We all know that music has the power to bring people together, but Chicago musician and composer Michael Miles really delivers on that promise. He performs with artists in the Middle East on what he calls “musical diplomacy tours.”

Michael also works with kids. He runs a music program for the Global Voices Initiative, which uses Skype to bring the “pen pals” idea to the digital age.

Recently, he and a fifth grade music class at Rutledge Hall school in Lincolnwood, IL Skyped with a school in Beirut, Lebanon. The two groups chatted and sang songs.

On this edition of Global Notes, Michael Miles brought some of the students from Rutledge Hall to WBEZ’s Jim and Kay Mabie Performance Studio.

Michael performed some music from his new album Collage and backed the student choir on guitar.

Fifth graders perform on Worldview from WBEZ on Vimeo.