This platform, launched in May of 2020, offers musicians, students, and audience members around the world the opportunity to forge cross-cultural connections through music during and beyond the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. The platform facilitates connections between citizens of countries that might not normally get the chance to connect in person, such as Tunisia and Mexico, or Afghanistan and Zimbabwe.
The platform, which currently includes content in English, Spanish, and Mixe, consists of Spotlight videos and Connect 4 videos. Spotlight videos highlight ways particular musicians have dealt with the pandemic and/or showcase aspects of their culture. Connect 4 videos bring together musicians from four countries to collaborate on the same piece of music using tools such as Zoom, Garage Band, and iMovie. This platform is available free of cost, although users are encouraged to donate to Cultures in Harmony as best they are able.
Please join the Facebook group Connecting Cultures through Counterpoint in order to join the community. The name of the platform was originally used in 2012 for our work in Tunisia, Egypt, and Pakistan, funded by the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation. Just as that project helped create lasting links, this new platform will bring people together through music in new and innovative ways.
Connect 4 videos
Musica Senza Confini features musicians from Pakistan (Nafees Ahmad on sitar), South Africa (Keamogetswe Magau on violin), Mexico (Fernanda Villalvazo on violin), and the USA (Stephen Solook on percussion) playing a piece whose name means “Music Without Borders,” composed by Nafees Ahmad.
Spotlight videos
- Congo: Music Surviving. Musician and activist Bernard Kalume Buleri reflects on the role of music in Congolese society and the challenge that two pandemics, ebola and coronavirus, have presented to musicians.
- Getting to know Mbira. Ronald Badza, the founder of Revival Arts Trust Zimbabwe and our long-time collaborator for our work in Zimbabwe, introduces us to the master mbira player and teacher Musekiwa Chingodza. Video sponsored by Abigail Alison Peralta.
- As part of Anthony McGill’s #TakeTwoKnees challenge, which invites musicians to honor the life of George Floyd specifically and the #BlackLivesMatter movement generally, CiH founder William Harvey recorded this video of “Rhapsody No. 1” by the great young African-American composer Jessie Montgomery.
- A husband and wife sitar duo in India. Abhishek and Murchana Adhikary share their unique experiences and play beautiful music on TWO sitars, accompanied by Murchana’s brother Madhurjya Barthakur.
- An American pianist in the Sierra Tarahumara. In 1980, Romayne Wheeler took time from a successful international career as a pianist to visit—or so he thought—the Rarámuri tribe in the Sierra Tarahumara of Chihuahua State in Mexico. Since then, he has lived there, and proceeds from his concerts benefit the health care and education of the Rarámuri.
- A Trumpet School Flourishes in Oaxaca. We examine the challenges faced by the Academia de Trompeta Hector Tomás as it deals with the pandemic.
