Letter of introduction for the Gitameit Music Center’s 2009 visit to the San Francisco Bay Area. On May 8, 2009, the Gitameit Choir visited Rooftop School, performing a selection of songs at the school’s annual International Festival.
Gitameit Music Center is a non-profit community center and music school located in downtown Rangoon, Burma (Yangon, Myanmar). Gitameit opened in 2003 and is the only non-governmental, nondenominational music school in a country of 60 million. Gitameit is supported, in part, by Foundation for the People of Burma.
In commemoration of the first anniversary of Cyclone Nargis the Gitameit Choir is traveling to the United States for a cultural tour and concert. This first-ever American tour by a Burmese choir will include a visit to the San Francisco Bay Area and East Coast with a performance at a benefit concert for Foundation for the People of Burma alongside special guest Joan Baez on May 1, 2009 at Cowell Theater in San Francisco.
The cultural tour will include music education, leadership development and training on community development. In addition to their music and relief work, these young adults are dedicated to social change in their native Burma, but have little exposure to the various forms of civil society participation widely practiced in the US.