eNewsletter
March 2008
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Greetings!

We're pleased to present you with CTMD's Global Beat of the Boroughs eNewsletter featuring news from New York's traditional music scene, artist profiles and information on CTMD-related events. Each month we'll provide information on events around town and highlight the people working to preserve the rich cultural heritage of New York's immigrant communities.

CTMD's 40th Anniversary Celebration!
 
Sharing Traditions for 40 Years
Joanie Madden

This year CTMD is proud to celebrate our 40th Anniversary! Over the years we've had the privilege of working with thousands of artists in dozens of New York's ethnic communities, helping traditional arts to be passed on to new generations and shared with wide public audiences.

To celebrate this historic occasion, CTMD will hold a major 40th Anniversary Celebration on Thursday, June 5 at the Hiro Ballroom (at the Maritime Hotel, 371 West 16th St at 9th Ave.). We hope you'll be able to join us - more details will be coming soon!

As part of the Celebration, we're pleased to honor Susan Hinko, a long-time CTMD board member, and Joanie Madden of the groundbreaking Irish supergroup Cherish The Ladies.

Back in the mid-1980s, CTMD's Ethel Raim and Martin Koenig worked with Mick Moloney to bring together Madden (tin whistle and flute), her friend Eileen Ivers (fiddle), and a number of other young virtuosos together for a series of concerts to highlight the growing contribution of women in Irish music.

It was Madden who had the idea to call the project "Cherish the Ladies," after a well known jig, and well, they sure took off. Now international stars, CTL is cherished by audiences around the world, yet they remain committed to teaching Irish music to students young and not-so-young.

CTMD Project Director Eileen Condon, Ph.D. caught up with Madden and files this profile (click on the below link):


CTMD Calendar
 
We hope to see you at some of these exciting presentations:
Kotchegna Dance Company

Thursday, April 17: Tantshoyz (Dance Party/Workshop) in collaboration with the JCC in Manhattan and Workmen's Circle. Led by master dancer and klezmer revival pioneer Zev Feldman to the accompaniment of live klezmer music. Dancers of all skill levels welcome. At the JCC in Manhattan's theater, 334 Amsterdam Ave. at 76th St. Admission $10, $8 for JCC and Workmen's Circle members. (7:00-10:00PM)

Saturday, April 19: Pachamama Peruvian Arts will collaborate with the Association of Peruvians at Cornell (APC) to perform at their Fiesta '08. The program opens Cornell's newest exhibition celebrating the recent donation of over 500 pre- Colombian Peruvian ceramics and art. The event will feature Pachamama artists with their performance groups: Alcatraz: Afro-Peruvian Jazz, Peru Inca Folk- dances of the Andes, and Raices-Andean music. This program for Cornell students is produced by Alisa Orahovac, a freshman at Cornell and a Pachamama Peruvian Arts alumnae! At the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art in Ithaca, NY.

Saturday, May 3: CTMD's Ukrainian Wave Communtiy Cultural Initiative presents Ukrainian Women's Voices featuring Mariana Sadowska and friends. At the Milbank Chapel at Columbia University Teachers College (West 120th Street at Broadway, Manhattan). (Time TBA)

Monday, May 5: CTMD Touring Artists Kotchegna Dance Company live in concert of West African music and dance at the Queens Library in Flushing. Admission free. (6:00PM)

Friday, May 9: CTMD Ukrainian Wave Community Cultural Initiative presents Mapping Ukraine in Song, a concert connected to a new cartography exhibition. At the Ukrainian Museum, 222 East 6th Street (between 2nd and 3rd Ave.). (7:00PM)

Thursday, May 29: Tantshoyz (Dance Party/Workshop) in collaboration with the JCC in Manhattan and Workmen's Circle. Led by a master dance leader to the accompaniment of live klezmer music. Dancers of all skill levels welcome. At the JCC in Manhattan's theater, 334 Amsterdam Ave. at 76th St. Admission $10, $8 for JCC and Workmen's Circle members. (7:00-10:00PM)

Thursday June 5: CTMD 40th Anniversary Celebration at the Hiro Ballroom (Maritime Hotel, 371 W 16th St. by 9th Ave.). More details coming soon!


Reissue of Dave Tarras Klezmer Clarinet CD
 
Historic 1978 Recording Now On CD
Dave Tarras CD

CTMD is pleased to announce the reissue of our historic 1978 recording, Dave Tarras: Music for the Traditional Jewish Wedding. In this landmark recording legendary klezmer clarinetist Dave Tarras (1897-1989) returns to the repertoire he had learned as a young man in Europe. Joined by his colleagues of many years - Sam Beckerman on accordion and Irving Graetz on drums - Tarras performs the kind of music that was played at Jewish weddings from his native region in the old Ukrainian province of Podolia.

The selections include melodies for specific parts of the wedding ceremony, which are rich in the older Jewish music coloration, as well as dance melodies that were favored by the Ukrainian and Bessarabian Jews. The recording is structured according to the sequence of a traditional wedding and will offer the listener a deeply emotional memory of life as it was lived then, transmitted by one of the most creative men who lived it.

