CD PROJECT

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The purchase of A Time to Heal: moving beyond homelessness will help provide shelter and hope to people living on the street and bring you inspiring music by some of Canada’s best musicians.

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A Time to Heal

The people working at First United Church in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside are men and women of great compassion, faith and vision. This project is in support of the significant and respectful work they are doing to help the homeless.

The intention of the CD A Time to Heal: moving beyond homelessness is to bring awareness to the issue of homelessness – not just the statistics – but the individual faces of people who are struggling and have lost their way. Each homeless person is someone’s family, friend, neighbour. The homeless are from all walks of life, treading a path from which we are all only steps away.

Most of us are touched by music in some way. The music arranged and presented for this project evokes and celebrates moments in our lives of love, hope, vulnerability and spirit that are essential to our humanity. The CD brings together musicians from across the country from a variety of genres, reflecting the diverse backgrounds of homeless people. The musical content is beautiful and has been selected and arranged to flow with a unifying theme of hope and spirit.

Most of the tracks have been recorded live in Vancouver and Ottawa under the thoughtful guidance of local composer/arranger Larry Nickel, who did inspired work on this project, believing in the power of its intention.

We are very grateful for the participation of world-renowned violinist Pinchas Zukerman and the National Arts Centre Wind Quintet, performing as soloists as well as providing musical accompaniment to our own fine Vancouver jazz musicians.

A big thank you to the Vancouver Chamber Choir, Linda Lee Thomas, Dalannah Gail Bowen, Jim Byrnes, and the Canadian band Emerson Drive for their generous donation of tracks, which have been integrated into the musical intent of the CD.

And finally, the wonderful portraits in the CD booklet are of people who are, or at one time were, homeless – the faces of people each of whom have a story. May we be moved to hear these stories and to understand that we are all in community together.

Laverne Gfroerer and Jacquie Forbes-Roberts
Executive Producers