Come April, Qatar will be the home of a new $20 million jazz club called Jazz at Lincoln Center Doha.

The GCC nation will be the first city to host Jazz at Lincoln Center, a nonprofit New York City jazz organization known for high-quality concerts and education programs, as a permanent subsidiary abroad.

The New York Times reports:

The 120-seat club is being built as part of a new $1 billion luxury hotel going up in Doha and will be modeled on Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola in Manhattan, with the same curved interior walls, open sightlines, superb acoustics and glass exterior wall with a vista, except that it will overlook the Persian Gulf instead of Central Park.

With a small population and immense wealth from oil and gas reserves, Qatar has evolved into a cultural hub in the Middle East, as the ruling monarchy has invested money in education and the arts in an effort to diversify its economy.

The organization’s executive director is up-front about the club’s motivation for expanding overseas, saying: “For us it’s a contribution back to the bottom line… we are always looking for new sources of income to support those. But it’s also about reaching new audiences.”

Whatever the reason, I’m sure many of us can’t wait to see them perform in Qatar!