AMA Academy Cleveland Conference to Feature U.S. and International Musicians Collaborating for Peace

A special music-themed conference called American Music Abroad Academy Cleveland, which is designed to promote world peace and cross-cultural connections, will kick off on Wednesday, November 8, and run through November 17 in Cleveland.

The series of events, which is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, will bring together musicians from the U.S. and other countries to focus on the theme of cultural preservation through music.

[RELATED: U.S. Department of State’s American Music Abroad Initiative Now Accepting Applications]

Among the participants will be musicians from Ukrainian refugee communities in Cleveland and Charlotte, North Carolina, as well as from Botswana, Egypt, Lebanon, and Nigeria, who will team up with other musicians.

Among the 18 participants slated to take part in the AMA Academy Cleveland will be singers, songwriters, instrumentalists, and producers who have worked in such genres as rock, jazz, hip hop, and Afrobeat. The summit will include a variety of intensive workshops with creative instructors from the U.S. who will share their knowledge about the music business, production, and more.

The gathering will include collaborations with the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the Ukrainian Museum and Archives, both based in Cleveland.

AMA Academy Cleveland is part of the American Music Abroad music diplomacy exchange program and is connected with the Global Music Diplomacy Initiative, a campaign that the U.S. Department of State launched in September that supports expanding international access to education, equal economic opportunity, and inclusion.

The finale of the AMA Academy Cleveland will be a free public concert held November 17 at 7 p.m. ET at Case Western Reserve University’s Maltz Performing Arts Center, which will feature American and international musicians performing original collaborative pieces created by the conference’s participants. Tickets can be reserved for the performance at Case.edu, and the event also will be streamed.

Visit AmericanMusicAbroad.org for more information.

Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images for Country Music Hall Of Fame & Museum