Music Opens Doors and Opportunities for People
(Midori's Press Conference Remarks, June 23, 2009)

I am thrilled to be in Costa Rica this week, and would like to extend my deepest thanks to Minister Carballo and Maestro Komatsu for the invitation to visit and perform in your country. This week promises to be, for me, one of learning and inspiration. Moreover, I also hope that this week's activities will encourage continued collaboration and cultural exchanges between Costa Rica, the U.S. and Japan to foster further communication and goodwill between the three countries.

Music and the arts enrich our collective culture and individual lives in extraordinary and necessary ways; they are means of communication through which we can express thoughts and emotions across language barriers and without technological boundaries. Though it might sound naïve, I believe music can bring us together, and teaching music to children will have a beneficial impact on our future as a global society.

As a UN Messenger of Peace, this is a philosophy that I try to impart through all my various projects and endeavors in the U.S., Japan and around the world. I intend to bring awareness to issues surrounding children, as well as bringing to children's attention issues we face in this world, particularly those concerning them or their peers. For example, after returning from my recent community engagement trip to Indonesia with several young musicians, we all went to schools, institutions, and organizations in Japan, organized by my nonprofit organization Music Sharing. Interspersed with Western classical music and some Indonesian folk songs that we have learned during our trip, we shared with the Japanese public, particularly children, some of the different issues faced by, as well as the achievements of, their contemporaries in Indonesia. I will be eager to share my experiences from this week in Costa Rica with children and colleagues in the coming months and years. The conversation about SiNEM and the cultural issues and successes in Costa Rica will no doubt be inspiring and rewarding for all of us.

Change can only come about when people are conscious of the problem. Social progress can be possible in a country where considerable time and resources have been given to social investment and public welfare. Just yesterday during the briefing at the UN offices here in San José, I learned that Costa Rica has much to be proud of in its high levels of human development: increasing life expectancy, literacy - a remarkable 95%, a better secondary education, and increased professional opportunities for women. When it comes to the arts, raising awareness is crucial in accumulating community support and ensuring accessibility to the programs. Through music and other cultural activities, young people in the inner city are able to go on a journey beyond their immediate environment and socioeconomic boundaries. They are taken on journeys of the imagination, and can reach out to find their place in a much bigger world of possibilities. Both as a UN Messenger of Peace and as an advocate for universal music education, I can't say enough about the importance of culture and the arts as integral parts of social assistance and educational systems.

Everything I do is united toward one goal of making music available to people of all walks of life, particularly youth. I strongly feel music should be an ever-present part of community life and of basic education. As many of you are now seeing with SiNEM here, music gives children a healthy outlet for active participation and expression. The benefits of involvement in music and the arts are endless, something that I know first-hand from my own experiences. Music opens doors and possibilities for people to go beyond the myriad restrictions of their immediate circumstances, and it empowers young people and their families to discover new meanings and goals in their lives. Through my Midori & Friends organization, I have seen kids from rough areas of New York City excel in our programs, earning music scholarships, and often become the first person in their family to go on to university level education. Over the last sixteen years, Midori & Friends has provided development opportunities for over 150,000 students and we have seen remarkable influence that music has had on the levels of success in their lives.

Too, SiNEM has achieved so much in the three years since its establishment, particularly in neighborhoods with high crime, teen pregnancy and dropout rates, and low academic test scores. Of course, your generous support and enthusiasm have been so crucial to the continued success of the SiNEM and to the future generations of Costa Ricans. I am very much looking forward to meeting the teachers and students of SiNEM this week, and to working with them in their music.

Thank you, again, for giving me the opportunity to be a part of your community this week. It is a privilege for me to be here to work with your musicians and music lovers of all generations, the National Symphony, and Maestro Komatsu.