BreatheLife for a Healthy People – Healthy Planet

Public Multimedia & Musical Awareness-Raising Event

Palais des Nations 31 October 2018

20:30 – 22:00 Salles des Assemblées

On the occasion of the

Featuring Grammy® Winner and ‘ Humanitarian Artist’ Ricky Kej, this free, public concert event will expand awareness in international community about as a critical health, climate and environment issue through music, video and art.

Known for his signature - ‘Music for the Planet’, Ricky Kej and his ensemble of musicians from countries as diverse as Ghana, , Peru, Viet Nam, South Africa, and the USA will play compositions of ‘World Music for Healthy People and Planet’.

See here for your free tickets: http://reg.unog.ch/e/breathlifeconcert

Featured Artists

Ricky Kej & Musical Ensemble:

Grammy® Award Winner Ricky Kej is a well- known Conservationist, an Ambassador to Earth Day Network and a professor at the Indian National Institute of advanced Studies (at the Indian Institute of Science). Ricky Kej composed and produced his latest album ‘SHANTI SAMSARA’, which was launched by Indian Prime Minister and French President François Hollande in the presence of World Leaders at the United Nations COP21 Climate Change Conference in Paris. For Shanti Samsara, Ricky collaborated with over 500 musicians from over 40 countries, all coming together for Environmental Consciousness. Ricky has performed at prestigious venues all over the world including thrice at the United Nations General Assembly, NY. Ricky has been awarded "Global Humanitarian Artist" by the United Nations, "Outstanding Musical and Humanitarian Achievement" award by the The House of Commons, Parliament of Canada, and several others. 'Real Leaders', a Signatory to the United Nations has named Ricky Kej as one of the 100 Real Leaders. Ricky is also conferred with the title “Youth Icon of India".

Wouter Kellerman, South Africa

Wouter Kellerman is a Grammy® Award-winning South African flautist, producer and composer who has won six South African Music Awards. Using his classical training as a foundation, Kellerman has focused his attention on World and Roots music, exploring the versatility of the instrument and fusing classical and contemporary sounds.

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Laura Dickinson, USA Grammy® Winner from USA, Laura Dickinson infuses a unique freedom and laser-beam vocal precision into every song she performs. A hugely popular vocal contractor and voice actress in Hollywood, her vocals can be heard in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, War For The Planet Of The Apes, Sing, Pitch Perfect and the sequel, on commercials and popular TV series. She is credited for her work on Disney Channel's animated hits Phineas and Ferb, Jake and The Never Land Pirates and Sofia The First. She recently toured the United States with UK space rockers Spiritualized, performed on the The Talk with Andy Grammer, and opened for many artists including Tony Bennett, Lyle Lovett and Bob Newhart.

Ciro Hurtado, Peru

Grammy® Nominee Ciro Hurtado is a guitarist- composer from Perú who has been actively performing since the early seventies. He has scored for numerous films including contributing tracks to the classic film, “Baraka”. He has also performed on several Grammy® winning albums and has worked with Strunz and Farah, the Los Angeles Master Chorale, and Alex Acuña among others. Ciro's guitar work ranges from the very traditional Latin American genres to the more sophisticated fusion Latin-Jazz idioms, placing him among a select generation of Latin American composers. He has been awarded the prestigious Durfee Master Musician Fellowship.

Rocky Dawuni, Ghana

Grammy® Nominated Rocky Dawuni is a Ghanaian singer and advocate for cleaner cooking technologies. His signature is ‘Afro Roots’ sound which is a mixture of Reggae, Afrobeat, Highlife and soul music. He currently spends his time between Ghana and Los Angeles. Dawuni’s sixth studio album titled ‘Branches of The Same Tree’ was nominated for a Grammy® Award for Best Reggae Album in December 2015 for the 58th Annual Grammy® Awards.

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Lonnie Park, USA Grammy® Nominee Lonnie Park is a vocalist, keyboardist, songwriter, engineer, producer, and plays a wide variety of instruments. Along with his solo career, and various collaborations, Lonnie is the lead singer of the band Ten Man Push. Lonnie also regularly collaborates with Grammy Winning producer and conservationist Ricky Kej for performances at United Nations summits and other world stages. Lonnie has also produced commissioned music for causes such as Autism Works, Autism Movement, Puzzle Solvers.

Hai Phuong, Viet Nam Hai Phuong is one of the leading Dan Tranh musicians in the world. A Graduate of HCMC Conservatory (Zither Performance Department), she won ‘The First Prize’ and ‘The Best Contemporary Music Performer Prize’ in ‘The First National Concours of Young Zither talents 1992’. She has performed in several National and International Music Festivals. Currently, Hai Phuong is a teacher of Tranh Zither in HCMC conservatory.

Other Ensemble Members/Orchestra – India

Manoj George, India

Manoj George is a violinist and composer of repute. He has performed as a conductor, string arranger and choral arranger in the Grammy award winning album Winds of Samsara. His wide repertoire include scoring music for Malayalam and feature films, documentaries, short films and commercials.

