Back home and some media links

I am now in the USA, having flown in from Kabul on Sunday. I'm meeting with a lot of people in New York and Washington about the upcoming tour of the Afghan Youth Orchestra to the US, then I'll be on vacation in Indianapolis, and then I'll go to Huntsville, Alabama, to hear soprano Susanna Phillips and pianist Yasuko Oura give the world premiere of Speaking for the Afghan Woman, my song cycle setting poetry by Afghan women.

Then, I'll go to Pakistan for the Cultures in Harmony project there. We've had a tough time getting visas for all our musicians, but hopefully they'll all get them before we leave on August 25. I always love going to Pakistan, and am so proud to know the extraordinary partners and friends we have there. Filmmaker Junaid Malik recently founded an initiative to help young filmmakers; Junaid has previously organized and hosted concerts for us in Islamabad. Iconoclastic guitarist, painter, pianist, composer, and filmmaker Usman Riaz recently had an autobiographical article featured on CNN; we will perform with Usman in Karachi on August 28. And renowned author Bina Shah, who wrote this article about my 2010 visit to Pakistan, recently wrote this courageous article explaining why she is a feminist.

While preparing for Pakistan, I'm so pleased to see more cool media from our Egypt and Tunisia projects being posted online. Here is a slideshow of pictures from Egypt made by our friend Ahmed Derbala and set to the version we recorded of his beautifully haunting song, "Mawasem." And here is a video montage of clips from our work teaching young musicians in Beni Mtir, Tunisia, at the Atlas Music Academy, and another video montage from the Musical Caravan concerts in El Kef, Jendouba, and Beja.