Join us for an evening of Imagining Peace, featuring the lyrics of Kazuaki Tanahashi performed by an inspiring lineup of notable West Coast musicians including Robert Kyr, Betsy Rose, Judith-Kate Friedman, Edie Hartshorne, and many others.

Known internationally as a master Zen brush painter, calligrapher, author, teacher, and peace activist, Kaz wrote a series of hopeful, ironic, and humorous peace poems between 2002 and 2003. He invited friends to write music for them, resulting in 50 of the poems being set by a range of artists in classical, folk, world, choral, and new music. Tonight's concert brings together nearly a dozen of these artists from the west coast, performing their compositions in the first full public concert of Kaz's peace songs. Performers will include classical choral composer Robert Kyr, bay area songwriters Betsy Rose, Judith-Kate Friedman, Karuna Tanahashi, and Bodhi Kevin Setchko, instrumentalists Edie Hartshorne (koto, flutes, Tibetan bowls), Shira Kammen (viol), and Nicole Milner (piano), with vocalists Evelie Delfino Sales Posch (of Mahal) and PhoebeAnne Sorgen.

Tonight's performance is a benefit for the organization A World Without Armies: The Costa Rica Initiative, which endeavors to spread the Costa Rican practice of demilitarization to other countries. It is a project of Inochi, a U.S. non-profit organization based in Berkeley.