News 102, Media Reports

Excerpted from Los Angeles Times, USA
December 13, 1998 (originally in English)

The Peace Seeker
By Nicholls Hackman

Fred Karlin brings to "One World" an extensive and multi-faceted musical expertise. Considering his background in jazz as a trumpet player, his years of experience composing musical scores or film and television, his credentials as author of two highly-respected texts on film music, and adding to these both an Oscar and an Emmy award it becomes clear that Karlin has traversed the scale of musical experience and expression.

It is this range of expression that Karlin has harnessed to create his symphonic portrait entitled The Peace Seeker. This work is a forty-minute journey weaving music, drama and prose, and featuring a 60-piece orchestra, three actors, a folk-rock band, vocalists, and the 25-menber Pasadena Boys Choir. A grand and profound composition, Karlin describes The Peace Seeker in his interview with Liz Pennington of La Kezy radio:

"This work is a series of lyrics and poems by Supreme Master Ching Hai describing various ways in which we come face to face with the problems of life because of not having that connection within".

This theme is clearly evident in the following lyrics:

And so it went-the rain came,
followed by falling leaves,
Day and night, time flowed indifferently,
My heart still felt there was
something incomplete.
Perhaps it was a love I'd never discovered before.

Karlin used these poetic images to weave a musical journey through lyrics that describe a search for inner peace and harmony with the outside world. The questions and conflicts encountered throughout the journey of The Peace Seeker represent a natural extension of Karlin's history of exploring and expressing , through his music, many powerful and provocative thoughts and ideologies that are meant to inspire the listener. For The Peace Seeker, Karlin has used his musical talent to give a voice to the inspirational poetry of Supreme Master Ching Hai:

I walked through an empty park,
the wind in my breaking heart,
A cold stone statue proudly stood
in the winter scene,
As if feeling sorry for those who sought fame and fortune...

The lyrics are replete with powerful images and Karlin has built around them a majestic piece that inspires quite a bit of soul-searching.

Ultimately, however, the poems communicate an uplifting message which Karlin himself describes as "... the realization that happiness and peace are inside us and not found in the outside world."

It is such powerful verses and their ability to evoke these profound thoughts that move Karlin to undertake the project of adapting poet Supreme Master Ching Hai's words to music. He relates, "I feel very privileged myself to be able to have worked on this piece and written it. [Supreme Master Ching Hai] feels that we all have the power to be very artistic within us and creative and lives that message by example." As a renowned artist, poet and designer, her works invite people to look within themselves to achieve their own individual greatness. Her poetry and designs leave us with a sense of depth to the understanding of our own purpose in life, without stepping over the boundaries of personal freedom. Evidence of this insight is found clearly in the admiration and respect of such high caliber performers who have prepared their inspirations from her works.