Playing for Change Performs Live at Mesa Arts Center 11/12
Playing For Change will be at Mesa Arts Center on November 12 as part of a 20 city national tour. Tickets are $40 and $25 and are available through the Mesa Arts Center Box Office on Saturday, August 22 at mesaartscenter.com or by calling 480-644-6500. The Playing For Change band features musicians from around the globe, many of whom appeared in the now ubiquitous "Stand By Me" video (which has been viewed on the internet more than 30 million times) here.
Momentum has continued to build for the project as founder Mark Johnson and the musicians of Playing For Change were just named "Persons of the Week" on ABC's "World News Tonight with Charlie Gibson." This honor fell on the heels of Johnson's return from a triumphant keynote speaking appearance at the internationally renowned TED (Technology, Education & Design) Conference in Oxford, England. Playing For Change has been profiled many times nationally including NPR's Morning Edition, CBS News Sunday Morning and PBS' Bill Moyers Journal just to name a few. Meanwhile, the Playing For Change band recently performed a thunderous set headlining the world stage at England's Glastonbury Festival, played before a rapturous audience at Tipitina's, New Orleans' landmark concert hall and returned to the place where the movement began, kicking off the Santa Monica Pier's summer-long 100th anniversary celebration with an amazing hometown show on July 3rd. In addition, the PFC Band has performed on NBC's The Tonight Show twice within the last 4 months with more television appearances scheduled soon.
Grammy-winning producer/engineer/filmmaker Mark Johnson founded Playing For Change on the simple idea that the world can be connected through music. Starting in Santa Monica, California, Mark captured a performance of "Stand By Me" by legendary street blues singer Roger Ridley, then he took the show on the road. In New Orleans, he put headphones on Grandpa Elliott, who harmonized with Ridley's soulful rendition of the song. And he didn't stop there. Using innovative mobile technology and travelling the world, they filmed and recorded more than 100 musicians, largely outdoors, in parks, plazas and promenades, in doorways, on cobblestone streets and amid hilly pueblos. Each captured performance created a new mix in which essentially the artists are all performing together, albeit hundreds or thousands of miles apart.
Playing For Change has been one of 2009's most unlikely and startling cultural phenomenons. Hear Music's two-disc CD/DVD Playing For Change - Songs Around the World, released on April 28th, stunned the music industry selling over twenty-six thousand copies in it's first week and landing at #10 on Billboard's Top 200 Pop chart. This remarkable and unpredicted popular response has been driven by tens of millions of video hits, countless blogs and pure viral communication between fans and followers. The project's deep emotional resonance, combined with the muscle of the internet and word-of-mouth has struck a profoundly enduring chord world-wide. A story of hope, struggle, perseverance and joy, "PLAYING FOR CHANGE: Peace Through Music" is the documentary of this unparalleled international musical collaboration and its remarkable power of redemption. It will air nationally as part of special programming airing on PBS Stations beginning August 2009 (check local listings)
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