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Chicago Dept. of Cultural Affairs presents "Music Without Borders" June - Sept. 2006
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http://www.globalrhythm.net/WorldNew...tinChicago.cfm
The Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, Millennium Park presents a new world music series, "Music Without Borders", featuring artists from around the globe. The series, which starts June 29, 2006, consists of three free concerts at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park. "Music Without Borders" is part of the City of Chicagos ongoing celebration of world music. "Music Without Borders" is supported by a grant from the Governors International Arts Exchange program of the Illinois Arts Council.
Three additional concerts, all part of World Music Festival: Chicago 2006 (WMF), also take place at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park, from September 14 21, 2006. WMF is an innovative collaboration of neighborhood and downtown cultural organizations, sharing resources to promote an awareness and appreciation of a global connectedness through the medium of music. Through diverse musical performances, educational activities, media partners and other related activities, WMF reaches deeply into Chicagos wide variety of ethnic communities. The WMF, now in its 8th season, has been bringing musical groups from around the world to the entire city of Chicago since its inception in 1998.
Millennium Park acts as a meeting ground or town square, where people can enjoy music from all over the world, said Michael Orlove, Program Director at the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs. This new summer series, which was inspired by the success of our annual World Music Festival, gives people a chance to see world-class music in a world-class venue. Plus all concerts are free, making the series accessible to everyone.
MUSIC WITHOUT BORDERS SERIES
SEU JORGE / AMADOU AND MARIAM
Thursday, June 29, 6:30 pm
This first concert presents an encore performance of two of the most popular groups from last years World Music Festival: Chicago 2005. Musician and actor Seu Jorge's songs are much like his native Rio de Janeiro. They are lyrical and soaring at times, but with a hint of hoarse sadness, much like the favelas, or slums, that tower above the citys marquee beaches that give the city a facade of glamour. He later revisited his stark childhood with his performance as Knockout Ned in the acclaimed film City of God. He has an easy, natural gift both as an actor and musician. His enigmatic performance in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, where he played bossa nova cover versions of Ziggy Stardust-era David Bowie tunes to his crewmates, was to many critics the emotional heart of the film. His extraordinary solo album "Cru" (Wrasse Records) will satiate new fans yearning for his pared down, soulful approach. Seu Jorges voice, guitar and the Brazilian cuica drum tell many stories: ironic, witty, but always heartfelt. More information on Seu Jorge is available at
http://www.seujorge.com.
Amadou and Mariam have been playing their warm African rhythms and infectiously catchy melodies for almost thirty years. Mariam grew up singing at weddings and traditional festivals while a teenaged Amadou had cut his teeth as a guitarist in Les Ambassadeurs, one of West Africa's hottest and most legendary bands. Both are blind and they met in 1977 at the Institute for the Blind in Bamako, where they were studying Braille and found themselves performing together in the institute's Eclipse Orchestra. They married in 1980, the same year they played their first official concert together as a duo. After establishing a reputation in Africa, the duo finally broke onto the international music scene in two stages, first with the hit single "Mon amour, ma chérie" in 1998. They confirmed their new star status in 2004 with the album Dimanche à Bamako, produced by Manu Chao. Effortlessly funky yet full of insanely catchy tunes and with the African core of Amadou's stinging, snaking guitar lines and Mariam's hypnotically soulful voice tweaked with touches of reggae, jazz, blues and rock, Dimanche a Bamako has sold close to 500,000 copies around the world and is still gaining momentum. More information on Amadou and Mariam is available at
http://www.amadou-mariam.com
GORAN BREGOVIC AND HIS WEDDING AND FUNERAL ORCHESTRA
Monday, July 10, 6:30 pm
With roots in the Balkans and a head in the 21st Century, Goran Bregovic creates music that marries different sounds a gypsy brass band with traditional Bulgarian polyphonies, an electric guitar and traditional percussion with a curious rock accent all against a background of a bedevilled string orchestra and deep sonorities of a male choir. He creates music that the soul recognizes instinctively and the body greets with an irresistible urge to dance. This concert marks the orchestras U.S. debut. Bregovic was born in Sarajevo of a Serbian mother and a Croatian father. At 16 years old, Bregovic started his first group The White Button, which lasted fifteen years. He has composed music for Emir Kusturicas Times of the Gypsies, Underground (Palme dOr at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival), and White Cat Black Cat. Bregovic also composed the original soundtrack for Arizona Dream along with rocker Iggy Pop. More information about Goran Bregovic is available at
http://www.goranbregovic.co.yu.
