With the launching on Sept. 27 of the International Music Diplomacy Initiative by US Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, music icon, former US Jazz Ambassador and Music Director Quincy Jones turned the primary recipient of the inaugural Peace By way of Music Award.
Blinken and Recording Academy Chief Government Officer (CEO) Harvey Mason, Jr. awarded Jones the first-ever Peace by Music Award, a collaboration between the State Division and the Recording Academy®, which acknowledges and honors an American music business skilled, artist, or group that has performed “a useful position in cross-cultural exchanges and whose music work advances peace and mutual understanding globally.”
Blinken mentioned the International Music Diplomacy Initiative is “a worldwide effort to raise music as a diplomatic software to advertise peace and democracy, and help the USA’ broader international coverage objectives.
“The initiative goals to leverage public-private partnerships to create a music ecosystem that expands financial fairness and the artistic financial system, ensures societal alternative and inclusion, and will increase entry to training,” he mentioned in a State Division assertion.
“It would construct on present public diplomacy music packages to create public-private partnerships with American firms and non-profits to make use of music to fulfill the second, convey American management globally, and create connections with individuals worldwide,” it added.
With senior Biden-Harris Administration officers, a bipartisan cohort of Members of Congress, music business icons, leaders from the humanities and humanities, and alumni from the division’s music diplomacy exchanges, the Secretary of State introduced the American Music Mentorship Program, the Fulbright-Kennedy Heart Visiting Scholar Award in Arts and Science, and efforts to deliver American music and lyrics into school rooms the world over, as a part of the USA’ funding in English-language studying worldwide.
Catalyzed by the bipartisan Selling Peace, Training, And Cultural Trade (PEACE) By way of Music Diplomacy Act signed by President Biden into regulation final yr, the State Division mentioned the launch occasion included dwell performances by American and worldwide artists from a wide range of music genres and was supported by beneficiant personal sector sponsors.
The International Music Diplomacy Initiative Launch bulletins embody: American Music Mentorship Program; Fulbright-Kennedy Heart Visiting Scholar Award in Arts and Science; and Boosting English-Language Studying By way of Music.
The American Music Mentorship Program
The American Music Mentorship Program, a partnership between the US Division of State and the Recording Academy, will deliver worldwide mid-career music business professionals, which can embody musical artists, to the USA for mentorship and networking alternatives, with an intention to domesticate knowledgeable music business ecosystem domestically and globally, to help artistic expertise, and to strengthen the artistic financial system globally.
It would leverage the networks and expertise of Recording Academy professionals and members to supply worldwide individuals mentorship alternatives, increase their technical abilities, and construct the inspiration for skilled networks. The primary American Music Mentorship Program can be held within the fall 2024.
Fulbright-Kennedy Heart Visiting Scholar Award in Arts and Science
The Fulbright Program, the USA’ flagship worldwide tutorial trade program, will collaborate with the John F. Kennedy Heart for the Performing Arts to create a brand new fellowship alternative for international students.
The brand new Fulbright-Kennedy Heart Visiting Scholar Award in Arts and Science will give attention to the intersections of the humanities (music, dance, theater, and so on.) and science, together with how the humanities can contribute to particular person and international well being and well-being, and the setting. An award competitors can be introduced in fall 2023, and the Kennedy Heart will host the primary scholar in tutorial yr 2024-25.
Boosting English-Language Studying By way of Music
Recognizing the strategic significance of English-language studying abroad, particularly for youth and underserved communities, the State Division will incorporate music into its current US$40 million funding in English-language studying worldwide, together with by exchanges, curriculum, and scholarships to supply entry to English-learning lessons for promising college students between the ages of 13 and 20.
The State Division will increase broader international English-language studying by supporting Sing Out Loud, a program that gives assets for educating English by music in collaboration with American Music Overseas (AMA), bringing music and lyrics into school rooms the world over.
Along with Blinken’s bulletins, the International Music Diplomacy Initiative will embody huge programming world wide.
It consists of Arts Envoys to Journey to the Center East, Folks’s Republic of China; and the Herbie Hancock, together with Dee Dee Bridgewater and the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz Ensemble on the College of California – Los Angeles (UCLA).
The latter can be performing in Jordan in October to rejoice the sixtieth anniversary of the 1963 Jazz Ambassador tour of the Duke Ellington Orchestra.
The Herbie Hancock tour will then journey to Saudi Arabia for a four-day Arts Envoy program – the primary of its type between the USA and Saudi Arabia.
From Nov. 9-18, 2023, The Philadelphia Orchestra is slated to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of its historic 1973 tour of the Folks’s Republic of China (PRC) with Ensemble Performances and Residency Actions in a number of cities within the PRC.
The State Division mentioned 10 American bands will journey to 30 international locations beginning in October by American Music Overseas.
Birckhead, The Beatbox Home, The Invisibles, Marielle Kraft, Matthew Whitaker, Pipeline Vocal Challenge, Raining Jane, Sihasin, Sub-Radio, and Faucet Music Challenge will journey to 30 international locations from October 2023 by June 2024.
In November 2023, the State Division mentioned the 2023 American Music Overseas Academy Cleveland will deliver collectively younger skilled musicians from the Ukrainian Diaspora and world wide for collaboration and mentorship alternatives from American instructors with a give attention to cultural preservation by music.
In September 2023, 4 US hip hop artists specializing in battle transformation will journey to Lagos, Nigeria for a two-week Subsequent Degree Academy.
As well as, 10 worldwide individuals will journey to Washington, D.C. and New York, New York for a two-week skilled improvement program on battle transformation by hip hop.
From Nov. 6-20, 2023, the State Division mentioned musicians from Ghana and Nigeria will come collectively to collaboratively create and focus on how music can deliver individuals collectively by social entrepreneurship tasks, as a part of the OneBeat program.
Nearly connecting greater than 60 worldwide college students from each continent by music, the State Division mentioned the Harmundi Summit will present intense music coaching, cross-cultural collaboration, studio recording, and dwell performances beneath the mentorship of world-class musicians and producers.
The summit, which is able to happen Nov. 3-5, 2023, can be led by alumni of the division’s exchanges, and is a part of the division’s Citizen Diplomacy Motion Fund.
The State Division mentioned this fund supplies grants of as much as $10,000 for public service tasks that make the most of the abilities, data, and networks trade alumni gained by their trade experiences.
