Culture

Playing For Change - Bringing Peace to the World Through Music

by Blue Crush | May 6, 2009 at 09:40 am

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'Playing For Change' is a multimedia movement created to inspire world peace, and it's been a popular hit on YouTube this year.

It started off a decade ago, by Grammy winning producer/engineer Mark Johnson, as a simple documentary about uniting the planet through music and song.

They've now released a CD/DVD package (available at Starbucks, Amazon.com and your local music store), featuring 37 musicians from around the globe. It highlights musicians from the USA, India, Ireland, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Israel, Ghana, Tibet, and the Congo.

The Playing For Change Foundation donates a major portion of the monies collected towards building music/art schools around the world..

The brainchild of producer Mark Johnson, who traveled the globe collecting clips from musicians from all over (New Orleans, Moscow, Zimbabwe, Tibet), and then distilled them all into a single video, the clip has since garnered nearly 10 million views on YouTube.

Now, musicians from all over the world are brought together to perform benefit concerts that build music and art schools in communities that are in need of inspiration and hope. In addition to benefit concerts, the Playing for Change band also performs shows around the world. When audiences see and hear musicians who have traveled thousands of miles from their homes, united in purpose and chorus on one stage, everyone is touched by music's unifying power.

Says Mark Johnson, "The act of playing music with people of different cultures, reigions, economics and politics is a powerful statement. It shows that we can find ways of working together and sharing our experiences with one another in positive way. Music has the power to break down the walls between cultures, to raise the level of human understanding."

Music has the power to break down boundaries and overcome distances between people. And with this truth firmly fixed in our minds, we set out to share it with the world.

Anyone can participate, by attending one of their many concerts, viewing the film, hosting a screening, mentoring a new musician, contributing a song, or sharing some lyrics. To help strengthen the PFC movement now, Check it out here now!

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