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):

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.

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)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.