Autore: Paolo Petrocelli

In occasion of the 14th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates, which will be in Cape Town (South Africa) on 13-15 October 2014, EMMA for Peace, in collaboration with Miri Ben-Ari & GEDENK, the Host City of Cape Town, Nelson Mandela Foundation and the Permanent Secretary of the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates, will present a special concert (in the invite only) opening ceremony and campaign for inspiring communities locally and abroad for peace, under the patronage of the South African National Commission for UNESCO.

EMMA for Peace, or the Euro-Mediterranean Music Academy, for the second consecutive year, is the official artistic partner of the Permanent Secretariat of the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates.

Miri Ben-Ari, a Grammy award-winning violinist, UN Goodwill Ambassador of Music to the UN of Brazil and Global Brand Ambassador for Harman Kardon, will headline the concert of the 14th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates at the Cape Town City Hall on October 13th. Ben-Ari will has donated her performance “in honor of peace, balance and sustainability” and invited special guests Cape Town Philharmonic Youth Orchestra (Brandon Phillips, music director) and the University of the Western Cape (UWC) Creative Arts Choir (Sibusiso Njeza, choir conductor) to join the performance of her new song “Freedom” featuring Nelson Mandela; which was selected as the Official Summit theme song in honor of Nelson Mandela.

GEDENK “culture for tolerance” is documenting this special event by co-sponsoring a music video for the song “Freedom” featuring Nelson Mandela to be filmed in Cape Town with Miri Ben-Ari and directed by Kweku Mandela, Mandela’s grandson.

Miri Ben-Ari’s new show is dedicated to Balance & Sustainability. A revolutionary multimedia experience that combines the electrifying and dazzling live performance of Miri Ben-Ari with visuals dedicated to critical global challenges. Miri Ben-Ari invites you through the power of music to examine social issues based on the premise that we are all here to share this planet together.

“It is a great honor to headline the 14th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates and promote its message with my music. I’m excited to partner with EMMA for Peace, the City of Cape Town and the Mandela Rhodes foundation in honor of Peace, Balance and Sustainability. I’m looking forward to performing my song “Freedom” and collaborating with Kweku Mandela. Music has the power of bringing people together where otherwise it wouldn’t be possible, it can cross bridges and create a global understanding”, declared Miri Ben-Ari.

Italian company Sound Identity Communication, which endows brands and products with the power of Music, has supported pro bono EMMA for Peace for the collaboration with Miri Ben-Ari and the Summit with the making of an artistic video promotion to launch a promotional campaign aimed at spreading peace, understanding and harmony in society.

Music is incredible in its ability to transcend boundaries of language, culture and ethnicity, reaching beyond our consciousness to the very depths of our hearts and souls. It is one of the things that make us human.

The artists in the video have spent their careers travelling to different parts of the world sharing their talents and spreading positivity with their music, and regardless of the linguistic barriers they are able to make a connection with each audience.

One of EMMA for Peace’s founding principles is #MusicDiplomacy – using music to see beyond cultural and political differences and focus on what we share.

On 23-24 July 2014 Markus Stockhausen and EMMA for Peace President Paolo Petrocelli met in Malta on occasion of the Malta Arts Festival. Their like mindedness gave birth to a series of new ideas for future peace bulding activities through music.

Markus Stockhausen was invited to lead a two-day workshop on “Singing and Silence“.
About 20 people, mostly Maltesians, joined. The energy in the room heated up incredibly when all sang out full force at moments. The silences following were deep and intense, giving a clou of what peace inside means, and how through singing people can easily recognize their oneness, in sound, and secondly as human beings from different backgrounds. New friendships were born. The final solo concert of Markus highlighted the two days.

It is through music that West met Middle-East in Italian island of Ischia: Syrian violinist Mayas Alyamani and London’s un-conducted string orchestra 12ensemble performed together in a solidarity concert.

The successful event was organized by EMMA for Peace, in collaboration with UNICEF Italia and William Walton Foundation, to support Syrian children affected by war.

We asked Andrea Iacomini, UNICEF Italia Spokesperson, to explain us which are the main difficulties that Syrian children have to face and how is UNICEF helping them.

He kindly answered us: “Syrian conflict is one of the most brutal of the last decades. Children have to face unknown threats and dangers, from both physical and emotional point of view. Moreover, risks and difficulties do not stop once the refugees manage to get to a refugees shelter. The latter may represent safeness from the lethal danger of war, but it may never be a place where a child can live happily for long time. UNICEF undertook one of its widest humanitarian operations in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Turkey and Egypt, where it guarantees life and health assistance by giving people food, water, hygiene, education and protection for children.”

