What is American culture? The Cultures in Harmony encourages YOU to answer that question!
To catalyze reflection on this important question,violinist William Harvey will visit all 50 states in the USA—one week per state—in a collaborative, educational, and participatory quest to highlight the many strands that combine to form the American cultural tapestry. In each state, he will perform, interview people about what American culture means to them, and conduct workshops designed to encourage reflection on the topic.
On Friday, June 17th, 7:00 p.m. at the Peck School of the Arts, the String Academy of Wisconsin presents violinist William Harvey and Pianist Steve Ayers in a FREE concert of music by American composers Don Freund, Philip Glass, Reena Esmail, and George Antheil. Please join us in welcoming Mr. Harvey to Wisconsin and celebrate the tapestry and diversity of American music and culture.
When: Friday, June 17, 7:00 p.m.
Where: Peck School of the Arts Recital Hall (3223 N Downer Ave, Milwaukee, WI)
Admission: Free and open to the public, no tickets required
About William Harvey
American violinist, conductor, and composer William Harvey has appeared as violin soloist at Carnegie Hall with the New York Youth Symphony and has performed concerti with orchestras in Argentina, the Philippines, Mexico, and USA. For 4 years, he served as the Violin and Viola Teacher at Afghanistan National Institute of Music (ANIM). At the request of ANIM founder, Dr. Ahmad Sarmast, he founded the Afghan Youth Orchestra, which he conducted 8 times for President Hamid Karzai and led on a historic tour of the USA that he also coordinated and for which he raised the funding. On that tour, he conducted AYO in his own arrangements at sold-out concerts at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center. The tour was featured extensively in major media including the New York Times, CNN, ABC, and NBC.
In March 2012, Harvey conducted AYO on the season finale ofAfghan Star, which was the most-watched TV event in Afghan history, with 15 million viewers; he did so again for the season finale in March 2013. He subsequently conducted AYO at the Royal Opera House in Muscat, Oman, in February 2014. In 2011, he was a guest judge and performer on Afghan Star. His guest appearances on this show and on the popular interview show Bamdad-e Khosh made him instantly recognizable on the street to most residents of Kabul.
He has served as concertmaster of the Orquesta Sinfónica de laUniversidad Nacional de San Juan (Argentina) and the Spokane Symphony, faculty at Indiana University’s Summer String Academy, a Fellow at Carnegie Hall’s Academy, and a guest artist at theMyanmar Music Festival and Iguazu en Concierto. He frequently performs rare and obscure music, such as the Sonata for Solo Violin by Artur Schnabel, and made live videos of all four Elliott Carter pieces in Afghanistan. William plays on a violin made by Joseph Curtin in Ann Arbor, USA, in 2001.
As a conductor, he has led youth orchestras in Argentina, Qatar, Mexico, Tunisia, the Philippines, and the USA. Mr. Harvey’s compositions have received over a hundred performances. In 2006, his Cuerpo Garrido won Columbia University’s Bearns Prize. Mr. Harvey earned his M.M. from The Juilliard School and B.M. fromIndiana University Jacobs School of Music.
In 2005, Mr. Harvey founded Cultures in Harmony (CiH). In 2010, CiH was named a Best Practice in International Cultural Engagement (along with the Kennedy Center & Library of Congress) by the US Center for Citizen Diplomacy. CiH workshops in Pakistan, Qatar, Egypt, the Philippines, Tunisia, Zimbabwe, and Mexico have benefited thousands of young musicians. Mr. Harvey has lectured about CiH at the British Parliament; at the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy in Berlin, Germany; at the Escuela Superior de Música in Mexico; at Oberlin Conservatory in the USA; and at Aga Khan University in Karachi, Pakistan.
About Cultures in Harmony
Founded in 2005 by Juilliard graduate William Harvey, Cultures in Harmony (CiH) brings people together through music. The purposes of CiH are to:
- to advance and promote international and cultural understanding through music and interaction;
- to organize and sponsor trips to foreign countries for American classical musicians;
- to expose the American public to musicians from foreign countries and different cultures;
- to offer and provide forums for musical collaboration, performance and appreciation;
- to encourage and facilitate collaborations with local musicians, collaborations with humanitarian organizations and interaction with local culture through music, staying with host families and learning the language; and
- to conduct any and all lawful activities that may be useful in accomplishing the foregoing purposes.
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