VZCZCXYZ0000
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHML #4803/01 3260940
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 220940Z NOV 06
FM AMEMBASSY MANILA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 4046
INFO RHHMUNA/CDRUSPACOM HONOLULU HI IMMEDIATE

UNCLAS MANILA 004803 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR R; ECA; EAP/PD AGRIMES, DFIRESTEIN; EAP/MTS NDEAN SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: KPAO OEXC SCUL RP
SUBJECT: EMBASSY MANILA-SPONSORED JAZZ AND CLASSICAL CONCERTS 
DEMONSTRATE POWER OF CULTURAL DIPLOMACY 
 
REF: STATE 0183414 
 
¶1. SUMMARY: In a four-day period, Embassy Manila sponsored a 
classical piano concert at the Ambassador's residence and a series 
of three jazz concerts featuring Filipino and American artists. 
Each of the events targeted a different audience, ranging from top 
embassy contacts to the general public.  The concerts demonstrated 
the power of cultural diplomacy to deliver a positive message about 
the openness and vitality of America to a wide variety of people. 
Embassy Manila created these particular events from scratch, but we 
look forward to the Department's cultural offerings in the coming 
fiscal year.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2. In the four-day period, November 16-19, 2006, Embassy Manila 
carried out an intensive program of cultural diplomacy, sponsoring a 
classical piano concert at the Ambassador's residence and a series 
of three jazz concerts at various venues in Manila.  All four events 
celebrated "Philippine-American Friendship Year," a year-long 
package of activities that Embassy Manila is carrying out in 
cooperation with the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs, the 
National Commission for Culture and the Arts, and the National 
Historical Commission.  Philippine-American Friendship Year began on 
July 4, 2006, which marked the 60th anniversary of 
Philippine-American Friendship Day, and will continue until July 4, 
¶2007. 
 
¶3.  The first of the four events was a classical piano recital 
hosted by Ambassador Kenney at her residence on November 16.  The 
evening featured two outstanding musicians, both of whom were 
targets of opportunity, in town for an international piano festival: 
Gila Goldstein, an American citizen who grew up in Israel, and Yuan 
Sheng, who was born in China and is now a permanent resident of the 
U.S.  This line-up, combined with both artists' stories about their 
individual paths to artistic success and their strong attachment to 
the U.S., conveyed an eloquent message about the diverse, dynamic, 
and welcoming nature of U.S. society. 
 
¶4.  The audience at the intimate event consisted of 50 
carefully-selected contacts of various Mission sections and 
agencies, with an emphasis on individuals who were younger and/or 
had not already been to the Residence on multiple occasions.  In 
conversations with the guests during the buffet dinner that followed 
the concert, it was clear that they regarded the evening as a 
memorable occasion.  Several of the guests emphasized how much they 
appreciated being at an Embassy-hosted event that (as they perceived 
it) had no overt connection to a U.S. policy goal.  Significantly, 
the relaxed atmosphere created by the "softness" of the event 
resulted in conversations between guests and Embassy officers that 
in many cases were remarkably candid and substantive, at or even 
beyond the level of what we achieve at harder-edged events focused 
on specific policy goals. 
 
¶5.  The following evening, November 17, the first of three 
Embassy-sponsored Philippine-American Jazz Festival concerts took 
place in a 450-seat auditorium in Makati, Manila's version of Lower 
Manhattan.  The audience for the invitation-only event combined 
senior Embassy contacts with members of the Jazz Society of the 
Philippines, our partner organization for the festival.  The result 
was a packed house with a pre-concert reception that brought 
together jazz aficionados from a wide variety of fields including 
government, business, military, NGOs, academics, and culture, along 
with members of the Jazz Society. 
 
¶6.  As they worked the crowd, Embassy officers had a chance to 
interact with former President Fidel Ramos (whose wife, an 
accomplished jazz pianist, was one of the performers), a young 
up-and-coming Muslim woman who already holds an important position 
in the Department of Education, a documentary filmmaker who is the 
Philippines' leading expert on jazz, an under secretary from the 
Department of National Defense, the "Tony Bennett of the 
Philippines," the president of the American Studies Association, a 
well-known jazz guitarist who is also an executive with the 
country's leading land development company, the Department of 
Education's under secretary for Muslim Affairs, a shipping magnate, 
a university president, a supreme court justice, and a graduate 
student in jeans and sandals who kept saying, "Wow, I didn't know 
America did stuff like this!" - that brief list gives some sense of 
the richly eclectic nature of the crowd, many of whom would be 
reluctant to attend our more policy-oriented events.  The guests 
clearly had a great time at the concert, and - although it would 
take exit polling to establish this as a fact - there was every 
indication that they left the hall with a more positive, upbeat view 
of America. 
 
¶7.  The other two Philippine-American Jazz Festival concerts, on 
November 18 and 19, were both open to the public.  The November 18 
concert, which took place in an outdoor performance space at a large 
upscale shopping mall, drew an affluent, appreciative audience of 
around 1,000.  The November 19 concert, in a plaza along Manila's 
main bay-front boulevard, pulled a primarily working class crowd of 
several hundred enthusiastic music lovers.  Journalists were present 
at each of three jazz festival concerts, interviewing musicians and 
 
Embassy officers involved in the project. 
 
¶8.  Together, these four events demonstrated the power of cultural 
diplomacy to deliver a positive message about the openness and 
vitality of America to a wide variety of people, many of whom cannot 
be reached with more policy-oriented programs.  Embassy Manila 
created each of the four events from scratch: the U.S.-based artists 
who performed at the piano recital were targets of opportunity who 
happened to be visiting Manila, and the three-part 
Philippine-American Jazz Festival was funded with a PAS grant and 
featured - as a vivid embodiment of Philippine-American friendship - 
a combination of Filipino musicians and locally-based American 
artists (including an American Fulbright Senior Scholar who is both 
a musicologist and a jazz musician).  This do-it-yourself approach 
worked well, but is obviously quite labor intensive.  Having 
reminded ourselves once again how effective cultural programs are in 
advancing our agenda, we look forward with renewed interest to the 
Department's cultural offerings in the coming fiscal year. 
 
Kenney