Waiting at Gate 13 in Port Authority for my bus to Sheffield, Mass. to leave, I asked a woman to watch my bags while I went to the bathroom. When I got back we started talking. She was on her way to Stockbridge, Mass to attend a reunion of the interesting and progressive boarding school she attended many years ago. The school no longer exists (like the Upper West Side progressive high school that I attended).  I asked her if she’d like to sit together and we sat in the roomy bulk-head seat of the bus and talked for three and a half hours without stopping. She a composer, who  developed a program called, "Lullabies for Free Children." Here is the project description of this fascinating idea. She received an unexpectedly huge number of responses and produced 6 CD’s of lullabies. They will soon be available for purchase.

Composers from all cultural and language backgrounds throughout the world, are invited to compose unaccompanied or accompanied lullabies based on lyrics or text which encourage positive ideals and positive values for the 21st century. Our global collection of "Lullabies for Free Children"  will be available as a "virtual library" located on personal computers throughout the world.  This music can be accessed by request directly from the composer. Lullabies may be in any language and in any style from unaccompanied solo song through a symphonic lullaby without words. Composers are encouraged to seek poems from young girls and boys, from unknown women living in remote areas, perhaps your own poems or the poems of your own child or a student, as a source for the creation of song. Everyone involved in the Lullabies project will be donating their compositions and performances to the project in the effort to plant seeds for a better world.

Through initiating global musical collaborative projects, such as "Lullabies for Free Children", based on simple, deep, and universal ideas, it is hoped that opportunities for international participation will inspire diverse composers, especially women, throughout the world. As the project develops, if you are in Europe, feel free to collaborate with a composer or poet in China; if you are in Canada, feel free to seek out and collaborate with a woman in South America; let us try to connect the world in the spirit of freedom, hope, and love of deepest truth. The project will continue till the end of 2006.

The Daniel Pearl Foundation will be celebrating Daniel Pearl Music Days, dedicated to “Harmony for Humanity” October 1 – 10, 2005 in October of 2006, and has generously offered Global Satellite Radio Broadcast of some of the Lullabies. These broadcasts of recordings of Lullabies will launch our Lullabies for Free Children project to the global community. This is a wonderful opportunity to collaborate in achieving a global voice dedicated to making the world a better place through music. The Daniel Pearl Foundation, formed by Daniel’s family and friends, is a non-profit organization that promotes cross-cultural understanding through journalism, music and innovative communications.

For possible inclusion in upcoming October broadcast,
please contact project coordinator

SHELLEY OLSON, composer,
shelley_olson@hotmail.com

For more information about Daniel Pearl Music Days please visit:
http://www.nab.org/Newsroom/PressRel/Releases/4303.htm

http://www.danielpearl.org/

Daniel Pearl Music Days uses the power of music to promote cross-cultural understanding and reaffirm our commitment to humanity.  Anyone can participate by dedicating a pre-scheduled musical concert or a song, or by organizing a special event, as part of Daniel Pearl Music Days with a statement from the stage or in the written program in support of tolerance and humanity.  Please visit:
http://www.music-days.org/

"Lullabies for Free ChildrenTM" was developed by composer Shelley Olson for IAWM (International Alliance for Women in Music).