Wheaton alum helps create 'global wave of music'
Earth Day event to celebrate legacy of
Dr. Albert Schweitzer
By Hannah Benoit
"Music is the universal language of mankind," a poet once said.
Amanda Daly '03 would certainly agree. Daly is the global coordinator for the Boston-based initiative "Reverence for Life, Music for Life," a worldwide musical event that will take place on Earth Day, Sunday, April 22.
A tribute to the Nobel Peace laureate and humanitarian Dr. Albert Schweitzer, the event will encompass concerts and programs on six continents, creating a "global wave of music" throughout the day. The musical "wave" will begin with a concert in the Marshall Islands and move westward with the sun as events take place in Australia, Japan, India, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Norway, Gabon, Cameroon, Venezuela and the United States.
Coordinated by the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship in partnership with New England Conservatory, the Earth Day Network and other organizations, the event marks the 50th anniversary of Schweitzer's "Declaration of Conscience"--broadcast worldwide via radio in April 1957--in which he called for the world to unite around the abolition of nuclear weapons testing.
In that spirit of activism, the Music for Life celebration is an attempt to mobilize the world's people, particularly young people, around today's pressing global issues, such as climate change and weapons of mass destruction, Daly said.
"The day will include not only music, but also service projects and advocacy events all over the world," she said. "Anyone can dedicate an event to this cause by registering on our website." The site features a map of the world marked by an image of a sunflower--a symbol of nuclear abolition--wherever an event is scheduled to take place.
Albert Schweitzer's philosophy was embodied by his phrase "reverence for life." Best known for his humanitarian work at his hospital in the African republic of Gabon, Schweitzer was also an accomplished organist with a passion for the music of J.S. Bach.
Daly quoted the cellist Yo-Yo Ma, an advisor to the Music for Life project: "Within music is contained all the main elements of Albert Schweitzer's life: faith, healing and service. Faith, healing and service are so much what I think a musician should strive for. Just as the physician tries to heal the body, the musician tries to address the soul."
Daly, who designed an independent major in ethnomusicology at Wheaton, noted that music is a uniting influence.
"So many people believe in the power of music," she said. "It is a power that's above language. If you go to a concert, you sing together, and a song can be so beautiful it makes you cry. If people around the world could come together through music, how great would that be?"
Daly's work with the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship in Boston merges several of her interests. A multi-talented musician, she studied voice at Wheaton with Assistant Professor Joanne Mouradjian and piano with Professor Guy Urban. She also developed a love of world music and joined the World Music Ensemble, directed by her advisor, Professor Matthew Allen. One memorable highlight of her Wheaton musical career was a concert in which she sang an Armenian lullaby and also performed a duet of "Y'did Nefesh" in Hebrew with Rebecca Rubenstein '03.
"I wanted to study all kinds of music, not just western classical," said Daly, who was a Balfour Scholar at Wheaton. Drawing upon courses in music and anthropology, she created an ethnomusicology major and also minored in German.
"I had excellent support from the Wheaton faculty, who were always willing to talk to you about career interests," she said. "When there are only eight or nine music majors a year, you get a lot attention. It's a great school. I tell everybody to go to Wheaton."
Daly recently earned a master's degree in coexistence and conflict from the Alan B. Slifka Program in Intercommunal Coexistence at Brandeis University. ("I'm the only person in the world with my two degrees," she quipped.) As global coordinator for Reverence for Life, Music for Life, she is "one of the faces of the initiative," doing recruitment internationally for concerts and events, searching for possible collaborations and managing the project website.
In New England, the April 22 celebration will include concerts in Providence and in Boston, Newton and Duxbury, Mass. Daly encourages members of the Wheaton community to attend an event "or start one of their own."
Reverence for all life, she emphasized, "is apolitical and very broad. It's not a Democratic or Republican issue. It's more of an earth issue."
To check out the updated list of events taking place on and around April 22, or to register a concert or service project, visit www.reverenceforlife.org.