URI International Festival of Online Composers-Songs for Peace

15 April 2020
Photo: flyer describing the sonwritters participants and hour they made their presentaions

The Latin American CC of Musicians held on Sunday April 12, 2020 an International Festival of Songwriters in a virtual way (Online) in support of the running of the bulls requested by the global pandemic Covid-19. The event was called URI International Festival of Online Composers - Songs for Peace. It consisted of an individual presentation of each one of the members of the Latin American CC of Musicians, each one from his home, city of origin, singing for peace, brotherhood, unity, community, solidarity and social empathy.

The modality of the concert was via streeming (live broadcast) with a maximum intervention of 20 minutes per participant through different platforms, facebook and instagram in connection with the facebook page of URI Latinoamerica & El Caribe.

The artists that participated were: Rodrigo Regis (Brazil) - Fernando Salazar (Colombia) - Jairo Moran (Venezuela) - Loreto Lorca (Chile) - Andreamaria (Venezuela) - Adrián ... A necessary song (Colombian) - Constanza Liz (Venezuela) - Rick Solar (Brazil) - Moreno Overá (Brazil) - Gerardo Ochoa (Mexico) - Guillerme Moscardini (Brazil) - Manu Saggioro (Brazil) - Alfonso Lirikowsky (Mexico)

To kick off the event, the Regional Coordinator Dra. Enoé Texier shared some opening remarks "Welcome to the International Composers Festival organized by the URI Latin American Cooperation Circle of Musicians - Initiative of the United Religions for Peace-.

They have called this event: SONGS FOR PEACE as a contribution of LOVE AND HOPE to the world, from our Latin American and Caribbean region showing the richness of diversity in the unity of the GREAT SPIRIT, of that source of light that is showing that more than a "bad weather", we are in a TIME OF GREAT RELEASE.

Each musician made a presentation from their houses, their country, and from their city of origin, art and individual creation, supported by technology to shorten the distances and to achieve together, the connection through the heart.

At URI we work in different areas of action, the Latin American CC of Musicians focuses on ART as AN EDUCATION TOOL FOR PEACE. We launched the Education for Peace through Art Program with the Itinerant Songwriter Festival "ONE SONG FOR PEACE" Facundo Cabral Award, which started online and its award was in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 2016 award delivered to Gerardo Ochoa, Mexican, one of our musicians today. The second edition was in São Luis do Paraitinga, Brazil (2017), awarding Gilberto Gil, a poet and renowned Brazilian singer-songwriter, there where twelve winners that received the award at this occasion and created the Circle of Cooperation from there. Your 3rd. Edition is today, and the winners will be all of you participants in this online audience, gaining hope, joy and commitment to your personal and collective well-being.

To close I want to briefly introduce the new generations to whom the great inspirer of this URI International Festival of Songwriters was in life: FACUNDO CABRAL. Young people may not know who Facundo was, I tell you, that it is worth investigating this universal man, who traveled the world with a guitar and his songs about dialogue and tolerance, messages of hope, love and the promotion of a true commitment to life. I leave you with a short phrase from one of his compositions that I think is in tune with what we are experiencing: "Your eyes worry me more than the hatred of the enemy, I never lost by force, only love has defeated me."

URI musicians members