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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:

Richard Shulman
RichHeart Music
180 Dorchester Ave.

Asheville, NC 28806
Tel. 828-253-6468
Shulmanr@bellsouth.net
www.richheartmusic.com

Musicians to Give Multi-National Peace Concert at the UN

Through the sponsorship of the Society for Enlightenment and Transformation (SEAT) of the United Nations Staff Recreation Council (UNSRC), members of the Positive Music Group are producing a concert entitled "Music of Peace" on Friday, October 22nd, 1:00 - 2:45 p.m., in the Dag Hammarskjold Library Auditorium at the United Nations (1st Avenue and 46th Street) in New York City.

The Positive Music Group is comprised of musicians throughout the world whose focus is on healing and positive communication through music. More information about the group is available at: http://www.dovesong.com/positive_music/movement.asp

Composer/pianist Richard Shulman, who is organizing the concert, says, "We are bringing some of our finest artists together for this concert at the United Nations as a statement of and for world peace."

Musicians slated to perform include vocalist/soundhealer Eliana Gilad and harpist Sunita Staneslow from the Israeli group Voices of Eden Ensemble, composer/pianists Beth Anderson-Harold and Nancy Bloomer Deussen, violinist Ana Milosavljevic, pianist Terezija Cukrov, guitarist/composer Benyamin Sheppard violist/vocalist/sound healer Michelle Herrera Foster, Celtic harpist Christine Tulis and percussionist/keyboardist/vocalist Kem Stone of the "Bluegate " ensemble, composer/pianist and Positive Music Group founder, Don Robertson, and Richard Shulman. Bios of participants can be found later in this press release.

Shulman became involved in music for peace in 1985 when he was invited to participate in a commemoration of the Hiroshima bombing. Inspired by the idea of promoting peace through art, he decided to turn a recording session previously scheduled on the same day into a musical meditation for peace.

Describing the recording session, Shulman says, "When I arrived at the studio, my mind was going on and on saying, "What am I going to play today?" In the midst of my obsessing, I began to notice that a simple little tune was already going through my mind. I listened carefully, until I was sure I could play it. Then I sat down and we began to record."

"I continued to wait and listen in between each take, until I could hear inwardly what was next. The music for each piece flowed peacefully and with feeling. After a couple hours of this process, I paused for a moment and silently said, "God, I'd like to do some work for the world now."

"Gradually I sensed different traumatic situations in the world (The Middle East, South America, Ireland, the USSR and USA, and the World). With each situation I heard music internally, and continued to play. As I played, following the inspiration, the feelings and and visions of peace harmony and love became stronger and stronger until all I perceived was the gratitude of peace fulfilled. There was also music for this feeling."

Shulman says that many artists and musicians have had similar experiences, and that he is happy to be organizing an event with other artists who are also dedicating their work to peace.

For more information, contact Richard Shulman at 828-253-6468 Shulmanr@bellsouth.net and http://www.richheartmusic.com

Bios of Participating Musicians

Richard Shulman is a composer, keyboardist, and recording artist who dedicates his music to the expression of love and the awakening of inner joy.  A former student of Chuck Mangione and Marian McPartland at the Eastman School of Music, and Frank Foster at the University of Buffalo, Shulman uses his skills as a jazz, classical, and healing-music keyboardist to create music to assist groups and individuals in embodying their own spiritual essence. Richard tours doing solo and group concerts and has produced eighteen albums on his label, RichHeart Music. His recent orchestral recording "Camelot Reawakened" is a new "program music" composition based on the fulfillment of dreams of the heart.
Website: www.richheartmusic.com

Beth Anderson is a composer of new romantic music, text-sound works, and musical theater. She is a member of Broadcast Musicians Inc. and is the current treasurer of New York Women Composers. Born in Kentucky, she studied primarily in California, but now resides in New York City where she produces Women's Work, a concert series for Greenwich House Arts, and the New York Women Composers, Inc.
Web site: www.beand.com

Eliana Gilad is the founder of Voices of Eden, and is an acknowledged international expert in the field of conscious use of voice. She performs, teaches and lectures for international conventions and events and lives in Israel. Voices of Eden is the conscious use of voice and rhythm as a natural healer, such was used in ancient times. The music has been medically proven to release tension, improve sleep and relax the listener. There are five Voices of Eden music discs and a workbook. Eastern percussion and rhythm ground the body, voice releases tension. The musicians of the Voices of Eden ensemble are Jewish, Arab and Christian. They are a living example of peace in the Middle East.
Web Site: www.voicesofeden.com

Don Robertson is a composer living in Nashville. He has written music for and produced fourteen albums of instrumental music as well as orchestral and large-scale choral works, short choral pieces, music for piano, and a string quartet. He has also written or co-written over a half-dozen books. He attended Julliard School of music among other schools and has studied with Ali Akbar Khan, Swapan Chaudhuri, and the late Morton Feldman. He began speaking and writing about positive music in 1968 and created the internationally recognized positive-music website www.dovesong.com in 1997.
Website: www.Don-Robertson.com

