ROCHESTER, NY — The world will seem a little smaller this week when the Eastman School of Music presents three concerts of music from around the globe. Mandolins, dulcimers, drums, and gongs will resonate inside the School and outside in the park in a series of concerts that highlight some of the world’s most beautiful and engaging musical traditions. The concerts are connected with several course-offerings through Eastman’s Summer Session program, and reflect a growing trend in today’s society towards increased interest in and celebration of individual cultural identity. Featured performers will include internationally known musicians from abroad, Eastman students, and local community members.
The concert schedule is as follows:
Hindustani Music Concert · Saturday, July 9 · 7:30 p.m. · Kilbourn Hall
Swirling vocal lines and intricate rhythmic patterns will be heard at Eastman when vocalist Asawari Maggirwar returns to the Rochester stage this weekend to perform traditional music from Northern India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Accompanied by a tabla (hand drum), harmonium (small organ), and tambura (stringed drone instrument), she will sing music from a tradition that has inspired Western composers – from John Cage to the Beatles – for the last century. This concert is the culminating event in Eastman’s Hinstudani Music Institute this week, in which students have been learning the history, philosophies and techniques of Hindustani classical music. General admission tickets are $8; $5 for University of Rochester faculty and staff; and free for students with ID.
Mitzie Collins and Friends: World Music · Wednesday, July 15 · 7:30 p.m. · Kilbourn Hall
Renowned Rochester performer Mitzie Collins and a host of popular folk musicians present their annual summer concert, a blockbuster favorite among Eastman audiences for more than a decade. A graduate of the Eastman School of Music, Collins is known nationally and internationally as a virtuoso player of the hammered dulcimer and the founder of her own recording label, Sampler Records Ltd.
Virtuoso American country fiddling, folk songs from Russia, and Morris dancing from England will all be part of this annual concert. Buffalo’s Phil Banaszak and his group, City Fiddle, offer a blend of acoustic bluegrass, Celtic, traditional and original music. Rochester’s own Snowbelt Morris Team will bring the centuries-old European tradition of Morris dancing to Kilbourn audiences when the eight-member group execute intricate figures at a breathless speed. Russian songs will be delightfully interpreted by singer MarinaVoronin, a 2005 Eastman graduate, and accordion player Alexei Lipshitz, formerly a conservatory professor in Russia. Rounding out the evening’s entertainment will be dance tunes from Western New York performed by Collins, with Jim Kimball of SUNY Geneseo’s music faculty on fiddle and banjo. General admission tickets are $8; $5 for University of Rochester faculty and staff; and free for students with ID.
Gamelan Concert · Friday, July 15 · 7:30 p.m. · Miller Center Courtyard, outside Eastman Theatre
The golden sounds of Bali will be heard in the park outside of Eastman on Friday as the culminating event of the School’s annual Balinese Gamelan Institute. The gamelan ensemble, which is traditionally played outdoors, will consist of gongs, drums, metallophones, and flutes interlocking in a dizzying and beautiful array of other-worldly sounds. Led by I Ketut Gede Asnawa, a Balinese arts master from Indonesia, and Clay Greenberg, Director of the Institute, the group will enter the park with a musical procession of drums, gongs, and cymbals. The concert will also include a special “kecak” performance in which percussive vocal sounds are used to enact a scene from traditional Hindu mythology. This concert is free and open to the public. The rain location is Ciminelli Formal Lounge at 100 Gibbs Street.
Tickets for concerts that require paid admission are available at the RPO Box office, 108 East Avenue, (585-454-2100); online at www.rochester.edu/concerts, and at the Eastman Ticket Office in the School’s Main Hall on the day of the concert from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Any unsold seats go on sale one hour before concert time at the respective hall box office. For up-to-date program information, patrons should call the School’s 24-hour MusicLine at 274-1100.
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Note to editors & reporters : Additional program information and photos of some of the artists performing this summer are available upon request. Interview and feature story opportunities — both print and broadcast — are possible.