“You can’t make peace or music without listening to each other.” ~ Diego Carneiro

Diego Carneiro is a Brazilian-born cellist. He’s had a wide and wonderful musical career, including performance, conducting and composition. 

But what makes him truly special is his role as an ambassador of peace and the arts – opening both ears and hearts through the bigness of his own.

When I study music, when I think about music, I hear sounds — but I also hear stories. And I hear feelings.

We talked about musicians as intermediaries, hearing feelings, music’s particular transformative power, sound/intonation/rhythm/dynamics as a metaphor for peace-building, being transported by something new and unfamiliar, the importance of tuning into people, potential hazards of too much curiosity …and why punching bags might be a surprisingly effective vehicle for healing and transformation.

Listen to Ep. 345: Curiosity, Music-Making & Peace-Building, with Diego Carneiro

Diego Carneiro is founder of multiple enterprises, including Friends of Music in the Americas (FOMITA), which provides financial support to music students and other young musicians in Latin America to help prepare them for careers in music. You can support FOMITA here.

AmazonArt has a mission of “changing lives through music.” Since 2016, this mission has been fulfilled largely through the Orquesta Joven del Ecuador (Youth Orchestra of Ecuador).

In 2024, Diego spent three months as a Rotary Peace Fellow at the Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, where he launched a global initiative called Orchestrating Peace through Music.

I am grateful to Diego for playing an excerpt from his Amazonian Elegy.

I mentioned my conversation on “open-earedness” with Tim McKenry and on peace and conflict transformation with Alp Özerdem.

We’ve had some fun with music. Check out these C2BC Classics: Curiosity & the Come Together Music Project, with Shaka Mitchell; Cellist’s Puzzles & Curiosity, with Leland Ko; The Dr. T Project & Things Worth Knowing, with Shawkat Toorawa; Curiosity & Creativity, with AJ Smith; and Sounds of Caring, with Yoko Sen & Tammy Beaulieu.

You can subscribe to Choose to Be Curious on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.