Twenty-five years ago today, I performed for soldiers as they returned from a long day of rescue and clean-up work at Ground Zero. That experience inspired me to start Cultures in Harmony. A quarter century later, I am stepping down as Executive Director. As of January 1, 2027, I will no longer lead teams on our projects, although I will remain available as Founder and as Board Member to ease the transition.

Playing for the soldiers of the Fighting Sixty-Ninth regiment made me wonder: what else could musicians do in the face of the worst terrorist attack in American history? Over the next few years, I came to believe that the problem was not that a few men will always want to resort to violence, but that they feel sustained by the hatred and fear of millions more. Music is the universal language: surely, if we musicians could forge connections across cultural barriers, we could remind people that we all belong to one human family, and over time, violence and enmity might reduce, replaced by compassion and understanding.

In this spirit, I launched Cultures in Harmony with a concept paper on January 1, 2005. Supported by Juilliard’s Summer Grant Program and some donations from family and friends, I embarked on our first-ever project, to Moldova and Tunisia. In the nearly 22 years since, we have sent dozens of musicians on over 50 projects to 16 countries. For thousands of students in Pakistan, the first Americans they ever saw were a string quartet, wearing shalwar kameez, playing Pakistani music alongside Pakistani musicians. As our friend in Zimbabwe, Dr. Solomon Guramatunhu, put it: “You are the ‘beautiful face of America’ that the world is yearning for.”

While I have always loved implementing the projects, raising funds for them and planning them—but never receiving a living wage—has taken its toll. I was never a professional fundraiser, and was extraordinarily lucky to find as much success I did, thanks to many individual donors, corporations, and foundations. Under the Bush, Obama, and Biden administrations, the US State Department strongly supported Cultures in Harmony, with grants, event presentations, media outreach, and ambassadorial receptions. And they were right to do so: we were doing their work for them! But the receptivity to funding cultural diplomacy has diminished as the need for it has increased in a polarized, more nationalistic world. Fundraising is a challenge I no longer wish to pursue. 

Cultures in Harmony will welcome proposals regarding the future of the organization, provided that those proposals comply with our Certificate of Incorporation. We are particularly interested in maintaining our relationships in Tunisia, Zimbabwe, and the Philippines. We are also open to other ideas, including a collective approach to leadership, or seeing an institution take over our programming. Two of our board members will take a more active role during our transition: Alize Rozsnyai will direct our 2027 projects, and Grant Johnson will advise regarding fund raising.

My final project leading a team of musicians will be during the last week of this year. Cultures in Harmony has accepted an invitation to participate in a music festival in the Bonakanda village in southwestern Cameroon. Please continue to support Cultures in Harmony! Your donations will be applied towards our project in Cameroon and will help the board move forward with confidence into 2027 and beyond, given that Cultures in Harmony will seek to sustain the relationships we have built, while forging new ones. 

Personally, I will continue to live and work in Mexico City as I have since 2018. I serve as concertmaster of Mexico’s National Symphony Orchestra and teach at the Universidad Panamericana, plus I regularly perform solo with orchestras throughout Latin America, compose, and conduct. I will continue to seek out opportunities to engage in cultural diplomacy as a private individual. 

Thank you to all of you who have donated to Cultures in Harmony over the years. Thank you to the donors who have shown so much support over the years, especially to the Michael and Mary Ann Wells Charitable Trust, the Balgley Family Charitable Foundation, Cindy Chapman, and Candace Thomas; the strong support of these individuals allowed us to conduct extraordinary multi-person projects in Tunisia, Philippines, Zimbabwe, Mexico, Chile, and Cameroon in 2025 and 2026. Thank you to our board: Ruth Goldston, Alize Rozsnyai, Grant Johnson, and George Stelluto. Thank you to our wonderful partners around the globe, to our former participants, and to my family. 

I ask that you continue to support Cultures in Harmony. Music will continue to soar effortlessly over the barriers people erect between themselves, as it always has. May it bring more peace to our world and more connections between our hearts.

William Harvey

Indianapolis

September 16, 2026