World 4 Peace Project Unites the Planet With Global Anthem: "I alone am the ripple. Together we are a wave." – Dene Menzel
One year ago I created a virtual choir called Choir in the Cloud.(CITC) to bring together my passion for uniting people through voice.
As a parent, I dream of a better world for my daughter and her children to live in.
Collectively, we all have the same hopes and dreams for our children, wherever we may call home around the world. What better way to share our hopes and dreams than through the gift of music.
And so, I created the World 4 Peace Project (W4PP) – a unique global peace initiative bringing together 200 singers from over 20 countries over cyberspace in a bid to raise funds for UNICEF and spread peace consciousness around the planet.
In less than a year, a wave of singers and musicians have joined the crusade including UK group Gospel Singers Incognito, and multi-award winning Australian icon, Kate Ceberano who will lead the 200-strong choir.
The song, is my rewritten adaptation of an old Australian bush ballad, Waltzing Matilda. The new lyrics inspired by my daughter, Mackinlay, reflect on our responsibility to the next generation to create a better world. “I look at my little one, she bears the heavy cost of all the mistakes that I leave”. As Kate continues to sing, she invites the 200-strong choir, and each of us to answer the call in joyous chorus “Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda, will you come a Waltzing Matilda with me?”
No longer a humble bush ballad, Waltzing Matilda is a powerful anthem of global peace appealing to humanity: “Who will Waltz? Who will lead? Who’ll be more than what they can be? I dream of a world that’s filled with hope and peace – Who will Waltz a Matilda with me?”.
The World 4 Peace message is not a complicated message.
It however addresses a suggestion to look to ourselves, to take responsibility for each other on this planet – a random act of kindness to a stranger, a message of peace on social media to spread peace consciousness, donating old clothes to a charity instead of throwing them away. And if you already do those things, it’s about thinking what else you can do. The World 4 Peace Message is something within us that we can do better, to create a better world. After all, this planet is home for all of us.
I thank WCA for creating an incredible platform for all artists around the world to make a difference and share their message of peace.
I hope, together with a wave of others who dream of a better world for our children to send these messages out as far as they will go, to make a difference around the planet, and to make a better world for the generations to come. It is then that we will have done our job.
“So, will you come a Waltzing Matilda with me? ”
Dene Menzel is an Australian musician, voice coach, author and entrepreneur. Since publishing her first book, The Voice Factor, a ‘how to sing’ book compressed in 5 easy steps, Dene has created a number of projects to share her love of music with the world. Her follow up book, The Audition Factor, is due for release later this year.
Dene is also creator of corporate team building initiative Voice Your Brand a unique musical experience designed to reinforce culture, cohesion and communication in an energised and uplifting corporate event. One of Dene’s greatest passions is harmony, her unique choral arrangements exclusive to her virtual Choir In The Cloud, which unites voices from all over the world over cyberspace.
This year, as part of the Choir In The Cloud initiative, Dene is launching the most phenomenal global peace project of 2016, the World 4 Peace Project in which her 200 strong virtual Choir In The Cloud, led by multi-award winning Australian singer, Kate Ceberano, will release a global peace anthem written and arranged by Dene on iTunes, with proceeds going to UNICEF Australia.