We were delighted by the recent news that Sue Yeon Park, founder and President of Korean Traditional Performing Arts Association (KTPAA) and leader of the CTMD Touring Artists ensemble Sounds of Korea was selected to receive a National Heritage Fellowship Award by the National Endowment for the Arts. The Fellowship Award is our national government's highest award for excellence in folk and traditional arts, and Park joins a number of illustrious artists with close relationships to CTMD who have received the award, including West African dancer Sidiki Conde, who was honored by the NEA last year.

Park is the only American who has been designated by South Korea's Ministry of Culture as a yisuja for achieving the highest level of mastery of a traditional art, which she achieved for her performances of the salpuri-chum (ritual dance of the shaman). Park has also been designated as a jeonsuja (the penultimate honor) for the preservation of seungmu (Buddhist ritual drum dance) by the Culture Ministry.

CTMD's Pete Rushefsky and Ethel Raim recently caught up with Park and KTPAA Executive Director Ju-Yong Ha and file the following report (click on the below link):

Friday, November 14: CTMD Ukrainian Wave presents a concert by bandurist/singer Julian Kytasty entitled Songs of Truth: The Art of the Kobzari, a tribute to the art of Ukraine's blind epic singers. At the Ukrainian Museum, 222 East 6th Street, New York, NY (between 2nd and 3rd Aves). 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 (7:00PM).

Sunday, November 16: Tantshoyz Yiddish Dance Party with dance teacher Zev Feldman and live klezmer by clarinetist Alex Fiterstein and accordionist Christina Crowder. At the JCC in Manhattan, 76th and Broadway. Admission $10, $8 for JCC and Workmen's Circle members (7:00-10:00PM)

Thursday, November 20: CTMD Ukrainian Wavepresents the first-ever Vechornytsi Carpathian dance party in Brooklyn! At the Brooklyn Ukrainian Restaurant, 1223 Ave U between E 12th & Homecrest Ave (Q train to Ave U stop). Dance will be taught by Tamara Chernyakhovska with live Ukrainian mountain music by Andriy Milavsky and Cheres. All ages welcome. Admission: $10 for Adults, $5 for Children, $15 for buffet dinner and admission. For reservations call 212- 571-1555, ext 35 (Dance Instruction from 6:00PM - 7:00PM, Party from 7:00PM-9:00PM).

Thursday, December 11: NYC Barn Dance at Hungarian House, 213 E. 82nd St. (btwn. 2nd and 3rd). The monthly dance party features instruction and live music for a range of Anglo-American traditional dance styles. Beginners ages 18 and up welcome, no partner necessary. $15 general admission, $13 for students & seniors (8:00PM- 11:00PM).

Sunday, December 14: Vechornytsi Ukrainian dance party at the Ukrainian East Village Restaurant (2nd Ave. between 8th & 9th Streets in Manhattan). Dance will be led by Tamara Chernyakhovska with live Ukrainian mountain music by Andriy Milavsky and Cheres. All ages welcome. Admission: $10 for Adults, $8 for CTMD members. For more information call 212- 571-1555, ext 35 (5:00PM-8:00PM).

Tuesday, December 16: Beyond Boundaries: Klezmer Music in the 21st Century. Symposium and concert at Proshansky Auditorium in the CUNY Graduate Center (5th Ave. by 34th St.). For more information, see below or go to the CUNY website. (symposium at 3:00 PM, concert at 7:00PM).

Earlier this month, CTMD hosted a beautiful concert at the Ukrainian Museum by Cleveland-based singer/bandurist Nadia Tarnawsky. Entitled Ukrainian Women's Voices, the program featured a choir of nine women that Tarnawsky had coached in Ukrainian village repertoire and vocal technique (a number of members of the choir also participated in last year's Ukrainian Women's Voices program led by Mariana Sadowska).

