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”

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.

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.”