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FAQ
CONTINENTAL HARMONY (2003)
An initiative of the National Endowment of the Arts and The American Composers Forum selected the AMANI Festival Committee to represent Pennsylvania in the statewide Continental Harmony competition. A grant from Continental Harmony commissioned AMANI to create a musical composition that best reflects our community’s history, culture and hopes for the future.
The AMANI Committee chose Glenn McClure to compose a multi-ethnic musical and choral arrangement that concurrently honors diversity while promoting community unity. To perform the composition, AMANI recruited musicians from various ethnic backgrounds. Make Me A World is the result of that effort. Our May 2 dinner program will include its first public performance. This year the AMANI Festival (Saturday, May 3) will feature the public debut of Make Me A World with full musical and choral complement. We hope you will join us for this unique celebration.
CONTINENTAL HARMONY
The Amani Festival Committee in collaboration with other local community organizations applied for grant funding to Continental Harmony, an initiative of the National Endowment of the Arts and The American Composers Forum. The grant establishes the need for the development of a musical work that would create a tangible symbol reflecting the feelings of unity and co-existence many, many people in our community feel, but are unable to verbalize.
Lead by Glenn McClure of New York, the piece, “Make Me a World” was born. This is a musical composition, reflecting our community’s history, culture and hopes for the future is the goal of our project. Additionally, this project has given our community a unifying voice in response to acts of hate. Through the project our community has become more culturally aware and appreciative of differences among each other. We envision this piece becoming our children’s battle cry in response to future threats to our unity, leaving a valuable legacy to our town, our county and state.
The theme of diversity and unity is expressed in the musical work composed. The ensemble consisting of a group of culturally diverse musicians (Celts, Africans, Blues, Asian, Middle Eastern, to name a few) hailing from the local community. Visually, the community audience will witness a group of people from unfamiliar cultural back grounds playing next to groups they may be familiar with, reinforcing the intended theme. This is not a novel idea having already been done with commercial success by the band Afro Celt Sound System. This band combines African and Celtic sounds with incredible musical results.
The Amani Festival Committee, along with its partner organizations, sees the purpose of the Continental Harmony project as multifaceted. With the development of a musical composition we hope to give voice to or community in regards to diversity. We hope to expose both the audience and the musicians to successful cross-cultural collaboration. Most importantly, we are providing a peaceful response to hate groups interested in our community. Finally, we hope to provide a lasting statement to our children regarding diversity and the need for unity.