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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.
Master Artist Profile: Dendê Macedo
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Leader of Ologundê
For the past 10 years, CTMD has been pleased to
partner with Lincoln Center Out of Doors to present the
Heritage Sunday Festival. A large
crowd turned out for
the August 17 concert at Damrosch Park on the
Lincoln Center Plaza, and saw three ensembles who
utilize African-based percussion in different traditional
contexts.
The Kotchegna Dance Company
featured dancers dressed in the elaborate
costumes of West Africa's Ivory Coast,
mesmerizing
the audience with mime performed on
high stilts. Drum master
Bonga and the Vodou Drums of Haiti presented
a variety of Caribbean music and dance
forms such as mizik and rasin.
Heritage Sunday was opened by the
stunning Afro-Brazilian group Ologundê. Led
by Dendê Macedo, Ologundê is new to CTMD's
Touring Artist roster and the ensemble
explores a diverse repertoire which includes
candomble (a synthesis of Yoruba and Catholic
ritual dance and music) and the martial art
capoeira.
CTMD's Eileen Condon recently caught up
with Dendê and files the following report (click on the
below link):
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A Fabulous 40th Anniversary Celebration
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This season marks the 40th Anniversary of CTMD,
and we were estatic that so many of you could come
out to celebrate with us at our 40th Anniversary
Dinner
and Dance Party on June 5th. The Hiro
Ballroom was packed with friends new and old, as we
honored the work of long-time CTMD Board Member
Susan Hinko and Joannie Madden of
the Irish-American supergroup Cherish the Ladies.
Performers
included Cherish the Ladies, David Oquendo and
Havana 3 (pictured above), the Mexican
norteno
group Suspenso del Norte, "basement"
bhangra sensation DJ
Rekha and Albanian superstars Merita Halili
and
the Raif Hyseni Orchestra.
Thanks to everyone who supported the 40th
Anniversary Event! We want to give special thanks
once again for our major benefit sponsors:
Heritage
Sponsors: Claudia Baez and
Elizabeth
Sweezy,
Richard Gilder and Lois Chiles,
Royal Bank of
Scotland / RBS Americas and TriOptima;
Traditions
Sponsors: Edith and Michael
Blair,
Susan
Hinko and Carl Batlin, Cheryline
Lewis and Henrik Dan
Jensen,
Teresa Liszka and Martin
Weinstein, Linn Cary
Mehta
and Kate Rinzler.
And yes, there's still time to donate to this important
milestone campaign - help us maintain the vibrancy of
music and dance traditions that have come to New
York from around the world! For more
information on becoming a member of CTMD or to
donate go to the CTM
D website.
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CTMD Calendar
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We hope to see you at some of these exciting presentations:
Friday, September 19: CTMD's Ukrainian
Wave Community Cultural Initiative presents Love
Songs and Dances from Cossack Ukraine concert
featuring Julian Kytasty and
the New York Bandura Ensemble at the Ukrainian
Museum, 222 East 6th Street, Manhattan (between
2nd and 3rd Aves). Admission $15 (7:00PM)
Friday, September 26: Pachamama Peruvian
Arts
Open House concert featuring Pachamama faculty.
At P.S. 212 34-25 82nd St., Jackson Heights,
Queens.
Admission free (7:30-10PM)
Sunday, October 5: Tantshoyz Yiddish
Dance
Party with dance teacher Zev Feldman and live
klezmer. At the JCC in Manhattan, 76th and
Broadway.
Admission $10, $8 for JCC and Workmen's Circle
members (7-10PM)
Thursday, October 9: NYC Barn Dance
returns for
a new season of contras, squares, circles and
couples dances. At Hungarian House, 213 E.
82nd St.
(between 2nd and 3rd Avenues). Admission is
$15 /
$13 for students & seniors. For ages 18 and
up, no
experience or partner needed. For more
information
go to the NYC Barn
Dance website (Old-time jam session
from 6:30-8PM, with dance running from 8:00-
11:00PM).
