Seattle Peace Chorus – 2007 Margarita Island, Venezuela, at the International Festival of Song

The Chorus embarked on a two-week citizen-to-citizen diplomacy trip to Chile and Argentina with the Global Exchange in August 2013. Our goal for this trip, and for all the singing and peace work we engage in, was to “communicate through music the desire for a just and peaceful world.” Most of us have been drawn to the Seattle Peace Chorus and its work out of a love of music and a belief that person-to-person peace efforts work. The universality of music opens our hearts and provides us with a common ground and a common language. When our hearts are open, we are interested in and willing to make the effort to understand someone else—their history, their culture, their hopes and dreams. We can appreciate our common humanity and are inspired to search out and work for peaceable solutions to any conflicts that may arise between us. The Seattle Peace Chorus has been promoting peace and justice in this way, both locally and globally, for thirty years.

Through musical citizen diplomacy, the chorus builds bridges with people in countries where our governments have become alienated. While international tensions and political struggles between governments threaten our future and heighten anxiety, the chorus reaches out to ordinary citizens through music to soothe fear and inspire harmonious relationships.