Nancy Bloomer Deussen is a prominent San Francisco Bay Area composer and co-founder of the Bay Area chapter of The National Association of Composers, USA. She has been a dedicated champion of more accessible contemporary music, a viewpoint amply demonstrated in all of her works. A composer who is well-loved by audiences, Bloomer Deussen has received numerous commissions. Her works encompass a wide spectrum of performers and include works for band, chorus, orchestra (full, string and chamber), many chamber music combinations, recorder consort, flute, clarinet and violin solo, piano solo, brass ensemble and solo voice and piano. She has received performances by numerous orchestras and has also had numerous performances by chamber ensembles, brass ensembles, bands and soloists across the country.
Web site: www.nancybloomerdeussen.com

Sunita Staneslow is a Minnesota native and has played in concert halls and pubs from New Zealand to Tel Aviv. A graduate of the Manhattan School of Music, Sunita is classically trained although her passion is traditional music. She specializes in both Jewish and Celtic music and leads workshops for harpists throughout North America. Sunita moved to Israel during the summer of 2000. She is part of a study with Voices of Eden at a hospital in Kfar Saba playing healing music for newborn babies.
Sunita was named one of the top ten Jewish instrumentalists by Moment Magazine and she was a recipient of a 1998 McKnight Foundation Fellowship in recognition of her work with Jewish music. She has released 12 CDs on several labels of Jewish, Celtic and classical music and published twelve books of her arrangements of music for the harp.

Bluegate is a collaboration of four musician-composers who create inspired music intended to open the heart to inner transformation (Christine Tulis, Benyamin Sheppard, Michelle Herrera Foster, Ph. D., and Kem Stone). They create an eclectic blend of music that draws from worldwide folk and classical traditions. Their spiritually focused improvisations, which they call "guided music", are performed with the intent of co-creating music with Divine Spirit. Bluegate members are dedicated to producing healing music that is a catalyst for inner peace and world peace. www.bluegatemusic.com

Christine Tulis is a Celtic harpist, singer and composer who has performed extensively nationally and in Europe. Christine's goal as a performer is to celebrate the beauty and mystery of life as expressed through the spiritual imagery of Rumi's poetry, as well as original songs inspired by her personal connection to the Divine.

Benyamin Sheppard performs on flutes, oud, guitar, bouzouki, and percussion, and provides vocals with harmonic chant. Ben received a Bachelor of music composition from the New England Conservatory and uses his diverse compositions and improvised music for healing and shamanic work. Ben founded the New England Sound Healing Research Institute (NESHRI www.neshri.org) with Michelle Herrera Foster to promote healing and building community with sound and music. Ben is Director of Technology for NESHRI. Ben's dream is to bring the inner wisdom of sound and vibration into the world through a community of sound healers and metaphysical musicians.

Michelle Herrera Foster, Ph.D. performs on viola, vocals, and percussion. She is a Reiki Master, sound healer, accomplished violist, and improvisational musician. She is combining her passion in healing music with her clinical research background (Ph.D. in Chemistry) as Director of Research with NESHRI. She believes healing music is a catalyst for inner peace and world peace.

Kem Stone performs percussion, marimba, keyboard, and vocals. Kem is a music educator and recording engineer, and is completing a Masters Degree in Music Education at the New England Conservatory. He has performed extensively nationally with legends in the jazz and pop fields, and is committed to a spiritual path with his music.

Violinist Ana Milosavljevic has performed widely throughout the United States and Europe as a solo, chamber and orchestral musician. New Music Connoisseur called her a "virtuoso performer" and "first rate musician", who, in a "tour de force of violin playing", displayed "a wonderful mix of technique, sensitivity and passion". She has performed contemporary music at Merkin Hall and Weill Recital Hall, and at concerts of the New York Composers Circle, Vox Novus, NACUSA, and the American Music Festival, presented by American Composers Alliance.Winner of several grants from New York Women Composers, Inc.,she was also heard in many recitals, performing the music of their members. She recorded "Undertow", a work for violin and piano by Margaret Fairlie-Kennedy for the Take Dance Company, directed by Takehiro Ueyama, and the music of Beth Anderson for Albany label.She has performed at the Spoleto (Italy), Aspen and Santo Domingo music festivals. A native of Serbia, she received her Master's Degree at the Mannes College of Music, studying with Lewis Kaplan and Muneko Otani.Ms. Milosavljevic will make her debut recital at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall in January 2005, as the recipient of the Artists International Special Presentation Award.

Croatian pianist Terezija Cukrov received her bachelor's degree from Zagreb University in Croatia, as a student of Ljubomir GasparoviÊ, and she also studied with Konstantin Bogino in Venice and Bergamo areas in Italy. She was a full scholarship recipient at the International Keyboard Institute and Festival in 1999 and 2001 studying with Pavlina Dokovska, Vladislav Kovalsky, Victor Rosenbaum, and Mikola Suk. In 2002 she came to the United States to pursue a Master's degree at the Mannes College of Music as a student of Jerome Rose. While at Mannes, Ms. Cukrov performed in the Birth of Romanticism Festival, at master classes given by Claude Frank, and Charles Rosen. Ms. Cukrov was a recipient of top awards in national and international competitions in Croatia and Italy. She was also heard in concerts in Germany and Hungary.