Saturday, October 18: Fall Fiesta!:
Music of
the Americas featuring CTMD Touring Artists
Retumba and La Cumbiamba eNeYe at Highland
Park in Queens. For more information go to
the Highland Park
website (2:30PM)
Saturday, October 18: CTMD Touring Artists
Sounds of
Korea perform at the Korean Traditional
Performing
Arts Association's 14th Annual Showcase, held
at the
Peter Jay Sharp Theater at Symphony Space
(95th &
Broadway in Manhattan). For more information
go to
the KTPAA
website. (8PM)
Sunday, October 26: CTMD Touring Artists
Kotchegna
Dance Company (West African percussion and
dance)
perform at Kingsborough Community College
Performing Arts Center in Brooklyn. Admission
free.
For more information go to the Kingsborough
website. (2:00pm)
Sunday, October 26: Yiddish Dance at the
92nd
St. Y
(92nd St. and Lexington Ave. in Manhattan).
Dance
workshop with master teacher Zev Feldman and
live
klezmer. Admission $25. For more information
and to
register, go to the 92 St. Y
website or call Pete Rushefsky at 917-326-9659
(2PM-5PM)
Saturday, November 1: CTMD Touring
Artists
McCullough Sons of Thunder perform at Bronx
Library
Center (310 East Kingsbridge Road). Admission
Free.
For more information go to the Library
website (2:30PM)
Saturday, November 1: CTMD Ukrainian Wave
Community Cultural Initiative presents Ukrainian
Women's Voices concert featuring Nadia
Tarnawsky at
Milbank Chapel at Columbia University Teacher's
College (West 120th St. between Amsterdam and
Broadway). A program of Ukrainian seasonal and
ritual village songs. Admission free (8:00PM)
Saturday, November 8: CTMD Touring
Artists
Thunderbird American Indian Dancers perform at
Bronx Library Center (310 East Kingsbridge
Road).
Admission Free. For more information go to the
Library
website
(2:30PM)
Monday, November 10: CTMD Touring Artists
Thunderbird American Indian Dancers perform at
Hostos Community College (149th St. & Grand
Concourse in the Bronx). Admission $6. For
tickets
contact Community Works at 212-459-1854
For more information go to the Hostos website. (Two shows starting at
10:15AM & 12:15PM)
Friday, November 14: World Music Institute
presents
CTMD Touring Artists McCullough Sons of
Thunder at
Peter Norton Theater at Symphony Space (Broadway
at 95th St. in Manhattan). Tickets $28. For more
information go to the WMI
website
(8:00PM)
Sunday, November 16: Tantshoyz Yiddish
Dance Party with dance teacher Zev Feldman
and live
klezmer. At the JCC in Manhattan, 76th and
Broadway.
Admission $10, $8 for JCC and Workmen's Circle
members (7-10PM)
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Cossack Love Songs and Dances Sept. 19
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Concert featuring Julian Kytasty
This Friday September 19, at 7:00PM, CTMD's
Ukrainian Wave Community Cultural
Initiative is
partnering with the Ukrainian Museum and the
New
York Bandura Ensemble/Bandura Downtown to
present a special concert entitled Love
Songs and
Dances from Cossack Ukraine. The concert
will be
held at the Ukrainian Museum (222 East 6th
Street in
Manhattan, between 2nd and 3rd Avenues) and
features Ukrainian Wave co-Artistic Director
Julian
Kytasty along with members of the New York
Bandura
Ensemble.
This will be the second of a two concert
series held in
conjunction with exhibitions presently on
display at the
Museum, The Mapping of Ukraine: European
Cartography and Maps of Early Modern Ukraine,
1550-
1799, and The Cossacks: Their Art and Style.
