WHY the Pangean Orchestra? 

IT STARTED BY CHANCE, BACK IN 2003 

Back in 2003, around the time the Iraq War was beginning, World Maestro-Colin O’Donohoe, overheard a conversation while standing in line at a local store.  Two men were talking about how they were excited to get home, “drink some beers, and watch the bombs drop”. 

You should read that last line again… 

After getting over the shock of the callousness they displayed, and their ability to completely disassociate themselves from, and dehumanize the people who would be killed, it made Colin think that there had to be a way to bring the humanity back to the way people thought about other cultures, a way to lessen the emotional distance between countries.

What if we could unite musicians from all over the world, together on one stage.  The rehearsals, the performances, the interaction between people who would normally have no reason to interact with one another… 

…we can start a dialogue! 

And the performances themselves could be the beginnings of a dialogue for the audience.  It would be a chance for people to experience cultures they might not encounter in their daily lives, to understand a little about the musicians as people... 

…and when you understand the people, it becomes harder to disassociate and dehumanize them. 

And this is where the Pangean Orchestra began.