Monday, December 5, 2011

VOTE for Listen for Life's entry in the Pepsi Refresh Project!


Our Pepsi Refresh Project idea

is up for voting at the Pepsi Refresh Project!


So….what is this project about?
Well, it is connected to our OTHER breaking news!

Most of you hopefully know by now that Listen for Life is doing its first annual NY concert, at Carnegie Hall at 8pm on Sunday January 8th, 2012.

BUT we have also decided to make our Carnegie Hall event the centerpiece of a Listen for Life Multicultural Music Day worldwide, and we are inviting ALL musicians, of any and all genres, to gather your fellow performers from different cultures, and create simple cross-cultural concerts in your own communities on January 8th as a way to raise awareness not only of our global family and mission, but of the POWER of cross-cultural music as a source of nourishment, understanding and peace in the coming year.

So if you are a musician or you know some musicians, please invite them to participate with us, anywhere they happen to be, on January 8th ! And even if you are not a musician, do please VOTE in the Pepsi Refresh project for us, so that we can spread the message and also gather footage from all of the different concerts that are already taking shape around the planet for that day. Obviously, it is not just about one day – it is about the goal of inspiring musicians while helping listeners to discover all the great sounds and music styles that can make the coming year an even more enriching musical experience.

And for you non-musicians and music-listeners out there, we are excited that you can have an opportunity to benefit from our Carnegie event, even if you can’t be with us!

PLEASE VOTE! YOU CAN CAST ONE VOTE PER DAY FOR OUR PROJECT! 

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Christmas Concert at St Joseph's Cathedral, San Jose, Dec 21st 2011

[Listen for Life logo]
regrets to announce that the concert planned for December 21st 
at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Joseph  has been cancelled. 

It is hoped that another concert will be arranged to take its place 
-- please see the "Season of Hope" calendar at St Joseph's for further developments.

on Saturday December 17, 2011 as planned!

Christmas Concert at St Leo's, San Jose, Dec 17th 2011

[Listen for Life logo]

presents a

Concert of Christmas Music

and Community Sing-Along

Saturday December 17th, 2011 at 6:30pm

at
 St Leo the Great
 88 Race Street, San Jose, CA 95126 [map]

featuring the
[Listen for Life Chorale]

A new choir formed from singers across California,
from Santa Cruz to Sacramento to Berkeley.

This imaginative event is called a Candlelight Christmas Cookie Concert.
Admission is $2 unless you bring a plate of cookies with the recipe on top - then you get in free! After the choral concert there will be a cookies-n-milk feast in the hall, with a live brass band playing Carols!
 

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Musicians Around the World: Create Multicultural Concerts on January 8th 2012!

Musicians Around the World: 
Take the Listen for Life Challenge! 
Create Multicultural Concerts on January 8th 2012!
 
 
On January 8, 2012, Carnegie Hall in New York 
 
will experience the 
 
"Power of 8"
8 musicians 
representing 8 cultures, 
playing a total of 8 instruments, 
at 8 pm on January 8th.
 
 
We would like the Carnegie Hall concert to be the centerpiece event and launch of a global movement, inspiring musicians worldwide to seek out performers of other cultures in their community and invite them to join in giving multicultural concert together on January 8th as well. We would love for January 8th to become known as Multicultural Music Day worldwide as a celebration of music's power to be a positive channel of cross-cultural communication and a unifying force for peace. 
 
We are now challenging musicians worldwide to give multicultural concerts for peace on the same day (January 8th, 2012) in local venues all around the world!
 
Team up with instrumentalists of other cultures and play simple, inexpensive concerts open to a broad audience!
 
Please send us videos/photos made at the concerts, so we can create a film about music being celebrated as a true channel of cross-cultural communication all around the world!
 
Please write to us about your concert plans to musicaroundtheworld@listenforlife.org, so we can show in how many places around the world peace will be celebrated on that day!
 
Let's restore music as a unifying force throughout the world!

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

LFL Benefit Concert at Freight & Salvage (Berkeley, CA), Tue Nov 15th

Listen for Life Benefit Concert

Tuesday, November 15th, 2011 at 8pm
 (doors open at 7:00 pm)

Coffeehouse
2020 Addison Street / Berkeley, CA 94704 (map)

Hawaiian & World music featuring: 
the Patrick Landeza Project, Kawika Alfiche and H'lau o Keikiali'i, 
Faith Ako, Steven Espaniola, Hiram Bell, Pulama
Matthew Montfort, and Vanessa Vo

$24.50 advance / $26.50 at door
Purchase tickets online


Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Listen for Life Benefit Concert in Concord, Fri Nov 4th 2011, - CANCELLED

 For reasons beyond Listen for Life's control, the Benefit Concert which was to have taken place on Friday November 4th 2011 at Cue Productions Live! (1835 Colfax St., Concord, CA, 94520) has been cancelled.


However, both Patrick Landeza and Van-Anh Vanessa Vo will be performing on
November 15th at the Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse in Berkeley, CA. See HERE for details.

 

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Take the "50-day challenge" and change the world through music!