The evening's program features the instrumental
dance tunes and part songs that were the popular
music of the Cossack Baroque period. Drawn from
recently published 17th-century manuscripts from
Ukraine and Poland, the musical selections
allow an
intimate glimpse of the people and style of
an era that
looked West, rather than East, for its cultural
inspiration, a time when a Grand Principality of
Ruthenia was as real a possibility as a
colonial Little
Russia.
Kytasty joins Bandura
Downtown series regulars Roman Turovsky
(lute),
Mike Andrec (bandura, voice),
Natalka
Honcharenko (voice), and special guests
Andriy Milavsky(sopilka,
recorders) and Andrew Cordle (period wind
instruments). The Ukrainian bandura is a
harp-like
lute with an unfretted neck and thirty or
more strings.
The sopilka is a Ukrainian fife, played
vertically, with
six to ten finger holes.
The Mapping of Ukraine, a major exhibition of
antiquarian maps, opened in April at the Museum
alongside The Cossacks: Their Art and Style.
The
latter exhibition uses photographs,
portraits, artifacts,
and publications to portray the Cossack
Baroque: a
period of political, intellectual, and
cultural growth,
including expansion of educational institutions,
architectural innovation, and a burgeoning of
the arts.
Both exhibitions remain on display until
October 12th.
Tickets are $15 with discounts available for
Museum/CTMD members and seniors.
To reserve tickets contact the Museum at
212-228-0110. Tickets include gallery admission and
a
reception to follow the concert. For more
information
see CTMD's website
or call Eileen Condon at
212-571-1555 ext. 35.
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Pachamama Open House Concert September 26
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Update on the Peruvian Community Cultural Initiative
Pictured above from left to right: Ethel
Raim-CTMD Artistic Director, Gabrielle Hamilton-
CTMD Project Director, Pete Rushefsky- CTMD
Executive Director, Marcos Napa- PPA
Afro-Peruvian Music and Dance Teacher, Andres
Jimenez-PPA Committee Member, Guillermo
Guerrero- former PPA Music Teacher, Peter
Apaza- PPA Teacher & Committee Member, Carlos
D. Bernales- PPA Artistic Director &
Coordinator, Rosa Carhuallanqui- PPA Dance
Teacher, Juan de la Cruz- former PPA
Committee Member, Hector Morales- PPA cajón
teacher. Missing from photo: Luz Pereira-
PPA Director, Sonya Lopes Bayona- PPA
Committee Member, and Patricio Paucar- PPA
Andean Music Teacher. Photo by Cecilia
Jurado.
Pachamama Peruvian Arts had an
exhilarating
summer which began with our June 20th concert
presentation of Palomitay. Over fifty
students
participated in this presentation that highlighted the
students' study of the cajón, zampoña, quena,
charango as well as the dances marinera
Puneña
and carapachos.
The evening
concluded with a
ceremony recognizing the Center's five year
collaboration with the Pachamama Organizing
Committee and the launch of Pachamama
Peruvian
Arts as a non-profit organization. Past and present
Pachamama teachers and Organizing
Committee
members were recognized for their efforts in
establishing this valuable program.
In the spring of 2008, Pachamama reached an
important milestone when we received our certificate
of incorporation, and we now move
forward with CTMD as our fiscal sponsor.
CTMD and
Pachamama Peruvian Arts are once again
thrilled to
offer free classes of traditional Peruvian music and
dance at PS 212 in Jackson Heights, Queens. On
Friday, September 26th from 7:30-10pm we are
pleased hold our sixth Open House at PS 212
where
we cordially invite families to enjoy live music and
dance and all new and returning students to register
for weekly classes.
This wonderful event will feature
our Master Instructors demonstrating the artistic forms
we offer, including: Luz Pereira, festejo; Hector
Morales, cajón; Rosa Carhuallanqui,
pacasito; Peter
Apaza, tuntuna; and Patricio Paucar, Andean
music
Rosa Maria Lazon, coro. Classes are open to
children
ages 7-17, from all backgrounds and any
neighborhood. Children can meet with our instructors
and apply for the class they are most interested in.
