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American Voices is a nonprofit organization that has been conducting cross-cultural engagement with audiences in over 110 nations worldwide since 1993. Founded with a focus on the recently independent nations of Central and Eastern Europe, American Voices has expanded its mission towards supporting youth in nations emerging from conflict or ...
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ANNOUNCING THE 2017 YOUTH EXCELLENCE ON STAGE (YES) MUSIC AND DANCE ACADEMIES IN ERBIL AND BEIRUT
ANNOUNCING THE 2017 YOUTH EXCELLENCE ON STAGE (YES) MUSIC AND DANCE ACADEMIES IN ERBIL AND BEIRUT: American NGO American Voices celebrates ten years of programming in the region with summer academies for young talent from across the Middle East
July 5, 2017 - American Voices, an award-winning U.S. Cultural Diplomacy and Youth Engagement organization, is proud to announce the 10th anniversary of the Youth Excellence on Stage (YES) Academy in Erbil, Iraq (Kurdistan Region), taking place July 14 – 27, 2017, as well as the 8th YES Academy Lebanon from July 31 – August 12, 2017.
The YES Academies afford participants the opportunity to study breakdance, jazz, songwriting, youth orchestra, composition, guitar, woodwinds, and piano with a faculty of 14 selected from the United States’ finest universities, orchestra, bands, and hip hop crews.
The YES Academy Erbil is the nation’s only international training program offering opportunities for Iraqis and Kurds to study and collaborate across genres and musical styles, whether Kurdish, Iraqi or Western traditions. Among the planned collaborations in this Academy: The First Step Crew, comprised of break dancers from across Iraq, will dance with the Academy Youth Orchestra; and a band of traditional musicians from Mosul (recently featured on BBC and Al Jazeera) will partner with Argentinian-American composer Alejandro Rutty of University of North Carolina-Greensboro in creating an arrangement for the YES Festival String Orchestra of Ameen Mukdad’s composition, Yosur, composed while jailed by ISIS in Mosul.
The YES Academy Erbil will conclude with two free public concerts on Wednesday, July 26 and Thursday, July 27, at the Ministry of Culture’s Peshawa Hall, featuring the Academy Festival String Orchestra, First Step Dance Crew, young composers, pianists, vocalists, guitarists, and the Academy Jazz Ensemble, as well as distinguished faculty soloists. Also, planned is Iraq’s first nationwide B-boy battle, on Friday July 28, at the Family Mall in Erbil.
YES Academy Lebanon will welcome over 150 aspiring young musicians from across the region, including five classical singers from Aleppo as they prepare a memorial performance of Mozart's Requiem in Aleppo. YES Lebanon will also conduct a series of community outreach concerts for children in Syrian refugee camps and centers and other at-risk youth in the Bekaa Valley, Tripoli and Beirut.
The YES Academy Lebanon’s series of free public concerts will open with a performance on Friday, August 06, at 7pm at Assembly Hall, AUB by the Academy Baroque Orchestra featuring distinguished faculty soloists. The concerts will continue with gala performances on August 11 (Spotlight on Piano, Guitar, Chamber Music and Voice) and August 12 (Academy Festival Orchestra and Young Voices of Lebanon, Composers in Concert) at 7pm at the Issam Fares Hall on NDU campus.
American Voices provides cultural exchange through the performing arts and arts education in areas of the world that lack opportunities for cultural exchange and dialogue with the United States. The Youth Excellence on Stage (YES) Academy program serves as the organization’s flagship cultural engagement program. Similar programs have been held in Sudan, Indonesia, and the ASEAN Region, among other locations.
In October 2011, American Voices was the chosen by the U.S. Department of State to administer the American Music Abroad program. The American Music Abroad program has evolved out of an illustrious line of cultural diplomacy programming conducted by the U.S. government, including the renowned Jazz Ambassadors and The Rhythm Road programs. For its cultural diplomacy work, the U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy (USCCD) selected American Voices as a "Best Practice Organization" in 2010.
Ameen Mukdad on BBC: www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-39651261