Donna M. Stoering

Donna Stoering was a child prodigy who gave her first piano concert at age five. From there she went on to win many music honors and has become known worldwide as a concert pianist.

Donna was also an excellent student. After receiving her masters degree at age 19, she was selected to be a Marshall Scholar. She chose to study in the UK and subsequently made Europe (Italy and then the UK) her home base as she played concerts around the world.

On her concert tours she rarely stayed in the most comfortable hotels, choosing instead to stay in places that more closely reflected the accommodations of the local people.

In her travels she heard from audience members over and over again that music other than American Pop was dying. At first she asked why no one was doing anything about it, but when no answer was forthcoming, she decided to do something herself. At about that time she was offered a television channel in Europe. Putting the two together, the project Listen for Life was born. Donna then began the long process of building a workable business plan and raising the huge sums of money that would be needed to operate a channel.

She also continued her concert tours and spoke to video people in each country about being an affiliate of the Listen for Life. To date there are affiliate studios in over 40 countries.

In late 2001 Donna came back to the United Sates to be close to her ailing parents. She settled in Berkeley, CA where she set up the Listen for Life global headquarters.

The project now consists of both a non profit, Listen for Life Foundation (www.listenforlife.org), and a for profit company, passportM, Inc. (www.passportm.com). Together they have produced and are distributing series one of Travels with Music (www.travelswithmusic.com) which studies fifteen cultures around the world using master musicians as guides.

In addition to Travels with Music, Listen for Life has other outreach projects. The most active are 1) a community center in Berkeley that provides music and other cultural opportunities to the many different ethnic groups in the local area, and 2) a Kenya peace project using music and film production to help the various tribes work together.

Donna is a visionary who has always maintained a positive attitude. She has overcome many obstacles such as a near death experience after the birth of her second child and severe injuries from an automobile accident. She has no problem working 15 hours a day at her job in addition to conducting a local church choir and participating as a singer and soloist in other choruses in the San Francisco area. She lives in Berkeley with her husband who also works with her on the music project.

www.donnastoering.com