Music for Life International

01/24/2026

It was exactly 20 years ago tonight on January 23rd, 2006, that our first global humanitarian concert, Beethoven’s Ninth for South Asia rang out on the stage of Carnegie Hall in New York, 250 instrumentalists, singers, soloists all lending their artistry to support victims and survivors of the devastating earthquake in October 2005 which ravaged parts of the Kashmir region in both India and Pakistan. That concert which raised more than $94,000 for Doctors Without Borders/ MSF-USA began a long line of global humanitarian concerts extending over the following two decades to the present. Glenn Dicterow, legendary and beloved, longtime concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic led the orchestra of distinguished artists from some two dozen orchestras, opera companies, choirs and music academies representing a dozen countries. Our founding Artistic Director George Mathew conducted. BBC World Service TV covered the concert in the segment below and others, broadcast to hundreds of millions of viewers in Asia and beyond, beginning two decades of social impact through music resulting in the creation of Music for Life International - a journey which enters its third decade today.

The BBC's ASIA TODAY covered BEETHOVEN'S NINTH FOR SOUTH ASIA, a humanitarian concert of the Ninth Symphony of Beethoven to benefit the work of Doctors Witho...

01/01/2026

https://conta.cc/3YPlHXm

Music For Life International's humanitarian and public diplomacy efforts through music began exactly 20 years ago during the winter of 2005-06. That was our very first humanitarian concert at Carnegie Hall in New York - Beethoven’s Ninth for South Asia, focusing on the survivors and victims of the devastating October 2005 earthquake in Kashmir.

Today we are very excited to share the news that we are restarting our global humanitarian concerts, our grantmaking and other initiatives to create the transformative action through beautiful music with which we had served the most vulnerable since 2006.

2026 brings a restart of Music For Life International's international projects including the start of collaborations in Asia and Africa. We are also excited to begin planning a return to our acclaimed global humanitarian concerts in New York over the next 18 months. We are now in the process of building staff and partnerships for our next efforts focusing on refugees and displaced women, men and children affected by conflict and displacement around the world, especially in Sudan and the Darfur region in particular.

Please join us with your generous tax-exempt donation so that your gift can support our efforts. You can make a donation by clicking on one of the links on this page or you may email us at [email protected] if you have questions about giving.

10/29/2025

Grave fears for civilians after Sudanese paramilitary claims capture of El Fasher. RSF says it has seized control of army’s main base in Darfur, home to famine-stricken displacement camp

Fears are growing for hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped in El Fasher, Sudan, after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces said it had captured the city, which it has been besieging for more than a year in the country’s civil war.

-Rachel Savage in Johannesburg and agencies
Mon 27 Oct 2025 10.38 EDT

RSF says it has seized control of army’s main base in Darfur, home to famine-stricken displacement camp

10/26/2025

"The war in Sudan began in April 2023, when tensions between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) erupted into brutal fighting. What began as a political rivalry between former allies rapidly escalated into a devastating war.

Fighting began in the capital, Khartoum, but has quickly spread to other regions — including Darfur, Kordofan and Gezira.

No place is truly safe. People have been forced to flee in every direction: west into Chad, south into South Sudan and east into Ethiopia and beyond. Inside Sudan, millions remain trapped, in areas of active fighting or completely cut off from aid.

I’ve met people who lost everything in a matter of hours — families who ran with only what they could carry, leaving behind homes, memories and loved ones. What began as a political crisis has turned into a full-scale humanitarian catastrophe."
- Omer Elnaiem

Omer Elnaiem, the Head of the Global Content Hub in Africa for UNHCR, answers your most pressing questions about the crisis in Sudan.

01/26/2025

It was 19 years ago this week on January 23rd, 2006, that our global humanitarian concerts began at Carnegie Hall with Beethoven's Ninth for South Asia and the seed that was to become Music for Life International was planted. That night our future Artistic Director and conductor George Mathew and a group of dedicated friends brought together several hundred distinguished musicians and other participants onstage and off, from some thirty major and minor international ensembles, music academies, and institutions including the New York Philharmonic, the MET Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the United Nations, Doctors Without Borders/ Médecins Sans Frontières / MSF, The Philadelphia Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke's, Manhattan School of Music, The Juilliard School, Curtis Institute of Music, the governments of seven countries, global media and philanthropic organizations. Inspired by Leonard Bernstein's maxim that "music can do real work in the world," and by his visionary 1987 MUSIC FOR LIFE humanitarian concert at Carnegie Hall to benefit survivors and victims of AIDS/HIV, Mr. Mathew and a group of dedicated supporters and friends created Music for Life International, a non-profit organization dedicated to the mission of creating public diplomacy and global social impact through music for the most vulnerable of our fellow human beings. In the almost two decades since that evening, MFLI has created projects from humanitarian concerts to music education efforts and grant making, to human rights and public diplomacy which have touched 15 countries around the world. For more information see www.music4lifeinternational.org