New Cultural Diplomacy Essay by American Voices Executive Director John
Ferguson Published Internationally in Christian Science Monitor

New York, NY - American Voices Founder and Executive Director John
Ferguson has written a thoughtful and challenging essay about the value
of cultural diplomacy that has been published internationally by the
prestigious Christian Science Monitor.

The essay can be read online at
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1010/p09s02-coop.html.

American Voices was founded in 1992 to further appreciation and
understanding of American music and culture, especially in developing
countries or those lacking opportunities for cultural exchange and
dialogue with the United States.  It was also founded in response to
new opportunities for cultural dialogue between the United States and
the newly independent countries of the former Soviet Union and Eastern
Europe.  Since then, Houston-based American Voices has evolved into the
only American musical organization committed to interactive performances
and education in the Middle Eastern and Central Asian countries currently
so prominent in world affairs: Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, Syria,
Lebanon, Kuwait and Egypt among many others.

With repertoire ranging from Country, Broadway, Choral, Opera, and Jazz
and Blues to youth culture such as Break Dancing and Hip Hop, American
Voices performs over one hundred festivals, concerts, master classes and
workshops each year in over thirty countries.  They present jazz festivals
and summer academies; Broadway musicals; gala concerts with orchestras
and opera companies; Artist-in-Residence programs and master classes;
and music score donations.  They bring these to countries as diverse as
Afghanistan, Burma, Vietnam, Syria, Oman, Kazakhstan, Russia, El Salvador
and Bolivia, in addition to more traditional venues in Western Europe
and Japan.  Visit them online at http://www.americanvoices.org/.

For press inquiries or more information about American Voices, please
contact Jeffrey James Arts Consulting at 516-586-3433 or
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Jeffrey James Arts Consulting
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