Remarks of Ambassador Powell at India Islamic Cultural Center Performance by Chicago Children's Choir

New Delhi | January 26, 2013, 6:30 p.m.

(As prepared for delivery)

A Salaam a Lekum! Namaste! Good Evening!

Thank you President Qureshi and Vice President Khan for hosting tonight’s event.  I am delighted to be here with all of you and attend this performance by the Chicago Children’s Choir.

Tonight is the choir’s first performance in India, and it starts a very busy week for them.  Tomorrow they will perform at the Jaipur Literary Festival and right after that in Chennai and Bangalore.  They will conduct workshops at almost every stop, and still have somehow found time to visit the Taj Mahal.  Truly a whirlwind visit and one that I know will be most memorable.

I would like to also thank the Aga Khan Foundation and Salaam Balak Trust who, along with the India Islamic Cultural Center, are our partners for the choir’s activities here in New Delhi.  Our embassy has worked with the Aga Khan Foundation for many years on a host of important projects, including Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation projects.  Salaam Balak Trust helped to develop a workshop that will bring these young choir members from the United States together with underprivileged youth in New Delhi.

Though we have sponsored several events at the India Islamic Cultural Center over the years, for me, tonight’s performance is particularly special because it creates bonds through the universal language of music.  The U.S. Embassy believes that people-to-people ties are the foundation for building healthy, positive relationships.  Greater dialog and engagement between our two great societies – both large, open democracies with a vibrant and diverse population – are important, especially between our youth.  Young people are our future, and we want that future to be one of mutual understanding, respect, and appreciation.  In that spirit, tonight we invited students from Jamia Millia Islamia, Aga Khan Foundation, Deepalaya, and the Neemrana Music Foundation to come and hear the choir sing.

Let me say a few words about the Chicago Children’s Choir.  Chicago is one of the great cities of America, located in the nation’s center alongside Lake Michigan, one of the largest lakes in the world.

In 1956, during our Civil Rights Movement, the Chicago Children’s Choir was founded as a multiracial, multicultural group.  The choir’s founder, the late Christopher Moore, believed that youth from diverse backgrounds could better understand each other - and themselves - by learning to make beautiful music together.  The choir combines high artistic standards with this social purpose, which defines the choir’s mission to this day.  Today, the choir brings together thousands of children ages eight to eighteen through choirs in Chicago Public Schools, after-school programs, and the internationally acclaimed Concert Choir that we see here on stage.

While tonight is their first time to India, it is not their first time overseas.  They have traveled internationally since 1970, from South Africa to South Korea, Japan, Argentina, Uruguay, and throughout Europe, with many successful national tours in the United States as well.  The choir has been featured on television programs around the world and won an Emmy Award for their 2008 documentary “Songs on the Road to Freedom”.

Again, welcome, and please enjoy tonight’s concert.  I would now like to turn this over to Chicago Children’s Choir President and Artistic Director Josephine Lee, who told me that the choir has put together a special program just for us tonight.