US Programs
Heartbeat USA harnesses the power of music to bring young people together in dialogue and artistic co-creation in order to deepen understanding and cooperation across political, cultural, faith-based, and racial divisions.
America’s increasing polarization has been compounded by media and social media environments that silo us into bubbles, galvanizing debate over dialogue and condemnation over cooperation.
Music offers a powerful tool to engage diverse groups in a setting that elicits mutual respect and builds confidence and agency. Since 2007, Heartbeat has worked to bring together Israeli and Palestinian youth to build critical understanding, develop creative nonviolent tools for social change, and amplify their voices through music to influence the world around them.
Heartbeat USA brings this transformative model of music-based dialogue to the American context, with a commitment to helping high school-aged musicians develop a critical awareness and empathy of their own – and others’ – political and social realities. While engaging in critical dialogue around identity, history, values and current events, participants compose and build a repertoire of original music. Afterwards, through public performances and community outreach, participants play leading roles in promoting a culture of respect and cooperation in their communities, helping to spark new questions, diffuse bias, ignorance, and hatred and set in motion a cultural shift. By engaging the values of mutual understanding, cooperation, compassion, and justice, we can come together to create a healthier American society.
In the fall of 2020, Heartbeat USA will launch a mini-project in the Shenandoah Valley, principally around Harrisonburg. With a rich musical history and as a place of convergence of different cultures, worldviews, religious beliefs, and political affiliations, this part of the valley is an ideal location to launch Heartbeat’s US efforts.