Available for the first time on CD, Music for the Traditional Jewish Wedding would be Tarras's last studio recording. The 1978 session was produced by his young prot�g�s Andy Statman and Walter Zev Feldman, who were then working with the Balkan Arts Center (now CTMD) to present Tarras in a historic series of concerts-the first efforts by any institution in North America to systematically document, preserve and present klezmer music.

Now, looking back thirty years later, it is clear that the Tarras concerts and recording proved to be a vital stimulus in what has become a world-wide revitalization of klezmer music.

A new 24-page booklet includes detailed track annotations and a new essay on Tarras by Walter Zev Feldman. Generous support for the reissue of Dave Tarras: Music for the Traditional Jewish Wedding was provided by the Keller-Shatanoff Foundation.

To order, click on the below link:


Report from the Vechornytsi
 
Vechornytsi musicians

CTMD's Ukrainian Wave Community Cultural Initiative packed the dance floor of the Ukrainian East Village Restaurant at the last Vechornytsi village dance party program on Saturday, March 1. Dance instructor Tamara Chernyakhovska's dribka (shivering) polka was a big hit among the variety of dances the crowd came to learn and enjoy.

The East Village's beloved dance teacher Pani Daria Genza turned up with friends and two of her students to join in the fun. During breaks, harmony singing broke out led by Ukrainian singers from Brooklyn, with an unaccompanied duet by the fabulous Pavlishyn sisters (Nadia and Nataliya). Band leader Andriy Milavsky and members of Cheres played nonstop for hours and jammed Carpathian-style with two stellar klezmer musicians and Tantshoyz regulars from Connecticut-- flautist Adrianne Greenbaum and violinist Rayhan Pasternak. Duzhe diakuyu!


New Youth Chinese Opera Program
 
After School Program at I.S. 89
Zhang student

CTMD is pleased to initiate a new partnership with Manhattan Youth and Chinatown's Mencius Society to create an innovative new Beijing/Peking Opera program for middle school students at I.S. 89 in Lower Manhattan. The program, supported in part by the New York City Department of Youth and Community Development, will enable master instructors from the Mencius Society to work with students on a full-scale production of Beijing/Peking Opera featuring song, acting, dance, acrobatics, and performances on Chinese musical instruments. This exciting program will begin on Friday, March 14 with a demonstration for the students by CTMD Touring Artists EastRiver Ensemble.


Remembering Marty Levitt and Rudy Tepel
 
Klezmer Mourns Two Leading Clarinetists and Band Leaders
Marty Levitt

Over the past three months, the New York klezmer scene lost two of its leading clarinetists/band leaders. Marty Levitt and Rudy Tepel were both prominent during the 1950's and 1960's, a period when klezmer music declined in popularity amongst the general American Jewish community, though demand grew within Hasidic circles. To get a better perspective on the contributions of these two men, we spoke with Professor Joel Rubin of the University of Virginia, an ethnomusicologist and leading klezmer clarinetist. Click on the below link to read the interview:


March 13 Cape Breton Dance Program
 
NYC Barn Dance at Hungarian House
Wendy McIsaacs

On March 13, NYC Barn Dance will feature two traditional sets danced by Cape Bretoners and their descendants in Boston, as well as several New England contradances and square dances. Featured performers are fiddler Wendy McIsaacs of Nova Scotia and Boston-based step dancer Christine Morrison.

Dances are regular events in Cape Breton villages and towns, and dance repertoire is often unique to each locale. The event will teach a set dance from the village of Mabou on the coast of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The Mabou Set is a three-part circle dance, the first two parts danced to jigs, and the third to reels. It is danced in two circles with the two circles interacting during the third part. In Mabou it is danced without calls because the villagers all know the dance (but not to worry, the dance will be called at the Barn Dance).

Many Cape Bretoners moved to Boston over the last century because work was hard to find at home and plentiful in the American city down the coast. The Boston Set danced by this expatriate community more closely resembles a typical New England square dance.

The evening starts at 6:30PM with an old-time jam session; dancing goes from 8:00PM - 11:00PM. At Hungarian House, 213 E. 82nd St. (btwn. 2nd and 3rd). Admission is $15 (general) / $13 (students & seniors). Ages 18+ are welcome. For more information go to the NYC Barn Dance website.


Questions about Quechua
 
Facts About the Andean Language by Professor Miryam Yataco
Andean Flag

Last June, CTMD had the pleasure of presenting the wonderful locally-based Quechua choir Abya Yalaat the Pachamama Peruvian Arts Peru Cultura Viva event. We wanted to learn more about Quechua, an inidigeneous Andean language spoken by about 13 million people across Bolivia, Argentina, Colombia, Peru and Ecuador. Professor Miryam Yataco of University College of London has graciously provided to Pachamama a concise fact sheet about Quechua, which you can read by clicking on the below link:


Other Happenings...
 
