My mission is quite simple: to save the world through music.

Most conflicts in the world, whether local or global, come about because of a lack of empathy for one another or a general misunderstanding of each other. We form priorities for ourselves depending on where we are in the world – our geographic location, our social status, or how we perceive ourselves to “fit in” with those around us. We construct barriers in an attempt to define ourselves according to our own inherently limited belief system, without taking into account how other people with very different belief systems might have nearly identical priorities. Regardless of our religious beliefs, our social status or our level of material wealth, everyone in the world wants to be acknowledged for who and what they are; they want their individual talents to be allowed to shine and they want their talents to help the group to which they belong. What is needed, therefore, is a global, universal language that can help us transmit to each other the commonalities that we all share – something that will help us build points of connection.

Music is that universal language. We can create points of connection with everyone on Earth through music composition and performance. We, as a species, can transcend all self-imposed barriers by building connections with each other through music and music education. When we learn about music from other cultures, it helps us to understand more about that culture – their way of life, their priorities. When I introduce young kids to rhythms and chants from Nigeria, for example, someone will always ask, “What does that mean?” And THAT is the first step toward global understanding. Through global understanding, we can achieve global reconciliation and ultimately, world peace.

Once we ask the question, “What does it mean?” with regard to a “foreign” culture, we begin our journey toward empathy. We begin to attempt understanding another culture. We start to be less worried about ourselves and our own entrenched belief system and more concerned with why these other people are doing what they’re doing – why they sing the way they do, the actual words they’re singing and the meaning of those words, why they place such a high value on rhythm and why musicians in many cultures around the world are afforded a place in society well beyond a mere commodity or commercial enterprise. Once these realizations occur we begin to deconstruct the walls of animosity that have been built up over the decades and centuries of misunderstanding and nefarious intent. Our perception of the world around us begins to open up. More importantly, our ABILITY to perceive new and different dimensions of the world around us increases and improves, until we reach a point of understanding that shifts our focus away from a desire to conquer, deceive and destroy, and towards a focus of shared priorities, shared goals, and how we can all help each other attain those priorities and achieve those goals, whatever they might be from person to person, culture to culture.

Teaching children about music, especially music from other cultures, starts them on their way to this ultimate achievement of understanding, empathy and respect. Once we begin to understand how a culture expresses itself through the music it produces, we begin to have empathy for the people of this culture. We can envision ourselves in their place more easily. We can realize that their priorities are more similar to our own than we ever imagined. When we realize that our overall priorities are mutually aligned to a significant extent, we can come to respect that culture and the people – the individuals of that culture. Once we have achieved that, it makes it unbearably difficult, indeed completely unconscionable, to maintain the insistence that we must bomb these people, infiltrate their government and destroy or otherwise subjugate their culture. We now have a vested interest in the success of that culture because now we have learned about them and we have come to respect and appreciate our commonalities instead of learning to amplify and distort our differences.

All of this can be accomplished by teaching children world music, by introducing them to music of other cultures at an early age, before our misconceptions begin to form, before those walls of ignorance and animosity begin to be constructed. This is how we can save the world through music and it is my intent to pursue this course.