Berklee Releases Darfur CD

Proceeds to Benefit Mercy Corps Relief Efforts
November 13, 2006
This article, orginally posted on September 19, 2006, has been updated.

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On October 3, Berklee will release We Are All Connected: Berklee College of Music Reaches Out to the Women of Darfur, a collection of r&b, soul, jazz, pop, world, and gospel songs written, performed, and produced by Berklee students, faculty, staff, and alumni to raise awareness of the plight of women and children affected by the ongoing humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan. The CD will be available through iTunes, CD Baby, Amazon, eBay, and Newbury Comics. Proceeds from the sale of the CD will benefit the Mercy Corps Darfur Fund.

We Are All Connected is the culmination of a collaborative effort engaging many members of the Berklee community. Early in 2005, a delegation of Boston women, including Bright Horizons Chair Linda Mason, wife of Berklee president Roger Brown; award-winning TV journalist Liz Walker; and the Rev. Dr. Gloria E. White-Hammond, traveled to the Sudan with Mercy Corps to learn about the impact of the civil conflict on women and children of Darfur. They took with them two songs: "We Are All Connected" and "To The Sudanese Women" written and performed by Berklee students Andrea Whaley and Farah Siraj.

The songs, the result of a songwriting competition proposed by President Brown and initiated by Jack Perricone, chair of the songwriting department, were produced specifically for the trip and presented to the Darfurian women as a musical gift from their sisters a world away. The music was played for women in the refugee camps on a laptop—a device that many of them were seeing for the first time. Upon hearing the two songs, the Darfurian women leapt to their feet and began trilling and singing in jubilant musical response. That outpouring of emotion was recorded in the field and brought back to Berklee.

During the trip, the Boston delegation heard firsthand accounts of the violence that has killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions to refugee camps, ripping families apart and leaving women and children homeless, hungry, cold, and in personal danger. Mason shared these stories with the Berklee Women's Network, inspiring the group to take action to produce a full-length CD—including the initial two songs—with the goal of raising awareness and funds.

Submissions for We Are All Connected were solicited through another songwriting competition open to Berklee students, faculty, staff, and alumni. The participants were encouraged to use the field recordings of the Sudanese women as inspiration, and their voices can be heard throughout the CD. More than 40 songs were submitted for consideration. From that rich pool of talent, 18 songs were selected by a committee that included Mason, Perricone, Berklee Chief of Staff Carl Beatty, professors Leanne Ungar and Karen Wacks, staff members Shannon Kim and Lynette Gittens, Melinda Weekes of My Sister's Keeper, and Laura Guimond of Mercy Corps.

The Berklee community mobilized not only for the songwriting, but also for the recording and production of the CD. Music production and engineering Professor Ungar lent her talents and considerable time to executive produce the CD. Other faculty members served as mentors and producers for student compositions, which were recorded in Berklee studios, other professional studios, and homes across Massachusetts. Guest artists appearing on the compilation include Meshell Ndegeocello, Abe Laboriel, Sr., Vinnie Colaiuta, and Jamey Haddad.

Songs from We Are All Connected have been performed at Berklee's commencement ceremony, on the TV show Sunday With Liz Walker, and for tens of thousands at Save Darfur Now rallies in New York and Washington, D.C. In Washington, singer Patti Austin joined the group onstage for a performance of "We Are All Connected" that was broadcast on C-SPAN.

For editorial information or digital photos, the media may contact:

Margot Edwards
Office of Public Information
(617) 747-2004
medwards@berklee.edu

A Letter From Neal Keny-Guyer, CEO, Mercy Corps

	Neal Keny-Guyer, CEO, Mercy Corps
	Photo by Steve Harmon for Mercy Corps

Dear friend:

People often ask me what they—as good-hearted citizens and caring folks—can do to help ease suffering in the world's most difficult places.

And what I always answer, because it's true whatever your walk of life, is this:

Get educated, and then get active.

To me, these are greatest acts of compassion we can make toward people who are working to overcome near-impossible odds, whether they face oppression, chronic poverty, or the devastation of a natural disaster.

In buying this CD, you are both getting educated and getting active. We Are All Connected offers, through music, a compelling lesson on the struggles of people living in Darfur and at the same time allows you to contribute to the effort to mitigate that suffering.

I want to thank Berklee president Roger Brown and his wife Linda Mason for their leadership on this album. They are longtime friends and supporters both of Sudan—where they served together as aid workers in the 1980s—and of Mercy Corps, where Linda is a member of the board of directors. They have done a phenomenal job of harnessing the creative assets of the entire Berklee community for the benefit of the women of Darfur, and we at Mercy Corps are deeply grateful for their efforts.

Mostly, I want to thank you—the customer-activist—for buying this CD. Not only are you in for some inspiring music, but you are getting educated and getting active on behalf of people who desperately need your support. And that, to my mind, is a wonderful way to heed Gandhi's call to "be the change you wish to see in the world."

Many thanks,

Neal Keny-Guyer
CEO, Mercy Corps

For more information about Mercy Corps' work in Darfur and around the world, please visit www.mercycorps.org.