Welcome to American Voices, America's foremost not-for-profit organization devoted exclusively to cultural engagement programs worldwide. In our 17 years of activities we have brought the unique genres of the United States; Jazz, Broadway, Hip Hop to youth and eager audiences in over 100 nations, especially those emerging fromconflict or isolation. As a 501(c)(3) organization based in Houston, all donations to American Voices are full tax-deductible. Please join Friends of American Voices now!

American Voices is pleased to announce their YES Academy citizen diplomacy program proposal has been selected as a Best Practice by the International Cultural Engagement Task Force and the U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy (USCCD) and as such will be highlighted as a key component of the upcoming U.S. Summit for Global Citizen Diplomacy, to be held November 16-19, 2010 in Washington, DC. Executive Director, John Ferguson will be making a short presentation on November 17 highlighting our programs in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.

Speaking of the YES Academy, we are pleased to announce that we have just returned from our Youth Excellence on Stage programs in Iraq , Syria and Lebanon . Our summer season culminated in three concerts downtown and on American University of Beirut campus on August 6, 7 and 14. Please visit our project pages or the YES Academy website for more information. This summer's YES programs in Lebanon, Iraq and Syria have already reached over 700 participants and audiences numbering in the millions through television, radio and press coverage and broadcast of the concerts. We also began to distribute thousands of music scores and method books donated by Alfred Music Publishers. Over 2000 volumes were distributed to the Higher Institute of Music and the Solhi Al Wadi Institute in Syria alone.

Please follow the stories of our faculty through the blogs of Dr. Bradley Bolen or Matt of dance-video-gone-viral fame as he prepares a number with Miss Carole McCann's kids in our YES Academy in Erbil, Iraq.

The recent documentary about our Iraq program, Camp Unity, by Ryan White has won two prizes at the Philadelphia International Film Festival (PhilaFilm) and The Indie Fest Award of Excellence. Read the review from the Montreal Film Festival here and see the new trailer here. Camp Unity will also be shown in early September at the Montreal Film Festival and at DOCUTAH, Southern Utah International Documentary Film Festival.

Other recent projects include jazz in Angola and Namibia, Broadway in Nepal, HaviKoro Breakdancers in Syria, Palestine and Jordan and touring Pakistan's major cities with an interactive Broadway Revue. HaviKoro's concerts in Damascus, Amman and the West Bank reached thousands of Hip Hop fans and our Broadway Revues in Karachi, Islamabad and Lahore were seen by millions on national television throughout Pakistan.

For photos, videos and more information please visit the projects section of this website or our satellite website for our YES Academy program. You may also download or subscribe to our newsletters or visit our YouTube channel where you may find playlists devoted to our recent YES Academy performances. Photos of these and other recent teaching and performance activities may be found on the Projects page of our website. You may also enjoy watching our recent coverage on CNN's 'Inside the Middle East'.













We are now beginning a special appeal to raise funds to continue our YES Academy programs beyond 2010. Please make a pledge and join Friends of American Voices to help further our goal of providing quality cultural exchange, training and inspiration to youth in these countries emerging from conflict or isolation.

Thank you for your visit and we hope you will choose to support us in our efforts to bring dynamic American cultural engagement to audiences worldwide.

John Ferguson Executive Director