United States Department of State Tour of Russia; Urban, Rural and The Urals

NEWS UPDATE: The group has been invited on a 6 city 2 week tour of Russia in July 2015. Arriving in St. Petersburg the group continues onto the beautiful, historical port city of Kaliningrad for their first performance and ends the tour in Tyumen, where they will spend several days. Founded in 1586, Tyumen is the first Russian settlement in Siberia and it remains an important business center east of the Urals, with many of the largest oil companies making Tyumen their headquarters. There will be more stops, including Vologda, which is a city of 1.2 million north of Moscow and then onto several remote rural communities in and around the Urals. Kaliningrad, in existence for 760 years,  also has a fascinating history and is geographically detached from Russia. Wow! Some heavy history here y’all. Check out this title & description. We mos def dig this: “Zydeco Zig Zag: Planting the Seeds of American Roots Music in Everyday Russia” & the project description:

The Zydeco group will be performing in a number of rural and less urban locations around Northwest Russia, as well as in the Urals region. Local audiences in these regions are very difficult to reach and have less outlets than their more urban and larger-city counterparts to inform their opinions, other than the State-run/controlled/directed media with their negative portrayal of Americans and the American government. A chief goal of the tour is to present an alternative to the aforementioned negative image broadcast and supported by State media. The Zydeco program will allow the Russian public to engage directly with American performers, especially Russian youth who will be attending the concerts as part of their summer camp activities.

The U.S. Consulate staff in both St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg worked very hard to facilitate this. 965 Music Group also did their part as these things do not just happen without a great deal of planning and patience. We are beyond honored to participate in these extraordinary opportunities to help represent the American South, the state of Louisiana, our Creole culture and our country, to help “promote mutual understanding” through performing arts – and our music! What an amazing trip this will be -especially for the world history buff in all of us here at Terrance Simien HQ. “The Arts Envoy Program shares the best of the U.S. arts community with the world to foster cross-cultural understanding and collaboration and to demonstrate shared values and aspirations. American arts professionals– including performing artists, visual artists, poets, playwrights, theatrical and film directors, curators, and others– travel overseas to conduct workshops, give performances, and mentor young people. Programs seek to connect with international publics who might not otherwise have the opportunity to engage with American arts professionals.”