Indeed, according to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, children have the right to life, survival and development.

This is why we asked Mr. Iacomini to what extent EMMA for Peace and their artistic workshop projects may influence children lives.

He replied: “It is known that the Convention on the Rights on the Child has being ratifying fundamental childhood rights since 1989, and it is a reference point for every UNICEF activity, always and everywhere. Nevertheless, we also know that children do not only need to survive and grow up healthily. In order to develop their real potential, the Convention underlines that they have the right to rest and free time, to play and do recreative activities typical of their age and freely participating in cultural and artistic initiatives. I believe that EMMA for Peace may give an important contribute in this way: sometimes there is nothing more effective than artistic language (such as the one of theatre, music, painting) to deal with traumatic experiences, to facilitate dialogue, to develop empathy and the ability to understand.”

“We need to be all one hand against all the war, as there are no winners but only losers” declares Maias Alyamani, talking about the Solidarity Concert for Syrian Children that EMMA for Peace is promoting in collaboration with  UNICEF Italia  and William Walton Foundation.“Feeling such a sympathy and all this support makes me stronger and able to hope for a better future for my people and my country”.

Maias Alyamani is a Syrian violinist and composer who is active with EMMA for Peace. He aims at pointing out the emergency situation that his country has been facing for years.

On 10th July he will perform, together with the award-winning London’s un-conducted string orchestra 12 ensemble, on the unique stage of the Greek Theatre in La Mortella Gardens in Ischia.

Andrea Iacomini, UNICEF Italia’s spokesperson, says: “Thanks to EMMA for Peace and to this important event we will go on underlining a conflict that has been shocking Syrian children for years. We can not forget them, let’s highlight together this emergency.”

The sub-tropical and Mediterranean gardens created by Lady Susana Walton, English composer Sir William Walton’s wife, will be the ground on which  music may become a place where people can discover again the importance of hearing, communicating, explaining themselves and going on telling stories of emergencies, difficulties and crisis, because it is important that civil society and institutions remain vigilant about these topics. Because: “when music speaks, everybody understands”.

President Paolo Petrocelli talks about Music and Mediterranean at the Universal Forum of Cultures in Pompei (Naples, Italy).

Check out the interview

EMMA for Peace is happy to announce its collaboration with New York University’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies. A team of graduate students from the Public Relations and Corporate Communication program are working closely with EMMA for Peace in constructing a unique communication plan to expand EMMA’s partnerships and to generate exposure for EMMA’s mission in the United States of America.

They come at an exciting time as EMMA is continuing to grow in new directions, with many upcoming projects. We look forward to their proposed communication plan that will allow EMMA’s message to be heard across the world.
Samsung will would like to recover buyer trust after the bungled arrival of the Note 7 telephone a year ago with the S8. As a component of its offer, it will bring a portion of the champion elements of the reviewed Note 7 to the S8, and safe batteries and another AI colleague

Sounds at the heart of the Mediterranean, a joint project by EMMA for Peace in collaboration with UNHCR Malta, Foundation for Shelter and Support to Migrants, Junior Chamber International, Malta Philharmonic Orchestra and Malta Youth Orchestra in support of young refugees of the Mediterranean.

Musicians from the Youth Orchestra percussion section and young migrants, led by MPO principal percussionist Daniel Cauchi, came together for a powerful musical experience. This collaborative project came to fruition following a number of workshops where improvisation, collective lyric-writing and musical composition were the building blocks culminating in a public performance on 1st February 2014 at Robert Samut Hall in Floriana (Malta).

On 31st January 2014 at Teatru Manoel in Valletta (Malta), Malta Philharmonic Orchestra in collaboration with EMMA for Peace presented a solidarity concert of Italian Opera, featuring acclaimed Maltese soprano Miriam Cauchi under the direction of Greek conductor Michalis Economou.

Paolo Petrocelli, founder of EMMA for Peace, reports on two musical events in Malta that promoted the work of charities protecting refugees in the region on BBC Music Magazine.

EMMA for Peace was officially launched at the 13th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates in Warsaw (21-23 October 2013), under the patronage of UNESCO and the auspices of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe.  EMMA organised a series of concerts throughout the Summit, bringing established musicians and cultural figures from around the Middle East and Mediterranean, together with young talents from the region, in a musical dialogue for Peace.