This Friday night, CTMD's Ukrainian Wave Community Cultural Initiative continues its series at the Museum in partnership with the New York Bandura Society/Bandura Downtown with a Songs of Truth: The Art of the Kobzari, a tribute to the art of Ukraine's blind epic singers. Third-generation bandura player and New York Bandura Ensemble musical director Julian Kytasty draws on a lifetime of study to present the full spectrum of the kobzar repertoire: ancient epics and laments, humorous burlesques, religious and moralistic songs, sparkling instrumental dance tunes, and songs of social commentary.

The concert will be a rare opportunity to experience a tradition largely destroyed in the Holodomor, Ukraine's famine-genocide of 1932-33, and the Stalinist repressions of the 1930s. The Ukrainian bandura is a harp-like lute with an unfretted neck and thirty or more strings.

The concert is presented in conjunction with the Museum's exhibition, Holodomor: Genocide by Famine. Less than two decades after Ukraine was forcibly incorporated into the Soviet Union, the Holodomor took the lives of some 10 million Ukrainians. The exhibition opened in spring of 2008 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Holodomor, and will remain on display until November 30th.

The concert will take place on Friday, November 14, 2008, 7:00 pm at the Ukrainian Museum, 222 East 6th Street, New York, NY (between 2nd and 3rd Aves). 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 call Eileen Condon at 212-571- 1555 ext. 35.

CTMD's popular Tantshoyz Yiddish dance series continues this Sunday, November 16 from 7PM to 10PM with a dance workshop/party led by klezmer pioneer Zev Feldman at the JCC in Manhattan (corner of 76th St. and Amsterdam).

Live music will be provided by clarinet virtuoso Alex Fiterstein and the wonderful accordionist Christina Crowder, formerly of the Budapest- based ensemble Di Naye Kapeye and Di Bostoner Klezmer. Beginners are welcome. Admission: $10 ($8 for JCC and Workmen's Circle Members). Pay at the door.

Additionally a new international group, the Yiddish Dance Action Network has formed to help research and promote Yiddish Dance around the world. For more information contact Pete Rushefsky at 917-326- 9659.

Also CTMD is seeking old family videos with footage of Yiddish Dance as well as those who remember dance from their families celebrations, summer camps, etc.

CTMD's Ukrainian Wave Community Cultural Initiative continues its series of Vechornytsi Carpathian dance parties, for the first time ever in Brooklyn, on November 20, 6PM - 9PM at the Brooklyn Ukrainian Restaurant 1223 Ave U between E 12th & Homecrest Ave (Q train to Ave U stop). The Vechornytsi (presented in partnership with Brooklyn Arts Council's Folk Feet program) features dance taught by master dance leader Tamara Chernyakhovska and live Ukrainian mountain music by Andriy Milavsky and Cheres. The Vechornytsi recreates the spirit of traditional Ukrainian village dance parties, with delicious Ukrainian food and instructions for children and adults to learn dances such as pleskan, arkan, hop-and-kick polka, hutsulka, and more! Dancers of all ages are welcome.

Dance Instruction 6-7 PM
Dance Party with Jam Session 7-9 PM
Admission: $10 for Adults, $5 for Children, $15 for buffet dinner and admission.

For reservations call 212-571-1555 ext 35. Musicians: call Andriy in advance at 646-453-9909 to sit in and jam with the band!

And stay tuned... a December Vechornytsi will be held at the Ukrainian East Village Restaurant (2nd Ave. between 8th & 9th Streets in Manhattan) on Saturday, December 14th from 5:00PM - 8:00PM.

We are saddened to hear of the recent passages of two wonderful artists who had performed in past CTMD events.

This past Sunday, the world-renowned South African singer Miriam Makeba died of a heart attack aged 76, following a concert performance in Italy. An inspirational voice in the fight against Apartheid, Makeba was featured in the final concert of CTMD's West African Community Cultural Initiative entitled "Badenya," at City Center in 2000. A New York Times obituary can be read by clicking here.

