Our Board of Directors
Shannon Frediani
John Frediani
Beth Duff
Denis Delaney
Friends
www.capacitar.org
www.indygrief.com
www.cyprianconsiglio.com
www.songsofpeace.org
About Us
as an organization:
The Voices of Angels is a 501c3 non profit dedicated to awakening the heart through Arts, Practices of Peace, Education and Community. We honor diversity, while working to create parity in our world. We provide access to academic resources in addition to bridging arts, peace building, purpose, leadership and service. In addition to holding public events, we do outreach work focused on creating opportunities for education and self development for the under-served.
Our domestic outreach is focused on supporting the internal growth of our nations incarcerated and institutionalized. Our international outreach is focused on providing African students access to educational resources. All our work provides opportunity for education and self development.
as individuals:
Shannon Frediani, co-founded The Voices of Angels in 2001. Since that time she has spearheaded:
Outreach for the incarcerated and institutionalized:
In Santa Cruz county she’s been an advocate for local jail outreach inspiring dozens to volunteer in local jails (men’s, women’s, and youth) on a regular basis.
In Monterey county jail she's a regular volunteer in the men’s jail Wed afternoons leading a program since March of 2005 which has resulted in many former inmates returning to service work incorporating their life experiences and musical talents.
In California- singing live and talking about the universal practices of peace in numerous facilities, for example from Chula Vista Veteran’s home, Atascadero State hospital, to men’s and women's’ prisons throughout California i.e. Ironwood, Sierra Conservation Camp, Avenal and Chowchilla.
Nationally-she has personally recorded 4 CDs of inspired music distributed nationally and internationally to hundreds of prisons, Veterans’ and state hospitals. These same facilities also receive an annual The Voices of Angels newsletter advocating the universal practices of peace thus touching the lives of tens of thousands of institutionalized.
Thousands of recordings of spiritual and inspirational music (CDs and cassette’s) from other artists (graciously donated for distributing) have also been mailed by The Voices of Angels to these same facilities throughout the nation also impacting tens of thousands of people that are institutionalized.
International outreach:
Co-initiated a pilot program installing the first ever computer lab networked with a digital library at a high school in Nigeria. Organized and collected donated educational resources and delivered to Jos, Nigeria in 2007. Returning to Jos, Nigeria in June 2010.
Taught values and discussed integrity issues with students while in Nigeria in 2007.
other notables:
A recording artist on other CD projects by artists promoting peace, faith, interfaith respect and human rights:
-Cinema Verite’ Int’l Prod of recorded talk of Sr Helen Prejean (permission to use Shannon’s music ‘Call for Peace and Justice.’
-Back up Vocalist on Cyprian Consiglio’s CDs “Compassionate and Wise” and “Awake at Last.”
-Soloist of ‘Kyrie’ track on “Celtic Mass” CD by Stefan Andre Waligur.
Initiated and co sponsors the annual 9/11 Inter faith Concert for Peace.
Co sponsor and supporter of the New Year’s Eve Peace Vigil in Santa Cruz, CA.
John Frediani co-founded The Voices of Angels Foundation and provides engineering and technical expertise for live recordings in sacred spaces. A strong proponent of using modern technology for arts and service work internationally, John’s engineering skills have made recordings accessible to isolated and imprisoned people through the Voices of Angels outreach work through donations of the CDs to prison chaplains in the USA and UK.
Beth Duff founded Red Horse Speaks, the first equine-assisted learning (EAL) program in Scotland, teaching personal development and leadership skills to troubled youth and organizational teams. She is Vice Chair of Young Enterprise Grampian, a non-profit that encourages secondary school students in the United Kingdom. Beth met John and Shannon Frediani at the Secretan international conference in Canada for business leaders implementing ethics and service into work settings in August of 2001.
Denis Delaney besides being a devoted family man and successful sales manager, has years of service work devoted to outreach consisting of:
-Friends Outside Santa Cruz County- Board of Directors 1986-1989
-Alcoholics Anonymous-held numerous service positions 1984-Present
-Alanon Family Groups-held numerous service positions 1997-Present
-St Josephs Catholic Community Capitola, CA- Prison Ministry- Lead monthly bible study, prayer and meditation groups at both Santa Cruz
Men's Jail Facility and Santa Cruz County Juvenile Hall Facility 2003-Present
-St Josephs Catholic Community Capitola CA- Perpetual Adoration
Team- part of group of parishioners committed to continuous perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in the Mercy Chapel in individual 1 hour weekly sessions. 2000-Present
-Santa Cruz Sangha Shantivanam- Santa Cruz California- member and Past Advisory Committee Member and Treasurer- 2005-Present.
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History
Voices of Angels began because of a calling, to offer healing prayers sung without words to those institutionalized. We started by recording some prayers on our first CD- ‘Into the Garden of Love’. We gave it a trial run in the Monterey County Jail in California, by having the chaplain of that facility, The Rev. Peggy Thompson, play it in various settings. Her words about how it impacted inmates there:
“I have found her music is well received by the inmates. They come to our religious programs from many different past faith experiences, yet all can relate to her music....As people enter the worship space from what is often a very noisy and stressful atmosphere and they hear Shannon’s music I notice that their bodies visable relax. Whenever I play the music both inmates and staff always remark how peaceful it sounds.”
Then we offered it to our nation’s chaplains serving in state and federal prisons, veterans and mental health facilities. Out of 1000 letters of introduction, initially 140 responded and asked for the CD for use in their facilities. Since then, by chaplains sharing with other chaplains or by chaplains moving to different facilities we now have CDs in several hundred facilities.
"We find that the music provides inspiration and hope to many." -Prison chaplain 2002
There is a great need for music that meets the needs of gatherings of many faiths in institutional settings.
In addition to our national distributions of CDs Shannon began singing live in various CA state prisons and jails initiating our Emissaries of Grace Program. Shannon also volunteers regularly in the Monterey County Jail where besides praying and singing with inmates she shares the universal practices of peace common to all faith traditions. Our focus is to model and teach the perennial philosophy and benefits of adherence to daily spiritual practice, thus promoting the peace practices of the various faith traditions. We are NOT about making the religions the same! We honor the background and faith affiliation of every individual while modeling skills that they can incorporate into their lives regardless of heritage.
Chaplains appreciate the use of prayers sung without words to facilitate deep contemplative prayer.
All have benefitted from the practices of peace programs integrating the song, silence and prayerful settings into their lives.