Listening to transformation

Here at Playing For Change, we travel the world and meet different people offering us all greater insight into humanity and the power of music. I believe that the power of music is being felt in places we never imagined.

This year we have partnered for the third consecutive year with A Rirmo de Cambio (ARC), an initiative of the Americas Business Council Foundation (abc*), to present a great project that united over 70 artists with diverse musical backgrounds from across Mexico to record Mexico Lindo y Querido. Our objective was to celebrate Mexico’s own cultural diversity and encourage social reconciliation in the country.

We first partnered with ARC, which uses music to educate, heal and foster social change, in 2010 at the World Economic Forum in Cartagena, Colombia for La Tierra del Olvido. The following year in Brazil we partnered again with ARC to produce Sachita, which was presented at the World Economic Forum in Rio de Janeiro.

I feel that music and the arts can make a strong impact on all leaders across the globe. That is why we will be unveiling the video of Mexico Lindo y Querido tonight in front of the most influential leaders and media from the hemisphere during the A Ritmo de Cambio concert sponsored by the abc* Foundation at the Malecon in Puerto Vallarta.

The funds from Mexico Lindo y Querido will help to promote the work of Cauce Cuidadano, an organization supported by abc*, working to face the vast and growing crisis of youth violence and crime in Mexico. Cauce Cuidadano has been able to transform youth involved in violent activity into peaceful leaders by altering dangerous behaviors, developing long-term plans for healthier lifestyles and healing emotional damage developed during a lifetime of exposure to violence.

Our continued partnership with the abc* Foundation throughout the hemisphere demonstrates that regardless of who we are or where we come from we are all united with music. Let’s continue to build a global family and spread the word together about the power of music to promote reconciliation and generate true social change.

Author: Mark Johnson is Co-Founder of Playing for Change. He travels world seeking to unite people through music and education. Former keynote speaker: UN, TED Global. Recipient of awards: Grammy, as producer and engineer; award as film director.

Pictured: 10-year old Jose Angel holds his violin while posing for a photograph on a street in his neighborhood in Ciudad Juarez, October 15, 2010. In one of the world’s deadliest cities, where drug gangs murder a dozen people a day, a former heroin addict is changing lives with violins and trumpets rather than assault rifles.