When I talk about world music with friends, most of them seem to think, to put it politer than they do, that I'm a couple million dollars short of being eccentric. Still, I persist with my world-music missionary ways because I wish others could experience what I have: the plain fun of listening to great music, and the enrichment from experiencing the heart and soul of another culture.

Similarly, a group of people in the music business have been working together to bring world music to a to a wider audience in the United States. Toward that end, three producers are organizing a 16-artist, one-night show called Globalfest at The Public Theater in downtown Manhattan, NY.

The festival will be on January 10th, 2004 during the annual conference of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters (APAP), the people that book acts into venues across North America. While the Globalfest round-robin is aimed at the presenters, a limited number of tickets are being offered to the general public, beginning on December 1st through Telecharge (212-239-6200) and the Public Theater.

Globalfest will present the artists in overlapping, 40-minute sets on three stages. When the last performance ends at 1:30 in the morning, there will be world-music dance party that goes until 4 a.m.

The artists will be a mix of traditional, contemporary and uncategorizeable performers. The artists include Kayhan Kalhor, who plays the traditional Persian kamancheh, a type of fiddle; Susheela Raman, an Anglo-Indian singer whose sultry pop uses eastern and western elements; and Cyro Baptista's Beat the Donkey, a New York-based group that combines Brazilian percussion with quirky costumes and Stomp-like antics. For a full listing, go to www.publictheater.org.

The goal, said the organizers, is to introduce presenters to a variety of world music, but also, through associated workshops, to show them how to overcome the barriers specific to world music, such as navigating the increasingly difficult process of obtaining visas for performers and educating audiences about unfamiliar artists or genres.

The idea for the festival grew over the last few years, when an informal world-music network began to form at industry conferences such as Europe's Womex festival. Realizing that world music had unique marketing challenges in the U.S., the organizers decided to stage Globalfest during the presenters conference, when bookers come to New York City to sample everything from avant-garde dance to cabaret singers.

Bill Bragin, director of Joe's Pub at The Public Theater and a Globalfest organizer said that foreign performers typically only tour in large cities, so their tours only last a week or so. If venues in smaller cities open up to world music artists, he said, it can then become more economically feasible for them to come to the U.S. A larger tour, in turn, can ripple into higher CD sales and more coverage in the mainstream media.

Like any unknown artist, Bragin said, a world music performer can be introduced to an audience by a programmer who has done their homework. Just as a new choreographer might be made part of a subscription series at a performing arts center, Bragin said, a charismatic performer such as Mariza, who sings Portuguese fado, could be part of an "extraordinary voices" series that might include jazz or cabaret vocalists.

"World music has grown exponentially in the past 15 years," said Isobel Soffer, associate director of the World Music Institute and another Globalfest organizer. While its growth has been slowed by the overall downturn in the music industry, interest has become keener after the attacks of 9/11, Soffer said, which were "a wake-up call that we needed understanding."

Time will tell if any of the Globalfest performers will become the next Buena Vista Social Club or Cesaria Evora, but the festival will undoubtedly prove that you don't have to be eccentric to look beyond the borders of the United States to find a musical kinship. - Marty Lipp

Where to look: The Public Theater: www.publictheater.org World Music Institute: www.heartheworld.org Association of Performing Arts Presenters: www.artspresenters.org