“Love is the Answer” at Berklee

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Berklee College of Music faculty, students, and alumni collaborated with the Carter Center’s Human Rights Program to produce a song, “Love is the Answer,” written by Florida minister Breeze the Voice. The video for the song premiered today at the Carter Center’s 2016 Human Rights Defender’s Forum in Atlanta, where former President Jimmy Carter gave the keynote address titled “A Time for Peace.”

The video serves as the centerpiece of a social media campaign to promote the forum’s central themes, including the economics of peace, unlearning violence, and nonviolent approaches to security and law enforcement.

Alumna Karin Ryan ‘03, Senior Advisor to the Human Rights Program at the Carter Center, conceived the project while a student and set it in motion after a meeting with President Carter, Berklee’s president Roger Brown, and faculty and students in 2014. “Promoting human rights comes down to creative storytelling. I wanted to make better use of the arts in telling the story of the human rights struggle,” said Ryan, who attended Berklee during a leave from the Carter Center where she has worked for 25 years.

Berklee professor Michael Farquharson – Ryan’s former teacher – led the on-campus recording and production. Farquharson plays bass on the song and wrote the strings orchestration, performed by the Berklee Contemporary Symphony Orchestra. The song features Breeze and Rotana on lead vocals, Berklee Harmony Chair George Russell Jr. on piano, alumnus Pat Simard ’13 on drums, and the Berklee Gospel Choir on backing vocals.

“The song relates to every issue, from marriage to worldwide problems,” said Farquharson. “It applies to the subject and the topic of Carter’s speech profoundly. Love is the answer is the solution to pretty much everything.”

Watch the “Love is the Answer” video.