The beginning of the new year has brought about the renewal of several cultural activities in the New York and New Jersey regions. The New York City Symphony has become a staple of the Woman's Federation for World Peace conferences in New York and Philadelphia and the newly formed Artists Association for World Peace has been presenting a series of Culture Nights in the Garden Room at National Headquarters in New York City.

At the December WFWP conference in New York, David Eaton led the New York City Symphony in performances of Christmas music as part of the conference's closing banquet proceedings. Joining the orchestra were vocalists ___, Sheila Vaughn, Raoul Joseph and Miyuki Harley performing songs of the season and so successful was this concert that the orchestra was invited by WFWP to perform in Philadelphia and has since been providing the main entertainment for WFWP conferences in both cities.

Raoul and Miyuki have been performing songs from their new album If Love Is The Answer, with the orchestra in a "pops" setting. The music from their album, which was produced at Manhattan Center Studios by David Eaton, has been well received by the WFWP audiences which may be due in part to the fact that Miyuki Harley's parents were American and Japanese.

The highlight of the New York City Symphony's spring season was a performance at the Manhattan Center on True Parent's Day. The program opened with Mozart's Serenade No. 3, K. 185 and featured Japanese soprano Yoshimi Kadota who sang the Ave Maria by French composer Charles Gounod as well a the beautiful Korean art song Ga Go Pa as arranged by David Eaton.

The New York City Symphony Chamber Ensemble has been appearing at several of the WFWP events as well as the biweekly cultural events sponsored by Artists Association for World Peace. The ensemble, which is comprised of soprano ___, violinist Makiko Taguchi, pianist Rikako Asanuma and guitarist, Isamu Nakashio, has been presenting music from their recently released album entitled World Music, a compilation of art songs from 10 different countries.

True Parents founded the Artists Association for World Peace in Brazil on True Parents Day in 1995. At that time Father instructed David Eaton, Gloria Criscioni, Paraguay's most renown singer, and soprano ___ to concertize in order to network with other artists and to begin the process of "creating a moral revolution in the arts."

During the course of each culture night, David Eaton has been giving a short presentation on the goals, vision and future activities of AAWP. One hope of this new organization is to create a worldwide network of artists who will be willing to utilize their talents in a responsible fashion.

Alluding to the situation in Nazi Germany in the 1930's, Mr. Eaton explains of the plight of the twentieth century German composer Paul Hindemith. When Adolph Hitler was rising to power, Hindemith was considered Germany's most talented composer but refused to join the Nazi Party at a time when many of his colleagues were using Nazi influence to further their careers. As a result of rejecting the Nazi ideology, Hindemith was vilified by the authorities and soon found his music in official disfavor which led to a self imposed exile from his native Germany.

For Hindemith, music had "moral and ethical power," and thus he felt that musicians needed to use that power with what he called "...the severest sense of moral responsibility." Citing the postulates of early Christian philosophers Boethius and St. Augustine, Hindemith recognized (as did Hitler) that art had a tremendous ability to influence society and therefore artists must exercise a degree of personal responsibility vis-a-vis their chosen artistic discipline. In many ways, AAWP espouses Hindemith's view of the arts and the role of artists in creating an environment conducive to the goal of establishing world peace.

AAWP and the New York City Symphony will continue to present culture nights throughout the coming months as well as the orchestra will continue to perform for the WFWP Sisterhood conferences.

To purchase the NYCSCE World Music cassette tape, or Raoul and Miyuki's If Love Is The Answer tape, send a check or money order in the amount of $12 to the New York City Symphony, 481 Eighth Avenue, New York, NY 10001.

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