Three years ago, the United Nations asked Listen for Life to create music festivals worldwide to raise awareness for Peace Day. This year’s Musicfest concerts feature legendary blues and rock musicians (present/former band members of Eric Clapton, Guns N’ Roses, Dave Matthews Band, Carole King, Billy Preston, John Lee Hooker, Lionel Richie, Sergio Mendes, Toto, and Asia) who are coming together for the first time to form the Listen for Life All-Star Band to promote world peace through music. Joining them at all four concerts are top music masters from nine world cultures, sharing their ethnic music traditions individually as well as collaboratively in combination with the all-star band. The concerts will be held in Mission Viejo’s World Cup Soccer Center (9/21/12), San Pedro’s Point Fermin Park (9/23/12), Hollywood’s Ford Amphitheatre (9/27/12), and the Ramona Bowl in Hemet (9/29/12). Tickets to all four concerts start at $10 or $20 and increase to as much as $100 for VIP packages. Further information on the locations, performers and ticket purchase details can be found at http://www.listenforlife.org/peaceday.

“In the way that instruments join together in harmony, we are uniting musicians from around the globe to collaborate in the spirit of world peace,” says Listen for Life Founder Donna Stoering, “This message will permeate these debut concerts of the newly formed Listen for Life All-Star Band as well as the stunning performances by the world-renowned musicians who will share the magical sounds of their cultures with us.”

The 2012 events feature the Listen for Life All-Star Band, a brand new super group of legendary artists, who will perform sets of beloved blues/rock songs throughout the program. Major international masters from Bulgaria, India, China, Vietnam, the Middle East, Latin America, Europe, Hawaiian and Native American cultures are also scheduled to perform at the Southern California concerts, playing a total of 17 different instruments unique to their regions. They will perform solos on their ethnic instruments, collaborate in small groups with participating musicians from other cultures, as well as join in with the all-star band. These world-class musicians, who make up the Musicfest roster, have won numerous honors including Grammy, Oscar and Emmy awards.

Listen for Life All-Star Band –
- Band Founder: Andy Andrus (guitar) [Billy Preston, John Lee Hooker, Greg Douglass]
- Bobby Kimball (voice) [original singer of Toto]
- Teddy Andreadis (keys, harmonica) [Guns N' Roses, Carole King, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley]
- Butch Taylor (keys) [Dave Matthews Band]
- James East (bass) [Eric Clapton, Lionel Richie, Sergio Mendes]
- Ant Glynne (guitar) [Asia, Albert Collins, Rick Wakeman]
- Joe Manno (drums) [the band Norway]

International Recording Artists/Master Musicians –
- Vân-Ánh Vanessa Võ (đàn Bầu, đàn Tranh, Trung) [Vietnam]
- Ashwin Batish (sitar) and Keshav Batish (tabla) [India]
- Winnie Wong (guzheng) [China]
- Naser Musa (oud) [Palestine]
- Rumen Sali Shopov (tambura) [Bulgaria]
- Diana Rowan (harp) [Celtic/Eastern Europe]
- Ricardo Garcia (voice) [Latin America]
- Donna Stoering (piano) [Western Classical]
- Jehnean Washington (voice, flute) [Native American]
- Ukulele Ray (ukulele) [representing Hawaiian culture]

Musicfest concert schedule to celebrate U.N. Peace Day & kick-off Listen for Life All-Star Band World Peace Tour:

• Friday, September 21, 2012, 5:30-10:00pm – Mission Viejo
World Cup Soccer Center
27301 La Paz Road, Mission Viejo, CA 92692
- Tickets: $10
- http://www.facebook.com/events/402366329822144


• Sunday, September 23, 2012, 2:00-7:00pm – San Pedro
Point Fermin Park
807 Paseo Del Mar, San Pedro, CA 90731
- Tickets: $10
- http://www.facebook.com/events/337318129686958

• Thursday, September 27, 2012, 7:00-10:00pm – Hollywood
Ford Amphitheatre
2580 Cahuenga Blvd. East, Hollywood, CA 90068
- Tickets: $20-100; $15-$20 family/discount
- http://www.facebook.com/events/427022177350524


• Saturday, September 29, 2012, 7:00-10:00pm – Hemet
Ramona Bowl
27400 Ramona Bowl Road, Hemet, CA 92544
- Tickets: $20-$45; $15 kids & seniors
- http://www.facebook.com/events/427815547262207


At each event, attendees will find food, fun, booths, and incredible music. Special Musicfest guest emcee on hand for three of the four concerts, European supermodel and actress Clarissa Burt.

