The Daniel Pearl World Music Days is an international network of concerts that use the power of music to spread a commitment to tolerance and humanity. This festival was founded in response to the 2002 kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl at the hands of extremists in Karachi, Pakistan. Concerts that are part of this network inspire audiences with a sense of unity and purpose, reaffirming our commitment to international friendship by taking a stand against divisive forces. They use the power of music to spread a commitment to tolerance and humanity.

Our concert this year features the way rivers – forever intertwined with our past, present and future – reflect the full spectrum of the human experience. In the present case, we will feature the beautiful Symphony No. 3 by Schumann, which was inspired by the river Rhine in Germany, which was so connected with Schumann’s life. This symphony was created after a happy and peaceful trip the composer took with his wife Clara in the Rhineland, allowing him to incorporate elements of the journey and portray other experiences from his life into the music. However, a mental illness later led him to attempt suicide by throwing himself from a bridge into the same river.

The program will be complemented by the overture to the opera Freischütz by Weber, which is a landmark of the music literature, a work that captures the essence of the German Romanticism. Finally, the percussion section of the orchestra will feature Carlos Chavez’s Toccata for Percussion, a work commissioned by John Cage that has been described as "creating an original climate of intense attractiveness and achieving great diversity of accents, sounds, and nuances."
Hosted by: Symphony Orchestra, Miami University
Additional Information can be found at: muhub.campuslabs.com/engage/event/4981814