{"id":3524,"date":"2025-05-21T17:05:03","date_gmt":"2025-05-21T21:05:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/?p=3524"},"modified":"2025-05-21T17:20:04","modified_gmt":"2025-05-21T21:20:04","slug":"american-cultural-diplomacy-in-south-africa-right-now-courtesy-of-the-university-of-michigan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/2025\/05\/american-cultural-diplomacy-in-south-africa-right-now-courtesy-of-the-university-of-michigan.html","title":{"rendered":"American Cultural Diplomacy in South Africa Right Now, Courtesy of the University of Michigan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"A089 12221526 C254\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/QiQLyMtBErU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>                                                                                                       <em>Video by Mathew Pimental<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the precise moment that US President Donald Trump was accusing South African President Cyril Ramaphosa of denying acts of racial persecution, the University of Michigan Orchestra began a five-concert tour of South Africa with a smashing two and half hour program at the University of Pretoria.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The main work on the program was a neglected American masterpiece influenced by Africa: William Levi Dawson\u2019s&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/2020\/02\/the-best-of-the-black-symphonies.html\">Negro Folk Symphony<\/a>&nbsp;of 1932. The terrific performance, ignited by conductor Kenneth Kiesler, nailed the symphony\u2019s rocketing syncopations &#8212; and drove the sold out audience to a ululating frenzy of acclaim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But the concert\u2019s peak impact occurred near the close, when the 100 musicians abandoned their instruments and stood to sing the beloved Xhosa song \u201cBawo Thixo Somandla.\u201d Halfway through, they began to sway and gesture. They ambushed the sold-out audience into a condition of incredulous delight.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Six decades ago, cultural exchange between the US and USSR proved an indispensable foreign policy instrument, beginning with Leonard Bernstein\u2019s 1959 tour to Soviet Russia with his New York Philharmonic. As the Cold War waned, however, so did soft diplomacy. Today, it is \u2013 at least for the moment \u2013 cancelled by a posturing toughness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The University of Michigan orchestra next proceeds to Soweto and Cape Town &#8212; in counterpoint with exacerbated relations between the US and South Africa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At a joint rehearsal earlier today with Michigan musicians playing alongside the University of Pretoria Orchestra, Kiesler told the group: \u201cHow moving it is to be all together, when our governments are not.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>To read a related article about the waning of soft diplomacy, click <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.persuasion.community\/p\/a-brief-history-of-culture-as-soft?utm_campaign=post&amp;utm_medium=web\">here<\/a><em>. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Video by Mathew Pimental At the precise moment that US President Donald Trump was accusing South African President Cyril Ramaphosa of denying acts of racial persecution, the University of Michigan Orchestra began a five-concert tour of South Africa with a smashing two and half hour program at the University of Pretoria.&nbsp; The main work on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3524","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2QLHN-UQ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3524"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3524\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3531,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3524\/revisions\/3531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}