Echoes of Peace Choir: May 2014

Friday, May 30, 2014

Music For All!

Echoes of Peace Choir will be singing as part of the Kako Foundation's "Music For All" Benefit on Saturday, 7pm, May 31, at Peace Church, 1111 North 11th Ave E, Duluth. Free will donations will go to support the Kako Foundation music programs for youth in Haiti and Duluth. The program will also feature Rudy Perrault, Director of Orchestras at University of Minnesota Duluth, Elizabeth Nordell, storyteller, Kako's Choir and friends!

More about the Kako Foundation: www.kakofoundation.org

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Harmony in the Park!

This summer, Echoes of Peace Choir will be one of several Minnesota choir's singing for Classical MPR's "Harmony in the Park" festival. The outdoor choral festival will be in Minneapolis (June 5), Mankato (June 8), and Duluth (June 15) featuring different local choirs at each city.

Sunday, June 15 is the Duluth weekend, and the three local choirs performing are the Twin Ports Choral Project, the Lake Superior Youth Chorus, and the Echoes of Peace Choir. It will be held at Leif Erikson Park in Duluth, and starts at 4pm.

Echoes of Peace Choir practices for the performance are 6:30-8:15pm: May 20 and May 27 at Pilgrim Congregational Church in the fellowship hall, 2310 E 4th St. Practice on June 3 and 10 will be on Park Point at Lafayette Square Community Center, 3026 Minnesota Ave.

Come sing with us or come June 15 to listen (and sing from the audience)!

More details about the whole festival:

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2014/04/21/harmony-in-the-park

About the choir

Anyone with a desire to sing is welcome to join this non-audition community choir. No previous singing or music reading experience required. Our repertoire includes songs from various cultural and spiritual traditions around the world, songs of justice and peace, songs of hope and longing, and songs that are simply fun and full of celebration. At the heart of what we are about is coming together to sing in harmony as a means of both personal, local and global transformation. Singing opens the heart and re-enchants the spirit. Harmony brings harmony!

Sara began the choir in Duluth, MN in 2002 to sing for the Art of Peace event, a local response to the events of 9/11/01. The Art of Peace, held annually for six years, brought varied artistic expressions together to inspire and instigate creativity and peacemaking. The choir has since grown and evolved to presenting annual concerts and singing at various community events thoughout the year. The Duluth choir has a membership of about seventy five voices. Sara Thomsen is the founder and artistic director.

The nonprofit organization Echoes of Peace was formed in 2012, marking the 10th anniversary of the choir and serves to support and expand its mission to inspire awareness, action and reflection on critical social issues using music and the arts to build and bridge informed, engaged and caring communities.

Echoes of Peace is a member of the Ubuntu Choirs Network, a "growing community of choirs who believes that the joy of singing is a universal birthright, and that together, regardless of musical background, we can help improve the world by joining voices in song." This network was founded by Shivon Robinsong and Denis Donnelly, co-directors of the Gettin' Higher Choir in Victoria, B.C. Canada. Sara is a graduate of their Community Choir Leadership Training.