From July 26 to August 8, we will travel to Cameroon, where we will partner with the Cameroon Nigeria Youth Movement and the Nigerian Union to promote peace and understanding between Cameroonians and Nigerians. This will be our second project in Cameroon after our first successful visit in 2009. We will perform at orphanages, a handicapped center, and a prison, in addition to present a gala concert. At each performance, we will collaborate with local musicians from six major tribes (three from Cameroon and three from Nigeria). The project will be based in Yaoundé with excursions to Mfou and Etogo ebe. CiH Executive Director William Harvey will lead the project.

From August 15 to 26, we will travel to Tunisia, where we will partner with Atlas Music Academy to teach young musicians and perform concerts in rural areas for the second edition of our Musical Caravan project. Although this is our second collaboration with Atlas, Cultures in Harmony has traveled annually to Tunisia since our founding in 2005 (except for 2006). CiH Deputy Director Kimball Gallagher will lead this project.

We are very excited to renew our commitment to working in Cameroon and Tunisia. Both countries showcase different aspects of our mission. In Cameroon, we hope that we can function as the glue binding together a variety of different cultural groups that have experienced tensions in the past. In Tunisia, our sustained commitment there, dating to long before Tunisia’s revolution, is an affirmation of our belief that the American people should stand shoulder to shoulder next to people from Muslim majority countries.

In addition to our two major projects, we will partner with Afghanistan National Institute of Music (ANIM) in Kabul, Afghanistan, to send a guest violin teacher violin to ANIM from June 15 to August 10. We will explore a new project in Belize City, Belize. Finally, William Harvey will lecture about cultural diplomacy at Galician Connection in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, from April 18 to 21, and at the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy in Berlin, Germany, from April 22 to 26.

Past project participants continue to find ways to build upon the connections they made through Cultures in Harmony. On March 19, in Cairo, Egypt, CiH Deputy Director Kimball Gallagher gave the world premiere of a piano concerto by the Egyptian-American composer Ryan Francis; check out this article in Ahram Online. On March 22, in Chicago, USA, flutist Allie Deaver-Petchenik, who participated in our 2012 projects in Egypt and Tunisia, organized an Arab Spring concert with musicians she met in Egypt.

Thank you to all our donors, supporters, participants, partners, and friends! To donate to Cultures in Harmony to support these projects, please click here.