The Intercultural Music Initiative (IMI), formerly African Musical Arts, is an innovative concert and educational outreach program highlighting contemporary works by lesser-known composers, along with standard repertoire.
Originally founded 1994 as St. Louis African Chorus to help nurture African choral music as a mainstream repertoire for performance and education in America, the organization’s mission quickly broadened to include classical/art music particularly by composers of African and other racial minority descent and was renamed Intercultural Music Initiative. Our programs offer a unique concert and educational experience, helping to integrate new and unfamiliar musical works into existing performance repertoire. IMI often partners with a growing community of interculturally minded artists and educators from around the globe. For more information please call our main office at +1 314.652.6800.
Our Programs:
1. IMI Concert Series is a concert series scheduled at various venues around metropolitan St. Louis, and in other cities in collaboration with our national partners.
2. Sonic Safari educational and community outreach program for young people of middle and high school age.
3. Performing Arts Exchange (PAE) digital database for sheet music, CDs, and audio-visual aids for entertainment or education. PAE is a membership and lending service. Purchases are administered through AM Publishers, a non-profit subsidiary.
4. USA-Africa Artists Exchange, a cultural diplomacy program for American musicians and music educators wishing to serve short-term residencies around Africa, and for premier African performing groups presented on limited cultural exchange tours around the United States and Canada.
“… [IMI] is a new series of concerts, which works to build bridges of true understanding and cooperation between cultures…” – Gary Scott, St. Louis Magazine