VIRTUAL VOLUNTEERS NEEDED, anywhere in the world, starting TODAY! 
If you want to know WHY, continue reading below. 
If you don't care why, and just want to know HOW to volunteer and doing WHAT, then skip the sections immediately below and jump to the bottom! :)

Why we need volunteer participants for 50 days, starting TODAY:
Many of you already know that on January 8, 2012, Listen for Life is producing a very unique multicultural concert (www.listenforlife.org/carnegie) at the most famous concert hall in America, if not in the world - Carnegie Hall in NY.  The January 8th concert is featuring 8 instruments played by 8 artists representing 8 different music genres/cultures starting at 8pm. "The Power of Eight" is actually an event of global significance because three of the artist-treasures from Israel, Syria and Palestine will be flying in to perform together on one stage as a musical statement for peace in the new year. Also featured in the program will be the Emmy-Award winning Natl Champion of Vietnam (she is also an Oscar nominee), a top award winner in Hawaiian music, a Grammy-nominee jazz-piano phenomenon, a young UK violist who has already played 4 sold out world-music concerts at Carnegie Hall with Yo Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble, and the Artistic Ambassador for both UK and USA who is also a Grammy-category nominee and renowned television host internationally. The program will include the NY premiere of a Native-American based piano work and the world premiere of a work for oud, viola and piano being created at the moment by a major award-winning film composer.

All of the artists are donating their performances and travel expenses in order to be a part of something much bigger than themselves - they are all Listen for Life musicians because they all share the belief that music can indeed be a common denominator, a channel of communication, and a unifying force for good in the world. They also agree that if you "change your music" you can indeed "change your life"  ....unfortunately too many people listen to one style of music or the one set of songs that play over and over on global media, without taking the opportunity to discover new sounds, new instruments, and new experiences of music listening that can enrich and elevate their thinking, their spirits or their lives. The program on January 8th in NY will bring traditional instruments of several cultures to Carnegie hall at discounted ticket prices so that families, youth, students and seniors can hopefully attend and "taste" some new sound combinations while experiencing the unity and peace that can be created through the gift of cross-cultural music. 

We hope to then replicate this concert program in other cities around the world over the next few years so that we can inspire other musicians to join us, and impact the lives of even more music listeners. But the initial January event itself is a major opportunity to let the media help us to make music listeners worldwide know of our existence and our outreach projects that can help serve their own communities. It is also a chance for us to help other causes, organizations, corporations, foundations, related products, musicians with CD releases, anyone who wants to partner with Listen for Life, to sponsor the Carnegie hall event and thus gain access to not only the live audience members but also to our global audience through our website, broadcast channels, social networks, etc. The problem is, I have been working at doing just that, for 10-12 hours per day, 6 days a week, for months now, and I am only beginning to scratch the surface of the thousands and thousands of people that we could be contacting and offering these partnerships and opportunities to, if I had others to join me in the email and media campaign. 

HOW you can be a virtual volunteer, from your own community, and WHAT you can do:
So today I realized that all I need to do (I hope!) is to let everyone KNOW that you can participate and that we not only invite you to join us, we need you to join us! I am now officially inaugurating our CHVW - that stands for Carnegie Hall Virtual Workshop. Think of a carpenter's workshop, where lots of people are busy each doing a specific task but all working to contribute their small piece to the huge edifice of a gorgeous building, or sculpture, or whatever image comes to your mind as being meaningful, beautiful and beneficial for the world. 
Since there are lots of special holidays coming up around the globe between now and January 8th, I figure at most we have 50 work days left till this globally significant event - but any publicity, media, sponsorship or advertising deadlines are a minimum 30 days or more prior to an event, of course, so most (but not all) of the tasks involving virtual volunteers online need to happen in the next 1-3 weeks, ideally. 

Things you can do:

  • using a "master copy" email I have written for various categories of media or other contacts, send it to each of the individuals on specific databases that I would share with you.
  • should you prefer making live contacts on phone or in person, using 'talking points" or "task outlines" I can send you, participate in your own local community to raise the awareness of the opportunity for partnership
  • We would welcome any and all help from those of you who are social networking gurus and can help us get the word out on your FB, twitter, LinkedIn, blogs, online media access, websites, YouTube channels, and any other social media you know! 
  • If you live in or near the NY area, we have postcard flyers about the event, to hand out anywhere you go. 
  • If you have other ideas of what you would do with our fast-approaching opportunity & event, just let me know! 
To get started, all you have to do is contact me by email and tell me how you would like to participate:

Even if you only have a little bit of free time in which to participate, it all adds up! Take our "50-day challenge" and you will see how much of a difference YOU can make by sharing even just a tiny portion of your gifts and skills to help change the world through music. Get to know us through this campaign and then hopefully you'll find that the benefits to your own life and music experience are so rewarding, you'll even decide to start a Listen for Life chapter and projects of your own initiative, someday, in your own community! 
Look forward to hearing from you, as soon as possible!   
warmest thanks for wanting to be a part of this,
Donna