Cameron PowersCameron grew up with Mississippi River Blues Beginnings as a 14-year-old electric guitar-playing band member in St Louis, Missouri... Cameron was there on the dance floor while Ike and Tina Turner were presenting their first scorching hot music in th Chuck Berry friendly ecstasy of alcoholic rural party-times in the Afro-American dominated youth scene... Then on to the Tear-Soaked musical majesties of the Peruvian Andes... To the Time-stopping hesitation Black Hole musical mysteries of Athens, Greece... To the Divine Feminine Eternal Worship Dance in the Telepathically-Jeweled Musical Venues of Cairo, Amman and Damascus... To 70,000 miles of Touring the Amalgam Mix of the Cauldron called the USA... An amazing wild ride of a lifetime spent playing for people to dance! Fascination with Peruvian Indian peoples encountered on mountaineering expeditions led Cameron to spend 8 years going to and from Andean villages back in the 1960's and 70's. He immediately discovered the value of learning to play their music with them as an easy aid to bonding in trust and friendship. Cameron graduated with BA in Anthropology and Linguistics, University of Colorado, Boulder, with an emphasis on the study of Quechua, the language of the Incas. Cameron also received a fellowship to attend a two-month intensive immersion program in Quechua at Cornell University. It was there that he began to realize the value of being a musician as well as a linguist. Cameron also received a scholarship to work on a Doctoral program in Linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley. He continued to study the Inca language and began studies of the Tibetan language. In 1973 Cameron lived in Greece with the Papanastassiou family and studied Greek language and Greek music. Returning to Boulder, Colorado, Cameron performed Greek music and began the study of Arabic music with various local bands: "The Silk Route," "The Boulder Bouzouki Band," "Solspice," and "Sherefe." He created Musical Instruments, built Houses, and helped produce a Spanish Language Teaching Program in Boulder while raising his children. Cameron has a long association with Middle Eastern Music Camp which takes place every summer in Mendocino, California. After the events in New York on 9/11, a pall was cast on his role as an American musician playing Middle Eastern Music. "Terrorism" had somehow entered the music. Gigs were canceled; people became nervous about producing Middle Eastern Music-oriented shows. Knowing full well from his travels in the Middle East and from his extensive chain of friendships with Middle Eastern musicians that there is a warm reception available to anyone, including Americans, who wish to travel the Middle East, he realized the importance of continuing his "musical missions." Now back from additional travels in Iraq, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Palestine, he is working to help American people understand the Arab psyche. Cameron's wife, Kristina Sophia, has been a big part of all this work. Her beautiful singing voice, percussion skills and endless cheerful companionship both at home and on the road have helped make this creativity fun and possible. The 501c3 non-profit organization, Musical Missions of Peace, now better known as "Musical Ambassadors of Peace," has been built around his and Kristina's international work. Through the Musical Ambassador programs founded by Musical Missions of Peace help has been provided to other American musicians who have traveled and performed in Iran, Iraqi Kurdistan and Indonesia. Through the Iraqi Refugee program support has also been provided for Iraqi refugee musicians in Syria to facilitate the teaching of traditional Iraqi music to young Iraqi children. Read More Read Less