The International Music Council issued today a press release condemning terrorist attacks worldwide, saying that music is « a tool for reconciliation and peace ». The text starts with a quote from Leonard Bernstein “This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.”
Here is the IMC press release: « According to the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), terrorism continues to rise with nine times more people killed in terrorist attacks today than there were in 2000. People going about their daily lives, finding pleasure and relaxation in such fundamental human activities as eating, drinking and participating in sports and music, are being brutally attacked and killed.
The International Music Council (IMC) wishes to express its deep compassion to the families and friends of all victims. In particular, it sees it as a responsibility, in the face of these terrorist acts to affirm the fundamental nature of our collective human rights.
When terrorists fired on the musicians and audience of a concert taking place at the Bataclan concert venue in Paris, it left musicians, music lovers and organisers of music in shock and mourning. But music can also be a tool for reconciliation and peace and now, more than ever, music is needed to bring people together regardless of their cultural differences or religion.
We will keep creating, producing, presenting, listening to and take pleasure, consolation and sustenance from the enrichment that music brings to all our lives. We will make music more beautifully, and with more devotion and passion than ever before. »