Teachers will review the applications and accept up to
20 students in the dance classes and up to 15
students in the music classes. This event is free and
open to families with interested children.
Classes will begin on Friday, October 3, 2008, from
6:00pm - 9:00pm at PS 212, Jackson Heights. Fall
classes include: cajón (Afro-Peruvian box
drum),
festejo (a festive couples dance from the
coast), and
pacasito (a religious and social couples dance
from
northern Peru), Andean music (including panpipes,
flutes and Andean guitar). These classes will
continue to meet on Fridays until February 13,
when Pachamama students will offer their first
presentation.
Spring classes begin February 20th
and will include: Advanced Andean music and
cajón,
tuntuna (an athletic dance carnival from
southern
Peru) and coro (traditional Peruvian song). The
Pachamama program will conclude with a
major
student presentation on June 19, 2009. Each class
will perform the artistic forms they studied which will
showcase the lessons learned throughout the school
year and will introduce these young artists to the
community at large. Last year's Pachamama
Peruvian Arts students played to full houses at PS
212
and most recently at the August Corona Cares
Festival in Queens.
For more information about this program please go to
the
Pachamama website.
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Sue Yeon Park wins NEA National Heritage Award
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We are thrilled to report that our dear
friend Sue
Yeon
Park, leader of the CTMD Touring Artist
ensemble
Sounds of Korea has been awarded a
prestigious National Heritage Fellowship
Award
from the National
Endowment for the Arts. The National Heritage
Fellowship Award is the federal government's
highest
honor bestowed on folk and traditional artists.
Sue Yeon Park learned dance and
music from Master Yi Mae-Bang, designated a
Living
National Treasure by the Government of Korea.
She
herself has now been given the honorific
titles of
yisuja for achieving the highest level
of mastery
of the
salpuri-chum (Shaman ritual dance) and
jeonsuja for
the preservation of seungmu (Buddhist
ritual
dance)
by the Ministry of Culture of South Korea.
Immigrating to the United States in 1982, Park
founded
the cultural group Korean Traditional
Performing
Arts
Association (KTPAA)in order to teach young
people and to
continue performing Korean music and dance
traditions. Her performing group Sounds of
Korea has
been featured at festivals and in performing
centers
across the United States. Park also has been a
regular instructor at Camp Friendship, an
organization
in New Jersey that serves Korean-born adopted
children. In 2004, Sue Yeon Park
received the
New York State Governor's Award for
Excellence for
her contributions to the presentation and
preservation
of Korean traditional arts.
KTPAA will hold their 14th Annual Showcase,
on Saturday, October 18 at 8PM
at the
Peter Jay Sharp Theater at Symphony Space
(95th &
Broadway in Manhattan). For more information
go to
the KTPAA
website.
Park and Sounds of Korea are available for
bookings
nationally - for more information go to the
CTMD Touring Artist website.
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Upcoming Yiddish Dance Events
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CTMD continues its ground-breaking Yiddish
Dance Project with upcoming opportunities for
you to strap on those dancing shoes and join our
master dance leader Zev Feldman as he
teaches freylekhs, shers, bulgars, horas and
hongas to the rhythms of live klezmer music
provided by fiddle virtuoso Jake Shulman-Ment
and tsimbler (hammered dulcimer player)
Pete
Rushefsky.
On Sundays October 5th and November 16th, CTMD
will
continue its popular Tantshoyz series
from 7PM-10PM
at the JCC in Manhattan (76th and Amsterdam)
Admission is $10, $8 for JCC and Workmen's Circle
members.
An additional Yiddish Dance Master Class
led
by
Tantsmeister Feldman will
occur on Sunday, October 26 from 2PM-5PM at the
92nd St. Y (92nd St. and Lexington Ave. in Manhattan).
Admission for the 92 St. Y program is $25. For more
information about the October 26 event and to
register, go to the 92 St. Y
website (2PM-5PM)
For more information about the Yiddish Dance
Project contact Pete Rushefsky at 917-326-9659.
