The Unifying Power
of Music

In March 1956, the State Department enlisted Dizzy Gillespie as America’s first jazz ambassador. Gillespie’s band toured southern Europe, the Middle East and South Asia, where most audiences had not seen American musicians play live.

American musicians serving as cultural or goodwill ambassadors dates at least as far back as the 1940s. Composer Aaron Copland visited Latin America in 1941, part of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s effort to promote shared cultural ties between the Americas.

Copland returned to Latin America several times in the 1940s and 1960s. He performed, took to the radio and mentored local composers. His travel diaries and correspondence with Latin American musicians are at the Library of Congress.

In 1957, contralto Marian Anderson performed two dozen concerts across Asia. Anderson, who sang various styles from opera to hymns, performed for several thousand at the Mahatma Gandhi memorial in Delhi and praised the political and spiritual leader.

“His life, as you know, is as a beacon which shines [ever] bright to those that need it most,” Anderson said during her performance.

President Dwight Eisenhower later appointed Anderson to serve as a delegate to the U.N. Human Rights committee.

In the 1950s through the 70s, American musicians captivated audiences in unlikely places.

In 1959, the New York Philharmonic played a 17-nation tour, including performances in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. The orchestra's conductor Leonard Bernstein called the tour a “mission of friendship” and played music from the United States and host countries.

“This mission must work both ways in order to accomplish real friendship,” Bernstein told an audience in Moscow, before performing music by Dmitri Shostakovich, with the Russian composer in attendance.

In the 1980s and 1990s, U.S. musicians, recognizing their growing influence, arranged landmark performances inspired by world events. Though not U.S.-government sponsored, these performances captured the spirit of diplomacy.

In January 1985, stars of American music recorded the song “We are the World” to support famine relief in Africa. Calling themselves USA for Africa, the team convened 45 performers from pop, rock, country, and soul, and included luminaries such as Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Tina Turner, and Stevie Wonder. The song sold 7 million copies, raising $60 million.

In 2001, Toni Blackman became America’s first hip-hop ambassador. Since then, she’s visited dozens of countries to teach workshops and perform. Blackman helped young people in Senegal make digital music and collaborated with musicians in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on a music video against domestic violence.

“Music has been used historically in every social movement,” Blackman says in a September 2023 interview on her diplomatic work and efforts to prevent HIV/AIDS. "Lyrics get into your brain. Social messages can stick in the mind. One song can change a person’s life. One song can save a person’s life — it can alter their behavior, which will alter their destiny.”

In 2003 and 2004, Mary Wilson of the Supremes performed in Uruguay and visited countries, including Bangladesh, Botswana, and Oman, as part of a U.S. Department of State program.

After the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the State Department enlisted professionals from a variety of fields to increase understanding of the United States abroad. Representatives from the arts, business, sports, and education mentored youth around the world through clinics, coaching, master classes, and performances.

Jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis and cellist Yo-Yo Ma lent their talents to the effort.

Today, U.S. music diplomacy forges connections among musicians and helps them find new opportunities. Exchanges such as American Music Abroad and OneBeat bring together musicians from different countries to collaborate and perform.

Tony Memmel, of Nashville, Tennessee, crafted a cast that would hold a pick so he could play guitar despite being born without part of an arm. Through American Music Abroad, which sends U.S. musicians to 40 countries per year, Memmel has worked with Singapore’s Cerebral Palsy Alliance to adapt methods for young people to play musical instruments.

The United States is expanding its musical diplomacy with new partnerships that will use music to support education and economic growth to benefit musicians, society, and the environment. New efforts include these:

• A new American Music Mentorship Program, in partnership with The Recording Academy, will bring music professionals from other countries to learn from U.S. experts.
• A Fulbright fellowship at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington for an artist-in-residence to study how the arts contribute to individual and global well-being.
• The State Department’s expanded incorporation of music into its English language classes abroad.