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Varijashree Venugopal, India

Varijashree Venugopal was found to have the rare ability to identify about 40 ragas at the tender age of one and a half years and about 200 ragas at the age of four years. She was initially trained by her father. An award winning vocalist and flute player, Varijashree is known for her immense virtuosity as a cross-cultural musician and performer.

Muthu Kumar, India

With over 20 years in the music industry, Muthu Kumar has made a niche for himself as a percussionist par excellence. Having studied under legends Ustad Allarakha and Ustad Zakir hussain, Muthu has traveled around the globe many times and performed on many prestigious stages and festivals. He has collaborated with musicians around the world, across genres and has accompanied the likes of Alice Coltrane, Maynard Ferguson, John Barnes, Bill Laswell, Dana Gillespie, Bombay Jayashree, Mandolin U. Rajesh and Lucky Ali to name a few.

B. S. Arun Kumar, India

Along with being a master of Carnatic percussion, Arun Kumar is also a very well-known Jazz Drummer. Has been in the field of Music since 1986 and rendered percussion support to Carnatic Classical, Talavadya, Jazz music, Light Music and Dance Performances. Has given performances all over India, Hong Kong, , Holland, France, , UK, Belgium, Spain, Luxemburg, , USA and Canada.

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String Orchestra - bringing together distinguished young musicians from France and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland under the baguette of the innovative Franck Fontcouberte.

Franck Fontcouberte, Conductor

Franck Fontcouberte is both artistic director and conductor of the instrumental ensemble Contrepoint, principal conductor of United Strings of Europe, artistic director of the festival "Musicasète", "Rencontres artistique Gigeantesques", the “Chorale de Sète” and the Vocal Ensemble of Montpellier. Holder of the State diploma of professor of percussions and the Certificate of aptitude to the functions of professor of direction of instrumental ensembles, he teaches the direction of orchestra with the Regional Conservatory of Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole.

Dorothée Fontcouberte, First violin

She studied violin with Pierre Yvanovitch, Marie-Claude Theuveny at the CNR of Saint Maur, Tatiana Affanassief, Haik Davtian and Pierre Hofer at the CNR of Créteil. She won several first prizes in violin and chamber music. Since then she has appeared as a soloist in various ensembles to perform, among other things, Mozart's "Symphonie Concertante", Corelli and Bach Concertos, Vivaldi's "Four Seasons", and also the "Rondo Capriccioso" of Saint Saëns on tournée in Prague with the Counterpoint Orchestra in April 1997. In addition to her activity as a violin teacher, she plays in numerous orchestras: the Montpellier National Orchestra, the Toulon Opera, the Grand Théâtre de Reims and the Lyric Orchestra of Paris at the Palais Garnier and at the Opéra Bastille.

Matthew Chin, First violin

Matthew Studied with renowned violinist Pierre Amoyal in HEMU-lausanne under the support from ‘Association des Amis du Conservatoire de Lausanne’, Max D.Jost foundation and Lalive foundation for his Bachelor studies in which he graduated with a perfect recital (6.0). He then continued his studies at the Mozarteum University of music, Salzburg. Currently, he is studying at the HEM-Geneve under Svetlin Roussev.

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Eric Mouret, Second violin

After studying violin in Avignon, his hometown, Eric Mouret continued his training at the Conservatory of Boulogne- Billancourt before finishing his career with the Geneva High School of Music, in the class of Jean-Pierre Wallez. He also holds an orchestration diploma from the HEM of Geneva (class of Nicolas Bacri), the Diploma of Piano Study awarded by the CRR of Boulogne-Billancourt, as well as the Diploma of Direction of Orchestra of the École Normale de Musique de Paris, in the class of Dominique Rouits. His activities are divided between violin teaching and his career as an interpreter with Camerata Alma Viva, of which he is a founding member and arranger, as well as several independent writing works, notably for the Verbier Festival Orchestra and the Orchestre National de France.

Zoé Saubat, Cello

French cellist Zoé Saubat received her Diploma in Music Education at the age of 15 years before leaving to study at the RRC in Paris. At the same time, she studied Modern Literature at the Sorbonne where she obtained a degree. She obtained her Master of Performance at the prestigious Royal College of Music in London under the guidance of Alexander Boyarsky. As an accomplished orchestral musician, Zoé regularly works in London with the orchestra of the BBC, the Birmingham Orchestra, and participates in numerous collaborations with the Royal Opera House, the London Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Zoe has also performed as a soloist with many orchestras such as London City Orchestra and Southbank Sinfonia, which she was part of during 2016.

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Vilas Nayak, India – Visual Artist

Vilas Nayak, a self-taught artist, is one of the most sought after speed painting artists in the world. He has performed in over 28 countries on some of the most prestigious stages. His performances on Asia’s Got Talent on AXN and Got Talent World Stage Live have caught attention of millions of art lovers across the world. He was a finalist of India’s Got Talent season 3 and winner of ‘EC live quotient Most Innovative Act Award’ 2012.

Production SPONSORED BY

In Collaboration with

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