We're especially looking to make contact with
individuals who learned traditional dances from family
events or in summer camps or have footage of dance
from old family videos. CTMD has helped to create a
new international network of dance researchers
known as the Yiddish Dance Action
Network.
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Remembering Ilyas Malayev and George Tomov
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We mourn the recent passing of two dear friends
and luminaries of New York's traditional
music scene.
According to Walter Zev Feldman, Bukharan poet
and musician Ilyas Malayev, was "one of
maybe half a dozen people in the
world
who has such a deep knowledge of the shash
maqam" (New York Times obituary, May 7, 2008).
Shash maqam (literally "six
maqams" or
melodic modes) is the canon of classical suites
performed in the old Bukharan emirates of
Transoxiana in Central Asia (an area now
contained
by the contemporary nations of Uzbekistan,
Tajikistan,
Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan).
Malayev was a major celebrity in Uzbekistan,
selling
out soccer stadiums with productions that mixed
music and vaudevillian humor. But
he remained a serious tradition bearer of the
courtly
shash maqam repertoire and player of the
tanbur (long-necked lute).
Malayev relocated to the Bukharan Jewish
enclave of
Forest Hills, Queens in 1972. He performed in a
number of CTMD programs and was featured in the
1997 recording "At the Bazaar of Love,"
produced by
CTMD and ethnomusicologist Theodore Levin
(Shanachie Records).
A future Global Beat of the Boroughs
eNewsletter
will provide more information about Ilyas
Malayev's artistry.
We were also sad to learn that our friend
George Tomov passed away in August.
Tomov was the founder and long-time leader of the
New Jersey-based TOMOV Folk Dance Ensemble
which
performs dance from around the Balkans -
particularly
Macedonia.
Tomov was born and raised in Strumica,
Macedonia.
He spent 16 years as a solo dancer with the
Yugoslav
national ensembles Tanec and Lado. Tomov moved
to the U.S. in 1967, began teaching folkdance
sessions in New York City and holding master
classes across the country. He formed the
40-
member TOMOV ensemble in 1974. The TOMOV
ensemble performed internationally as well as
at major metropolitan venues such as Lincoln Center
and Carnegie Hall.
George Tomov additionally directed the Goce
Delchev
Folk Dance Ensemble of the Church of Macedonian
Orthodox Church of Sts. Kiril and Metodij in
Cedar
Grove, New Jersey.
Tomov was a 2005 Ellis Island Medal of Honor
recipient and received numerous special
recognitions from the State of New Jersey for his
contributions to the community.
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Other Happenings
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It's still not too late to audition for the Yiddish-language
Jewish
People's Philharmonic Chorus of New York,
conducted by Binyumen Schaechter, which
specializes in Yiddish choral music. Auditions (to be
held on Monday, September 22) are by appointment
only. Candidates must have a
good ear, be able to sing in harmony and have a voice
that blends, but knowledge of Yiddish is not
necessary. For more information, surf to the JPPC website.
This year's edition of the NYC Gypsy Festival
is the biggest yet with 17 bands, including 7
international bands, and 6 DJs who will perform over 9
days (September 24 - October 3). Now in its 4th year,
the
festival will once again bring the breadth of
contemporary Gypsy music
from all over the world with a line-up that includes
bands which
preserve traditional musical forms as well as others
that mix it up
with electronica, jazz, dub and European-style cabaret.
For schedule, tickets and information go to the Drom website.
The Sounds of Taraab perform their repertoire
of Arabic & Indian inspired Swahili African taraab
music from Zanzibar on the Shimmy on the
Hudson Cruise on September 25th, 2008 7:30-10:00
PM. All aboard for a partying, fun filled evening cruise
around New York harbor by night on The Star of Palm
Beach.
