Cultural diplomacy ambassador

As a cultural diplomacy ambassador, Paolo Petrocelli serves in institutional roles to forge bonds through arts and culture in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the USA.

Petrocelli in Mumbai, India

Petrocelli at EXPO 2020 Dubai, UAE

Petrocelli at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France

Petrocelli in Seoul, South Korea

Permanent Secretariat of the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates

Cultural and Music Diplomacy Officer

Paolo Petrocelli is the Cultural and Diplomacy Officer of the Permanent Secretariat of the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates Summit.

He is heading the artistic and cultural program of the Summit, recognized as among the most important annual events in the field of peacemaking, attracting Nobel Peace Laureates, high-profile leaders, civil society organizations, students and professors from around the globe since 1999.

Paolo Petrocelli with Nobel Peace Laureates: Muhammad Yunus, Tawakkul Karman and Óscar Arias Sánchez at the Rome Opera House

Petrocelli with Nobel Peace Laureate Juan Manuel Santos in Bogotà

Petrocelli with Nobel Peace Laureate Lech Wałęsa in Merida

Petrocelli with Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire in Warsaw

Petrocelli with Nobel Peace Laureate Rigoberta Menchú in Bogotà

Petrocelli with Bernice King, daughter of Martin Luther King Jr in Merida

Music diplomacy

Paolo Petrocelli takes music and explores every single aspect of it. Far from keeping it relegated to entertainment, he does not shy away from exploiting its possibilities in all other possible ways. He uses music as an instrument for itself: be it for the potential it holds as a vessel of economic development or as a medium to strengthen ties among different cultures in the world, he has been and still is a trailblazer, and this makes him a one-of-a-kind individual.

As a music diplomacy expert, Petrocelli launched and developed a series of international initiatives, including the creation of new nonprofit organizations.

Paolo Petrocelli with the Morgenland Festival Ensemble at the Stauffer Center for Strings in Cremona

Paolo Petrocelli at EXPO 2020 Dubai with Emirati musicians

Paolo Petrocelli with Iranian-Kurdish musician Kayhan Kalhor at the Stauffer Center for Strings in Cremona

Paolo Petrocelli with the a delegation of representatives of Chinese opera houses at the Roma Opera House

Paolo Petrocelli with Jordanian soprano Zeina Barhoum and a group of young students in Amman

Paolo Petrocelli with the leadership group of the Royal Opera House Muscat

Paolo Petrocelli with the Artistic Director of Accademia Chigiana and the pianist Alexander Romanovsky in Seoul

Paolo Petrocelli with the Superintendent of Rome Opera and a delegation of Opera Lebanon

Paolo Petrocelli with the Japanese investor Atsuto Sawakami and a delegation of Sawakami Opera Foundation at the Vatican

EMMA for Peace

Founder & President

In 2013, Petrocelli founded EMMA for Peace (Euro-Mediterranean Music Academy) to drive positive change in the Mediterranean region.

EMMA for Peace, or the Euro Mediterranean Music Academy, is an international nonprofit organization for the promotion of peace through Music Diplomacy and education in Europe, Middle East and beyond, that brings together major institutions and world renowned artists under the shared passion for music.

Italian conductor Riccardo Muti serves as Honorary President of the organization.

Petrocelli launched the organization on occasion of the 13th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates in Warsaw, Poland, with a series of inaugural concerts and workshops.

As President of EMMA for Peace, Petrocelli has organized and promoted more than 40 projects (concerts, workshops, masterclasses, talks), around 15 different countries among Europe, Middle East, USA, Asia, collaborating with over 60 world renowned artists, 50 international organizations, such as United Nations, UNESCO, UNICEF, UNHCR, UNWRA.

Paolo Petrocelli in Malta

Paolo Petrocelli at the American University of Sharjah, UAE

Paolo Petrocelli with the DG of the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra, the conductor Michalis Economou and some of the participants to the proejct realized in collaboration with UNHCR

He organized special concerts in some of the most iconic concert halls and venues, including Carnegie Hall in New York on occasion of the 70th anniversary of UNESCO, Jordan Hall in Boston, Royal Opera House Muscat, Cairo Opera House, Hanoi Opera House, EXPO 2020 Dubai, the European Economic and Social Committee in Brussels, the Chamber of Deputies of the Italian Parliament in Rome.

In 2020, Petrocelli curated the artistic and production direction of a project collaboration with UNWRA for the making of a song-hymn to hope and brotherhood, composed by a group of 23 young Palestinian refugees, in collaboration with a collective of international songwriters and musicians. The song represents the voices of over half a million Palestine refugee girls and boys studying in more than 700 schools operated by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in the Gaza Strip, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

United As One

Opera for Peace

Co-Founder

In 2019, Paolo Petrocelli founded along with Julia Lagahuzère, former Deputy Casting Director at Paris Opera and Dmitry Vdovin, Founder and Artistic Director of the Bolshoi Theatre Young Artist Program, the largest worldwide non-profit organization for young opera professionals, named Opera for Peace.

Paolo Petrocelli at the Royal Opera House Muscat

Paolo Petrocelli at the Opéra Garnier in Paris with the OFP Co-Founders and the CEO of Opera Lebanon

Paolo Petrocelli at the Amman Opera Festival

Paolo Petrocelli with Jordanian soprano Zeina Barhoum and Princess Muna Al-Hussein

Petrocelli with Thomas Hampson in Rome

Petrocelli with Jordanian soprano Zeina Barhoum in Amman

Petrocelli at Dubai Opera House

Music Diplomacy: Stories from the World

Founder & Editor-in-Chief

Petrocelli is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Music Diplomacy: Stories from the World, the first international blog community entirely dedicated to the promotion of music diplomacy.

Coldplay

Cultural Advisor

Since 2019, Paolo Petrocelli serves as Cultural Advisor to Coldplay, the multi Grammy award-winning British band.

Paolo Petrocelli in London with Phil Harvey, the creative director, manager and “fifth member” of Coldplay and Davide Rossi, Grammy Award winner producer and string arranger for many of the band’s most famous hits.