Beth Bahia Cohen

On Friday, March 14th, 7.30-10.30pm, our friends at the Brooklyn Arts Council present Arab-o-rama: New York Bellydance Music and Dance Review as part of their fabulous Brooklyn Maqam Arab Music Festival. This evening features Brooklyn's legendary Eddie "The Sheik" Kochak with his band; a reunion of 1980's Ibis Nightclub/ Cedars of Lebanon musicians; and Scott Wilson & Efendi. Accompanying dancers include Samara, Layla and Rayhanna At Lafayette Grill and Bar, 54 Franklin Street (Manhattan).

That same evening at 8PM, Balkan Cafe presents a night of dance to Greek fiddling featuring Christos Tiktapanides (Pontic lyra) and Jerry Kisslinger (daouli) as well as Beth Bahia Cohen (violin) and Demetrios Tashie (laouto). At Hungarian House: 213 E. 82nd St, between 2nd and 3rd Aves, Manhattan, Doors open at 8 pm, $15 door

Maimouna Keita African Dance presents Sila Djiguiba: Path of Hope, a conference, workshop and concert series exploring traditional African dance & drum, history & culture of Senegal, Guinea, Mali, Ivory Coast, and the USA. The conference/workshops will be held on Wednesday March 19 - Sun March 23 at Baruch College, 17 Lexington Ave./23rd St., 6th Fl. The concert portion of the program takes place on Saturday, March 22 @ 8:00 pm, Gerald W. Lynch Theatre @ John Jay College, 899 10th Ave. (58th & 59th St.) $25 Advance/ $30 Day of for more information visit the Maimouna Keita website or call 718.399.7867.

On March 29 at 2PM Queens Library, Broadway branch (40-20 Broadway, Long Island City) presents Music Of Celtic Spain with Grupo De Gaita Terra Nosa. Gaita, or Spanish bagpipes, are as much a part of the culture of Galicia in Northwest Spain as they are to Scotland, Ireland, Brittany or Wales. Celebrate Galicia's rich Celtic culture with the haunting sounds of the Spanish bagpipe.

World Music Institute continues his series presenting past winners of the NEA's National Heritage Fellowship Awards with Africa in America a showcase of traditions from the African diaspora. Featured are Ghanaian drummer/composer Obo Addy, known for his hot polyrhythmic drumming, and Okropong, his powerhouse group of musicians and dancers; conguero Francisco Aguabella, an elder statesman of Afro-Cuban percussion who has been active in the jazz scene since the '50s; Haitian master drummer Frisner Augustin and La Troupe Makandal; and Joao Grande, arguably the world's foremost exponent of the breathtaking capoeira angola martial arts dance. Saturday, March 29, 2008, 8:00PM at Town Hall (123 West 43rd St New York). Tickets $32, WMI Friends $27, Students $15.

The Ukrainian Museum, New York Bandura Ensemble, and Katja Kolcio present Bandura Downtown: The Living Museum (alt. The Energy That Remains) Enerhija jaka ne propadaje An evening of new dance, poetry, and music, featuring choreography by Katja Kolcio, poetry by Bowery Poetry Club'sBob Holman and music by CTMD Ukrainian Wave Artistic Director Julian Kytasty with dancers and musicians from Wesleyan University. On Saturday April 5 at 7pm at the Ukrainian Museum, 222 E. 6th St. (between 2nd Ave. and Bowery). Admission includes Museum galleries and post-concert reception. For info about tickets and reservations: 212-228-0110.

The Columbia University Ukrainian Studies Program and the Kennan Institute present: Svitlo i Spovid: Light and Confession. Singer Taras Chubai will perform songs he composed to contemporary Ukrainian poetry on April 8, 2008 at 7PM. Concert will be held in James Memorial Chapel at Union Theological Seminary, 3041 Broadway, at 121st Street

On April 16, 2008 CUNY will feature the Ozan Aksoy Trio with the CUNY Middle Eastern and Mediterranean Music Ensemble as part of the City of the World Concert Series. The Ozan Aksoy Trio was founded in 2005, and draws from Turkish, Armenian, Kurdish, Greek, Jewish, Arabic, and Alevi musical heritages. The evening's repertoire will feature folk tunes from these regions, performed on traditional instruments from Anatolia. This performance also marks the debut of the CUNY Middle Eastern Music Ensemble, which is based at Hunter College of CUNY. Musicians include Aksoy (vocals, baglama, oud, ney, kaval and percussion), Emrah Kanisicak (vocals, baglama, cura, guitar) and Atakan Sari (kemen�e, duduk, bendir, and guitar). At Baisley Powell Elebash Recital Hall, 365 Fifth Ave. (at 34th St.). The free concert begins at 7:30pm, seating is limited so please arrive early! For further information please contact the CUNY Concert Office at: [email protected] or 212-817-8607.



Founded in 1968, the Center for Traditional Music and Dance is one of the nation's premier arts organizations dedicated to preserving and presenting the performing arts traditions of New York's ethnic and immigrant communities through research-based educational programming, public performance and community partnerships. For more information visit us at www.ctmd.org

With kind regards,


Pete Rushefsky, Executive Director
Center for Traditional Music and Dance

Phone: 212-571-1555
Fax: 212-571-9052
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