The boat boards from Pier # 40 (West Houston St. &
the West Side Highway in Manhattan from 6:30-7:30,
cruise lasts until 10:00 PM. Tickets are $10 in
advance, $15 at the pier. For more information go to
the Shimmy
on the Hudson website.
Our friends at the RagaChitra Foundation will
present India Music Festival - 2008, on Friday,
September 26th and Saturday, September 27th at the
Tamil Cultural Center (Tamil Church), 79-11 Caldwell
Avenue, in the Middle Village of Queens. Featured
artists will include the Hindustani ensemble
Gangothri, Dakshin Sangeet by
Rajeswari Satish and group, Veena
Spectrum by Nivedita ShivRaj and her
ensemble and akshara percussion by
Balaskandan and group. There will be
opportunities to jam (where else can you try your hand
at performing on mridangam, kanjira, tabla,
violin and veena?) and a special stage for
young performers. For more information go to the
RagaChitra website.
Balkan Café will be holding a Greek
Dance Party on Friday, September 26 from 8PM-
11PM. The event will feature dance leader Areti
Tsiola and live music (tentatively to be supplied by
Kavala Band with the spectacular
clarinetist Lefteris Bournias). At Hungarian
House, 213 East 82 Street between 3rd and 2nd
Avenues, Manhattan. For more information call 718-
645-9142, email info@nycfolkdance.org or go to the
NYC Folk
Dance website.
For those of you who missed the legendary
Andalusian Orchestra of Tangier's
performance at CTMD and WMI's NY World
Festival at SummerStage last September, you can
see the ensemble perform at Merkin Hall on Sunday,
September 28, 2008 at 8PM. Andalusian music is the
musical and poetic traditions from the Medieval
Andalusia that have been preserved and developed in
North Africa by the descendants of Muslim and Jewish
refugees after the Reconquista. These concerts
feature sung poems of love, pleasure, wines and
nature with master musicians on violin, viola, lute,
rebab (2-string bass), tambourine and goblet
drum. Tickets are $38; (students & seniors: $25).
Merkin Hall is at 129 West 67th Street, between
Broadway and Amsterdam Avenues in Manhattan. For
more information go to the Merkin Hall website.
On September 28, at 7PM, come see clarinetist
Michael Winograd and trumpeter Ben
Holmes and their amazing Tarras Band,
dedicated to preserving the repertoire of klezmer
clarinetist and composer Dave Tarras. The
group also features bassist Jim Guttman of
the Klezmer Conservatory Band, drummer Richie
Barshay (currently performing with Herbie
Hancock), and klezmer legend and long-time Tarras
pianist Pete Sokolow. At Barbes, 376 9th St.
(corner of 6th Ave.) in Park Slope, Brooklyn. For more
information go to the Barbes website.
Looking forward to October, on Friday the 3rd the
wonderful Carolina Chocolate Drops come
back to Symphony Space, Broadway at 95 St in
Manhattan at 8pm. The Drops are leaders in the
revival of the old-time black string band music of the
Piedmont region of the Carolinas - a rich banjo and
fiddle tradition that was the antecedent of Appalachian
old-time music, bluegrass, ragtime and blues. The
group's members - Justin Robinson, Rhiannon
Giddens and Dom Flemons - have been
acclaimed for their spirited interpretations of this back
porch foot-stomping music that reached its height of
popularity in the 1920s and 1930s. They honed their
skills under the tutelage of octogenarian fiddler
Joe Thompson, one of the last black
traditional string band players alive today. The show is
produced by the venerable World Music Institute- for
more information click on through to WMI's website.
On Friday October 24th the Pinewoods Folk Music
Society of New York presents the Pennsylvania-based
Eastern European women's vocal ensemble
Svitanya. Concert will be held at 8pm at OSA,
220 E. 23rd Street, suite 707 (between 2nd & 3rd
Avenues in Manhattan). Admission is $20, $12 for
seniors and low income individuals, and free for full-
time students (22 and under), FMSNY members and
OSA members. For more information, go to the Pinewoods website.
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