Harmonious Exchange: First Installment

Hi Everyone!

I’m Jeremy Danneman, saxophonist, clarinetist, and founder of Parade of One, and I am thrilled to tell you about the new Harmonious Exchange project. For my birthday a few years back, I decided to have a parade instead of a party, so I took my saxophone and marched all over New York City. It turned out I loved street performance, and before I knew it I was traveling all over the world giving street performances. I particularly chose to go places affected by poverty and violence, like Rwanda and Southeast Asia.

In the spring of 2013, Parade of One will embark on the first installment of the Harmonious Exchange project. We will bring Rwandan musician Sophie Nzayisenga to New York City to give street performances, conduct educational programming, and record an album with me and my colleagues here, including legendary bassist William Parker and percussionist Tim Keiper. Sophie sings and plays inanga, a string instrument so rare there isn’t even a wikipedia page about.  She is the only widely known female inanga player, and possibly the only one in the world. Recording Sophie’s music is a unique opportunity to preserve the sounds and rhythms of the inanga for a wider audience and future generations.  Parade of One excited to bring Sophie’s sensational music to New York City.

At Parade of One, we believe that the whole world is connected through a longing to be joyous, clap hands, and dance with both our global and local neighbors. If you do to, we’d love your support. By donating to this project, you will help save endangered musical traditions, revitalize the public spaces of New York City, and enrich the education of students. All donations are tax-deductible in the USA, and we are grateful for all levels of support.

We Need Your Help Raising $30,000!

We have many people offering pro-bono products and services, but there are still many expenses associated with this project. First, we need flights and accomodations for Sophie and a representative from her management who will help translate. We also need to make sure Sophie, the other musicians, and recording engineers, etc. are fairly compensated. We hope to reduce our expenses by recruiting more pro-bono products and services, but as of now, we need to raise $30,000.

As a token of our gratitude for donors, we are offering many perks for your kindness. Starting at just $15, you will receive an electronic version of our album, upon its completion, and for $500, I will come perform in your home. We are also offering many incentives for donations between $15 and $500.

We understand that $30,000 is an ambitious fundraising goal, and we're not limiting our efforts to this Indiegogo campaign. We are also applying for foundation grants and corporate funding, and throwing events. If we do not meet our goal, we will keep working on it, until we do.

 The Impact

 We've already mentioned that the Harmonious Exchange Project will aid the survival of marginalized musical traditions, revitalize New York City's public spaces, and enrich the lives of students. One thing people don't often think of though is that while the opportunity is quite common for gifted Westerners to visit, learn from, and volunteer or work in Rwanda, such opportunities for gifted Rwandans to bring their skills and talents to other parts of the world are far less frequent. This is an opportunity we are eager to present for Sophie. We believe that, not only will she help us enrich the lives and educations of American audiences and students, but that she will learn things that will be useful for her music career, and she will bring and share valuable experiences back to her community in Rwanda.

Other Ways You Can Help

We understand that not everyone can afford to give money to every single project that they support. If that's you, please try to help us out by spreading the word about this campaign in emails to your friends and family and on your Facebook and Twitter pages.

We thank you in advance for your kind support!