As a conduit for transformation and elevation of the human spirit, the Listen for Life Peace Day concerts began three years ago through a joint venture between United Nations organizations in Geneva and Listen for Life. This year’s Listen for Life events continue the momentum built at the organization’s successful 2010 and 2011 UN Peace Day concerts in Bosnia, Croatia, the UK, Kenya, and the US. This year’s Listen for Life events are the first in Southern California.

“Music can really impact the quality of people’s lives – it has the power to touch people’s souls,” says Stoering, “Through these events, we are harnessing music’s innate power to create cross-cultural dialogue through music as a bridge to peace.”

Listen for Life Musicfest 2012 is proud to be sponsored by Paul Reed Smith Guitars, REMO, EastWest Recording Studios, Guitar Center, Automatically You, SAE Institute, and NuMuBu.



United Nations International Day of Peace –

Created in 1981 by a unanimous resolution of the United Nations, International Day of Peace, a.k.a. International Peace Day, is observed annually around the world on September 21st for individuals, organizations and nations to engage in practical acts of peace on a shared date. This year, an estimated 10,000 Peace Day events will be held across the planet, sponsored by thousands of organizations, with over 200 million people participating. 2012 Peace Day Weekend will include festivals, concerts, a global Peace Wave with moments of silence at noon in every time zone, and much more. The UN also arranges ceasefires, during which humanitarian aid is provided to civilian populations affected by conflicts. There are also ceremonies at UN Headquarters and facilities worldwide. http://www.internationaldayofpeace.org

Donna Stoering, Listen for Life Founder –
Listen for Life’s founder, Donna Stoering, is an internationally renowned concert pianist, recording artist, author, educator, keynote speaker, and the former Artistic Ambassador for both Great Britain and the United States. She has been performing public concerts since the age of five and teaching since age 14. She has performed as concerto soloist with major orchestras, conducted musicals and performed in operas in both London and Barcelona as well as with choral groups at principal cathedrals in Italy and Great Britain. Stoering has coached opera stars of La Scala, Munich and London opera houses. She has also been the subject of in-depth interviews on the BBC, PBS, NPR, and Hong Kong Radio & Television. http://www.donnastoering.com

Listen for Life –
Listen for Life, a global 501(c)3 nonprofit music service organization, was founded by Donna Stoering in 1998 as a global family of music listeners, performers, and producers working to restore music as a unifying force throughout the world. Stoering started Listen for Life in order to bring music from different traditions into global media. The ultimate purpose of the organization is to create cross-cultural connection through music. Thus far, the organization has impacted over 9 million people in 55 countries through outreach projects, live programs and television productions. Three years ago, in 2009, the UN asked Listen for Life to create music festivals worldwide to raise awareness of the International Day of Peace. So far, Listen for Life has created innovative and highly successful “musicfests” for Peace Day celebrations in Bosnia, Croatia, England, Africa and the US. 2012 marks the first Listen for Life event in Southern California. In January 2012, the organization brought together world-renowned musicians, representing Israel, the US, the UK, Syria and Jordan, for a night of music and unity at New York’s Carnegie Hall, simultaneously with seven other concerts worldwide. During 2013-2014, Listen for Life will take its unique “around the world” program, featuring the Listen for Life All-Star Band and master musicians from a variety of cultures, on a world tour. Tour stops will include Canada, Hawaii, Japan, New Zealand, UK, Eastern Europe, and Africa. http://www.listenforlife.org/peaceday

“We are losing music cultures around the globe at a rate of five per year, which is a tragedy,” says Stoering, “Listen for Life is addressing this by serving music itself – by providing musicians from around the world with performance opportunities to share their unique musical traditions with the broadest possible audience.”