Music for All: a fundraising concert

On September 23, CCIVS hosted Music for All, a fundraising concert for the Raising Peace campaign with the collaboration of artists from around the world. The musicians performed in two-time slots starting at 3:00 pm CET and 8:00 pm CET.

Red Acapella group (3:00 3:30 pm CET) started out as members of The Kenya Red Cross Society. They started out as volunteers at the Kenya Red Cross where the group was established in 2008 after the post-election violence that marred the country immediately after the 2007 disputed elections and the main focus of this group then was to achieve change in the minds of men and women by bringing together peaceful coexistence people of different backgrounds through music.

Red Acapella has used music as a way of promoting peace. As Kenya went to the polls in early August 2017, increases in violent acts during political elections were well documented. In December 2007, ten years earlier the announcement of President Mwai Kibaki caused an eruption of violence, leading to the death of 1,500 people and forced 350,000 individuals to flee their homes (Leonard & Owuor, 2009). Our music brought healing and comfort to those displaced during this time and our efforts were much appreciated by the Kenya Red Cross and the Kenyan Government which gave us more platform in performing in state functions and getting recognition by the then president Mwai Kibaki.

Red Acapella is not rooted only in acapella music but has incorporated a full band with guitarists, keyboardists, drummists and the rest but acapella remains the soul of the group.

The group is comprised of 5 lead members that are Linus Omondi (Leader), Steve Odour (Guitarist), Jerry(Bassists), Elton(Vocalist) and Chiluba(Dancer and choreographer) as group members.

https://www.facebook.com/secretariatccivs/videos/318530856043117

Mariano Fernández Bussy (8:00 – 9:00 pm CET) is an Argentinian composer, singer and guitarist, born in Buenos Aires in 1975. For 20 years he was part of the group Me darás mil hijos, with which he recorded 4 studio albums. As a soloist, he has a repertoire of his own songs that oscillates between rock and folk with a “rioplatense” air both in song and lyrics. Musically, both with Me daras mil hijos and in other projects, he has been characterized by escaping a defined musical genre and going in search of the song rather than a rhythm or style, generating an eclectic musical diversity with influences from different kinds of music of the world, taken to a personal and own style.

Jennifer Xinyi Liu (9:00 – 9:20 pm CET) is a Peking Opera singer. She performed the Character of Qinyi, which is a type of female role in Chinese opera. The Sword Dance is the most famous piece of Farewell My Concubine, which was originally performed by Master Mei, Lanfang.

She joined us together with Britney Dang, that introduced us the story of Farewell My Concubine from the Minnetonka High School Peking Opera Club.