your child, or your grandchild, or much more later one who says bye to nuclear weapons. Or, maybe, it's you."

What got you into art, when did you start?

I loved art ever since I had crayons in my hand. My parents probably bought them for me. So I learned to draw before I learned the word “art.”

What was the inspiration behind your artwork for the 2012 Art For Peace Contest?

At the time I was planning what to draw, I found the sky I see from a second floor of my house beautiful. In the evening, through the black-framed window, I could see the sky painted in rainbow colors and the trees becoming silhouettes by the bright sky. Until then, I've thought the evening sky as orange, but I found out that there are a whole lot of colors in it. I decided to draw this discovery in my work. 

  

The girl is a symbol of observers' descendant. She is a powerless girl; she has no weapon, and she can't run with such a dress on. She possibly won't survive a war, and thus, she is also a symbol of a innocent victim of war. 

If you wish her a happy life, then you have to make "someday" [a world free of nuclear weapons] closer for this scene become true.

What is your own definition of peace?

That I can eat, drink, work, laugh, and sleep without fear.

How can art share or send a message?

I believe that art does not send a message to anybody, but wakes up something in the beholder. Anything that people feel looking at an artwork is intrinsic. If you feel anger, an anger is inside you. If you feel sadness, you must be grieving over something. Art is a mirror to look into yourself. 

Have you continued you draw or create art after the contest?

Yes. I want to create even more work.

What’s next for you?

I am hoping to travel around the world and observe more things I've never seen.

 October 23, 2012 - Haruka Shoji, First Prize Winner of the Art For Peace worldwide contest was honored by the Harmony For Peace and the United Nations for her artwork "Someday."

We hope Haruka never stops channeling her artistic talent into peace-making, and as she travels worldwide, may she always remember that the desire for peace is universal. 

Let us Sing, Play, Draw, Paint our way to Peace.

A Back Stage Look at our Japan Concert Rehearsal

Hours before the concert, a mix of nerves and great excitement fill the concert hall. With performers ranging from professionals, young adults and children, our levels of musicality differ as well. Nevertheless, their parts in a united voice for peace are equally strong. 

New Information on our upcoming concert in Hiroshima

Here are a few photos as our talented group prepare for this special night. 

We invited two high school choirs to join us at the concert - our first, Sotoku High School of Hiroshima's Glee Club

Our special thanks go to our music directors, without them this concert would not have been possible. Here, conductor Shinpei Ito leads the Glee Club

The choir from Asaka Reimei High School in Fukushima is known to be one of the finest in the country. 

Leo Konno leads the Koto ensemble, using a jushichi-gen, or 17 string bass koto, while the rest of the ensemble accompany him with standard 13 string instruments.

Yokohama International School's Koto Ensemble performed a piece called "Ablaze," composed by Tadao Sawaii, who wrote it for his wife Kazue, expressing his excitement and anticipation for their future.

Our orchestra is always a great symbol for our mission; many different instruments harmonizing together beautifully.

There were so many parts to this piece by the Suginami Amanuma Elementary School's Japanese Traditional Drum Ensemble. The ensemble learns to play in three styles; Mikoshi (represents the portable shrine), Yose-Taiko (welcomes the audience, and Genki-Uchi (lively and energetic chiildren). 

Conductor Reona Ito has worked with us before at our International Peace Day Concert in Philadelphia. His leadership and superior musicality has always been blessing to us! Here he directs our youth orchestra for the finale piece.

Three of our feature performers; cellist Ohad Bar-David, Japanese drummer Masahiro Uemura and Conductor Reona Ito, practice together one final time before the show. 

We have to commend our music directors for their dedication and patience working with their students for our concert! Here Tokyo International School Choir and Director Miguel Arambulo practice their songs on stage.

All our performers join together to rehearse the finale piece - it's been a long day and the concert hasn't even begun!

After all the hard work of the rehearsal, our talented young artists performed brilliantly that night for a splendid concert. This evening was more than just an opportunity to perform on a premier stage - it was a great learning experience for these students. Joining together in our finale piece, artists of all ages and backgrounds lent their voices and talent to our message for peace worldwide. We hope that each performer felt the power of this piece and can begin to understand that music, as a universal language, can act as a starting point for change.

Photo Credits: 

Young Violin Player to Take On Peace-Making

Article Contributed By Kristin Kownacky

Our Audition For Junior Ambassador 2015 is Open Now!

Confidence exuding, violinist Brenden Zak, age 16 at the time, walked out on to the vast Verizon Hall stage at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts. With the bright lights blinding, anticipation almost tangible, Brenden stood before an audience of close to 1,000 people.

With the piece that won him the competition, Brenden performed as the first Junior Peace and Music Ambassador of the Harmony For Peace Foundation at its annual International Peace Day Concert in September.

Brenden playing the violin in Washington Square Park
in Philadelphia.

A few months later, Brenden sat at a coffee shop on a windy day in Center City, Philadelphia, with the same considerations on his mind as any seventeen year old; plans for the summer, college applications and balancing the high and realistic expectations for the next few years.

Yet in the time since the concert, Brenden had the chance to reflect on his role, what it had in store for him in the future and why he auditioned in the first place.

“At the beginning, it was mostly a selfish reason. It was a competition to win, an opportunity to perform at the Verizon Hall. Yet after writing my message of peace, and then actually being a part of the concert, I realized how special these ideas are. So while I started off just as a performer, I began to understand that this is a fundamental part of being a musician; constant learning and sharing,” he said.

After winning the competition, Brenden was a feature performer at the International Peace Day Concert, a grand event in Center City promoting unity, friendship and understanding among nations and cultures through music, held in observation of the United Nations’ International Day of Peace. Performing alongside cross-cultural professional artists, Brenden described a new experience, unique to his past concerts.

“Unlike other performances or concerts where it is about the music, this was more about bringing together people, seeing all different performers and styles and to share. The experience is not easy to capture in words,” he said.

To embrace diversity and celebrate unity, the concert featured special artists cellist Ohad Bar-David, erhu player Jiebing Chen, percussionist Hafez Kotain and violinist Hanna Khoury, who fused their unique cultural techniques and styles into one cohesive piece – symbolic for friendship and understanding among cultures and nations. 

Their cross-cultural performance inspired Brenden to consider his own direction and future in music. He himself incorporated Western fiddle music into his violin piece as a musical experiment.

“To understand other cultures and to develop this understanding into music – it’s what music is all about. Music is a universal language. Everybody speaks it. To be a cross-cultural performer – that would absolutely be something amazing I would like to do,” he said.

In addition to performing on grand stages or venues, Brenden wants to perform to small groups of cultural communities or children, bringing something new into their lives, yet also talking with them and learning about their own experiences. As an established professional musician, he would like to hold classes around the world, listening to and teaching music of all cultures and heritages.

This summer Brenden will be attending the Perlman Music Program in Long Island, NY, an intense seven week camp for “young string players of rare and special talent.” A trip to Iceland with his Temple Music Prep may also be in the works.  

As Harmony For Peace Foundation’s Junior Ambassador, Brenden has been tasked with using these experiences as opportunities to share his own message of peace with his fellow musicians and peers.

“[Peace is] truly understanding someone, getting to know someone’s culture, country and even what they went through growing up … what they like, dislike, what they want out of life,” he said.

Working to become a cross-cultural artist, Brenden can use his talent as a way to make a difference in the world, focusing on individual choices and perspectives.

“I think that music can destroy prejudices and help develop equal opinions of everyone. Music can definitely inspire change.”