Music and Diplomacy

Paolo Petrocelli, Founder and President of EMMA for Peace (European Mediterranean Music Academy), will give a talk on “Music and Diplomacy” examining the effectiveness of this art form in international affairs, global development, and social justice effort.

As a Music Diplomacy Ambassador, Petrocelli serves in institutional roles to forge bonds through music in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the US. In 2012, he founded EMMA for Peace (European Mediterranean Music Academy), a non-profit organization for music diplomacy and education. EMMA for Peace brings together music institutions, universities, and philanthropic foundations interested in music and the promotion of peace in the Mediterranean and Middle East regions. World-renowned artists have joined EMMA to help music become an instrument of understanding, awareness, and collaboration toward a peaceful future. Celebrated Italian conductor Riccardo Muti acts as the organisation’s Honorary President. EMMA’s goal is to create a dialogue platform and to share musical excellence among international musicians of the highest level and students and young people from disadvantaged backgrounds across Europe and the Middle East. It uses music as a tool for peace in places torn apart by war, bringing the best talent from the world’s concert halls and academies to refugee camps and other deprived areas where music education is otherwise inaccessible.

The Lecture will be given in English and will last approximately one hour. It is organized as part of the Pharos Arts Foundation’s project “Music In Tempore Belli”, which will culminate in the concert by Ergon Ensemble on 12 November 2015 featuring works inspired by war. https://www.facebook.com/events/1621029464813162/

Paolo Petrocelli
Paolo Petrocelli is an international relations and cultural affairs expert, senior arts administrator, lecturer, musicologist, violinist, UNESCO Expert in Music, TEDx Speaker. His organization, EMMA for Peace, brings together major institutions and world renowned artists under the shared passion for music and the promotion of peace.

Petrocelli is one of the youngest members ever elected to the Board of Directors of Fondazione Teatro dell’Opera di Roma (Rome Opera House) and he is Assistant to the Superintendent of the Rome Opera House for International Development and External Relations, Director of International Relations of Kyoto Opera Festival and Sawakami Opera Foundation in Japan. He has served as Vice-President of the Italian Film Orchestra (Orchestra Italiana del Cinema) and he has worked at the artistic direction and library departments of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, at Orchestra Symphonica d’Italia (Lorin Maazel music director) as Media and Marketing Manager, and at the Vatican Radio as music critic.

He has nurtured relationships across the entire Gulf Region, developing particularly deep institutional connections with the United Arab Emirates and even joining the Executive Committee of the Italy-UAE Association. Petrocelli is considered a leading representative of the new generation of scholars of Twentieth Century British music. To help shape the next generation, Petrocelli lectures at leading universities about management and international cultural relations. He is a Yale University Visiting Fellow, Director of the Master of Cultural Management at the Rome Business School, Professor at LUISS Guido Carli University of Rome, Professor at IED Roma (European Institute of Design), Visiting Lecturer at LUMSA University of Rome, Visiting Lecturer at Sole 24 Ore Business School, Visiting Lecturer at European School of Economics in Rome.