One particular topic of great concern to Doreen Rao is the implication and influence of choral music for peace education around the world. Along with Tanahashi-sensei and a host of other scholars and artists, Dr. Rao has travelled to many countries to promote tolerance and understanding through the shared joy of choral music. The following is a selection of such events in which Dr. Rao has recently participated.
New Millennium Festival: Visions of Peace Concerts
Please visit the New Millenium Festival section of this website for more information.
April 2005: A World Without Armies: The Costa Rica Initiative
Over the past several years, Dr. Rao has studied the social and educational benefits of demilitarized nations exemplified by small countries such as Costa Rica, Panama and Iceland. With a delegation of musicians, Zen artists and filmmakers, Dr. Rao visited Costa Rica, Central America to promote the peace initiatives of AWWA – A World Without Armies. The delegation met with the government’s security advisor to Costa Rican President Arias and offered a benefit performance of traditional Japanese music, painting, and poetry that included the premiere film screening of “Hope” by Catherine Margerin. Celebrating the 60th Anniversary of the United Nations and hosted by the UN University for Peace, the televised performance was attended by key government officials, peace scholars, graduate students and social agencies and led to Dr. Rao’s plan to organize and conduct an international world peace choir to study and travel in countries without armies.
August 2005: The Jizos for Peace Pilgrimage,
August 6th (Hiroshima) – 9th (Nagasaki)
To mark the 60th anniversary of the atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and to remember the nearly 270,000 people who died during and after the bombings, Dr. Rao travelled with a delegation of spiritual leaders, scholars, physicians and artists to distribute 270,000 Jizo images in to the children, families and survivors -- one Jizo for every man, woman, and child who died as a result of the atomic bombs. Peace performances, art panels, banners, origami, ceramic statues, and quilts with Jizo images also marked this remembrance.