ANOUSHKA SHANKAR RISE FEATURING SPECIAL GUEST DJ SET BY KARSH KALE
Sunday, August 13, 6:30 pm
Anoushka Shankar has emerged from the shadows of her famed father and teacher, Ravi Shankar, in her latest offering, Rise, and has journeyed beyond the musical traditions of India to create her own sound. Shankar, who has been playing and studying the sitar since age nine, has helped as conductor with her father and George Harrison, on the 1997 Angel release, Chants of India. She made her conducting debut at age nineteen in New Delhi, conducting a 22-member orchestra premiering a new composition of her fathers titled Kalyan. She later conducted again at the historic Concert for George in November 2002. Shankar has shared the stage with many of the worlds top celebrities, including Sting, Madonna, Nina Simone, Anjelique Kidjo, Herbie Hancock, Elton John, Peter Gabriel and James Taylor. Her lastest album Rise, which was nominated for a 2006 Grammy for Best Contemporary World Music Album, is not only a testament to her skill at the sitar, but to her mastery of composition. This concert marks her Chicago debut as a leader. More information on Anoushka Shankar is available at
http://www.anoushkashankar.com.
WORLD MUSIC FESTIVAL: CHICAGO 2006 CONCERTS
CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Thursday, September 14, 6:30 pm
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra opens World Music Festival: Chicago 2006 with a unique collaboration featuring the Chicago-based Radio Maqam Ensemble. The Ensemble is led by Issa Boulos (ud) and Yang Wei (pipa), who will perform Tan Duns Concerto for Pipa and Orchestra; and Fareed Haque, who along with a tabla player, will peform a previously commissioned concerto. Conducted David Alan Miller, this vibrant performance launches the CSOs 2006-2007 downtown season and kicks off Symphony Centers calendar of events presented as part of the year-long, city-wide Silk Road Chicago celebration, inspired by art and culture of the regions of the historic Silk Road. This concert is made possible through a gift from Anne and Ken Griffin/Citadel Group Foundation.
CULTURE MUSICAL CLUB ZANZIBAR / NATACHA ATLAS
Monday, September 18, 6:30 pm
Founded in 1958, the Culture Musical Club Zanzibar is East Africas premier taarab club. Besides taarab, many club members are also active in kidumbak groups, smaller ensembles that play a more down-home dance-focused music. The tour line-up for taarab features 15 musicians including 3 violins, qanun, oud, 2 accordions, double bass, dumbak, bongos and rika, plus group singers and special guest vocalist, Amina. The kidumbak side features 3 violins, sanduku (tea-chest bass), 2 kidumbak drums, cherewa (maracas) and mkwasa (claves), plus female chorus and dancers. The club has just released Waridi (Jahazi Media/Virgin), its fifth CD for the international market. After highly successful tours in 1996, 1998, 2000 and 2002, Culture Musical Club Zanzibar are set to make their North American debut this summer at Millennium Park.
Over the past decade, Middle Eastern singer Natacha Atlas has entrancingly fused North African and Arabic music with western electronic beats to produce a unique dance music hybrid. With her latest album Mish Maoul, her career comes full circle to touch base with her roots. The album harks back in its sound and traditions to the music she grew up hearing in the Moroccan suburb of Brussels, particularly when the Golden Sound Studio Orchestra of Cairo made its entrance. It also reunites her again with the Temple of Sounds Nick Page a.k.a. Count Dubulah, with whom she first worked in Transglobal Underground, and who helped produce her first solo album Diaspora. She will be joined by a traditional Middle-Eastern chamber ensemble.
ORCHESTRA INFINITY
Thursday, September 21, 6 pm
Conducted by the award-winning musician and composer Kahil El'Zabar, Orchestra Infinity challenges the traditional performance models of both big band and symphonic music and embraces an entirely new adventure in organized ensemble playing. World Music Festival: Chicago 2006 will mark the American premier of "Nu Art Claiming Earth," an orchestra suite composed by El'Zabar in conjunction with a commission by the city of Bordeaux, France. The piece spans the musical legacy of the "Chicago Sound" while fully integrating a trans-Atlantic continuum of the Western and Eastern concepts of music making. "Nu Art Claiming Earth" incorporates Basque, West African, West Indian, North African and Afro-American influences into a new fusion of world music eclecticism. Orchestra Infinity will be joined for this performance by ten French musicians of various cultures from the Bordeaux region of France, twenty jazz all-stars from Chicago, and twenty students from the Chicago Public Schools and City Colleges of Chicago.
About Millennium Park
Millennium Park is located in the heart of downtown Chicago. It is bordered by Michigan Avenue to the east, Columbus Drive to the west, Randolph Street to the north and Monroe Street to the south. Convenient parking is located in the Millennium Park Garage (entrance on Columbus at Monroe or Randolph) and at the Grant Park North and East Monroe Garages, all located within a short walking distance to Millennium Park.
Millennium Park is an award-winning center for art, music, architecture and landscape design. The result of a unique partnership between the City of Chicago and the philanthropic community, the 24.5-acre park features the work of world-renowned architects, planners, artists and designers. Among Millennium Park's prominent features are the Frank Gehry-designed Jay Pritzker Pavilion, the most sophisticated outdoor concert venue of its kind in the United States; the interactive Crown Fountain by Jaume Plensa; the contemporary Lurie Garden designed by the team of Gustafson Guthrie Nichols, Piet Oudolf and Robert Israel; and Anish Kapoor's hugely popular Cloud Gate sculpture. Since its opening in July 2004, Millennium Park has hosted millions of people, making it one of the most popular destinations in Chicago.