North America – Canada

2005 The first public performance of The Threnody Peace Education Project took place on July 30, 2005, at The Arts and Culture Centre in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador. Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer addressed the audience about the meaning of his musical composition, “Threnody”, and his decision to participate in this educational musical endeavor, arising from his initiation of a friendship between two music teachers, one in Hiroshima, Japan, and one in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador.

The three performance groups involved in 2005 in that first concert were The Mount Pearl Show Choir, the Se’t A’newey Children’s Choir of the Miawpukek First Nation of Conne River, and the Newfoundland Symphony Youth Orchestra. The three youth performance groups had studied with Mr. Schafer for several weeks and the performance reflected his vision.

Sagamaw Mise’l Joe, of the Miawpukek First Nation, began the evening with a spiritual blessing for the journey that would take our 160 participants to Japan, the “far side of the world” with a musical message of peace, a plea echoed by Mr. Schafer’s “Threnody”.

2009 On Canada Day, July 1, 2009, the Threnody Peace Education Project performed at a Canadian venue in the nation’s capital in Ottawa, Ontario, singing remembrance and peace music during the ceremony marking the day at the National War Memorial. Each July 1 is a day of special remembrance for Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, as its citizens honour the memories of the brave lives lost during the battle of Beaumont-Hamel during World War I.

A second performance in Ottawa on July 1, 2009, was the concert of peace, remembrance, and Canadian music, performed for audiences at the Canadian War Museum. We were present for the remarkable moment when at eleven o’clock on the eleventh day of the eleventh month, the sunlight illuminates the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, inside Memorial Hall at the Canadian War Museum. As Canadians, we enjoy the democratic freedoms earned through their sacrifice. It was a memorable moment.