This year's cultural exchange at The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival promises to be special. As festival producer Quint Davis put it, Cuba comes to Jazz Fest! Davis says it's a project that has taken time and resources. "We been working on this for two years," he explained. "We went to Senator Landrieu's office in Washington to say we want to do this. [...] We're bringing 150 people from Cuba. That means 150 visas and interviews, which has never been done."

A leading Kenyan afro-pop band Sauti Sol, is set to make its first tour of China in May this year. The four-man band, that originally started as a cappella group, are set to sing in Swahili and Chinese. "We intend to promote Kenyan music in China and also invite Chinese musicians to come to Kenya and perform," the band's leader Bien-Aime Baraza told Xinhua in an interview in Nairobi on Saturday.

The New York Philharmonic plays a leading cultural role in New York City, the United States, and the world. This season's projects will connect the Philharmonic with up to 50 million music lovers through live concerts in New York City and on its worldwide tours and residencies; digital recording series; international broadcasts on television, radio, and online; and as a resource through its wide range of education programs...

Enrique Makasi's hometown of Beni in eastern Congo is under frequent siege from rebels, and music is the way he tells the world what is happening. Performing before tens of thousands at the Amani Festival in the regional capital, Goma, the 26-year-old singer hopes to give voice to the hundreds slain and build solidarity to promote peace. [...] Nearly 36,000 people gathered in Goma over the weekend for the three-day festival of music and dance aimed at promoting peace and boosting the eastern Congo's generally negative global image.

American Music Abroad is a people-to-people cultural exchange program designed to promote American music and culture on the global music scene. As part of the 2017 "American Music Abroad" program, Jonathan Scales Fourchestra is scheduled to visit Taiwan, China, Hong Kong and Indonesia as cultural ambassadors, the AIT said.