Irving S. Gilmore Music Library

Exhibit Talk: Preaching to the Choir: American Jazz and Cold War Diplomacy in Southeast Asia

December 8, 2015

Student Curator Eugene Lim '18 will talk about his exhibition on Monday, February 15, at 4:00pm in the Music Library, on the first floor of Sterling Memorial Library (map).  The event is open to the public.  

During the Cold War, the U.S. State Department sponsored international concert tours by many prominent jazz musicians in the hopes of presenting an attractive image of American culture and values. Preaching to the Choir: American Jazz and Cold War Diplomacy in Southeast Asia focuses on Benny Goodman’s Asian concert tour in 1956-57. It uses photographs, correspondence, clippings, and other archival materials to show the interaction between music and diplomacy. This exhibit developed from a term paper that Eugene Lim ’18 wrote last year for Prof. Rebekah Ahrendt’s freshman seminar on Music and Diplomacy. Eugene did archival research in the Benny Goodman Papers at the Gilmore Music Library, and also in the national archives of Singapore and the United Kingdom.  This exhibit will be available in December 2015 through mid-February.  Visit exhibit website.