On October 21st, New York's Peruvian community lost a great Andean musician and a wonderful human being. Arturo Flores (at left in the photograph) was known throughout the tri-state area for his artistry on the zampoņa (panpipes) and quena (Andean wooden flute). Some readers may recall Arturo from Pachamama Peruvian Arts' first Open House Concert where he performed with Grupo Wayno or from his regular gigs throughout Queens. You may even have listened to him as you were heading home on the subway.

Arturo brought creativity and vision to Andean music and joy to an immigrant community so often on the outskirts of American society. He had recently finished a new CD in Peru before his untimely death. He was just 35.

Peruvian journalist Vicky Peláez remembered Arturo Flores in a recent article in El Diario La Prensa NY. With the assistance of Alessandra Brivio Morales as translator, we offer Vicky's remembrance (to read click on the below link).

CTMD is proud to be a sponsor of the CUNY Graduate Center's Center for Jewish Studies upcoming Tuesday, December 16 (3PM) symposium entitled "Beyond Boundaries: Klezmer Music in the 21st Century." The symposium will feature a discussion with a number of leading klezmer performers, composers and "klezmologists," including CTMD Touring Artist and violinist Alicia Svigals, University of Virginia ethnomusicologist and clarinetist Joel Rubin, the National Yiddish Book Center's Hankus Netsky (founder of the Klezmer Conservatory Band), percussionist Eve Sicular (founder of Metropolitan Klezmer), composer Stephen Dankner, violinist/ethnographer Yale Strom, and Seth Rogovoy, author of "The Essential Klezmer." Musicologist Marsha Dubrow of CUNY Graduate Center will moderate.

A boundary-crossing concert at 7PM that evening will feature Yale Strom and his band Hot Pstromi and the classical cello virtuoso Matt Haimovitz.

For more information, go to the CUNY Graduate Center's Center for Jewish Studies website.

November is a busy month for community-based festivals in New York. CTMD salutes two ongoing annual festivals that had their beginnings as CTMD programs.

Last weekend, the ninteenth Festival Shqiptar (Albanian) was presented at Lehman College in the Bronx, and it's always an amazing presentation of a diverse range of musicians, dancers, singers and other performers that showcase the cultural vitality of New York's Albanian community.

This coming weekend, the Rajkumari Cultural Center presents the eleventh annual Kitchrie Festival of Indo- Caribbean Art and Culture, culminating in a concert of the Bhojpuri Rhythms of Suriname from 3- 6PM on Sunday, November 16 at York College Performing Arts Center in Queens, 94-45 Guy R. Brewer Boulevard in Jamaica. Suggested donation is $25, for more information click here.

This weekend, the Pinewoods Folk Music Club presents their 30th annual Eisteddfod Festival of Traditional Music. A host of wonderful performers including acclaimed English music singers and scholars John Roberts and Tony Barrand (who are this years' recipients of the Eisteddfod award). Festival begins this Friday, November 14 and runs through Sunday night. At The Renaissance Charter School, 35-59 81st St, Jackson Heights, Queens (easily reached from Times Square and Grand Central by No. 7 subway). For schedule, performers, and additional information see the festival's website.

This Saturday, November 15, at 8:30PM, Alwan for the Arts presents the master Tunisian percussionist Najob Bahri along with santuri (hammered dulcimer player) Amir ElSaffar and violinist/oud player Rachid Halihal in a program of classical and folkloric music from Tunisia. Alwan for the Arts is at 16 Beaver St, between Broad St and Broadway, fourth floor, Lower Manhattan. For more information, go to Alwan's website.

On Saturday, November 22 at 8:30 PM, our friends at World Music Institute present the Corsican a capella ensemble I Muvrini, who perform a haunting polyphonic mix of secular and sacred songs that speak of love, labor, exile and misfortune. At Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall (W. 57th St. and 7th Ave., Manhattan). For more information go to WMI's website.

Le Poisson Rouge is a beautiful new venue in the space formerly habited by the legendary Village Gate at 158 Bleecker St. (Manhattan). On Sunday, November 23 at 7:30PM, the club presents the renowned throat-singing Tuvan ensemble Huun Huur Tu. For more information go to the Rouge's website.