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Alverno College celebrates our musical world with two-day festival
Milwaukee's Humboldt Park will come alive with the sounds of Zanzibar, Egypt, Venezuela and Bulgaria Sept. 16 and 17 when the Global Union world music festival brings performers from these far-off lands and more to southeastern Wisconsin for a two-day cultural celebration.
This bountiful feast for the ears, eyes and soul is being presented by Alverno College as part of its Alverno Presents program, the theme of which for 2006-07 is "Diversity is an opportunity for joy" -- Harry Belafonte, Jan. 21, 2006. And, the icing on this multicultural cake, is that it is free, courtesy of Alverno College and the event sponsors, which include the Northwestern Mutual Foundation and American Family Insurance.
While Alverno has been bringing innovative arts programming to the area for more than 30 years, this is the college's first time offering an outdoor world music fest. The reason?
"There are many," said David Ravel, director of Alverno Presents. "First among them is that this is great art that really needs to be seen."
Second, Global Union fits the vision of who we are as a global culture, something Ravel says is very important to those of us living in the 21st century, as well as being part of what Alverno College stands for as an academic institution. Third, a lot of people don't know what world music is and this festival is a great opportunity to come and learn what a good time it can be.
'Round the world & back
The term world music has different meaning today than it did 30-to-50 years ago, Ravel explained. Back then, world music referred to ethnographic field recordings gathered from remote corners of the planet each one representing a single, distinct culture, he said.
Today's technology enables us to be more easily connected with other cultures around the world, which allows the sounds of those cultures to merge into something new.
"Sound is available to us as a global culture in ways that were unimaginable when we were kids," he said. "Artists now have access to a huge palette of sound from which to create."
The lineup:
Saturday
1 p.m. Claudia Calderon, Columbian pianist and composer. Raised in Venezuela, Calderon specializes in performing music from Venezuelan and Colombian traditional sources, specifically the genre known as Joropo. For more info visit http://www.pianollanero.cor
2:30 p.m. Yat-kha. From remote republic in Siberia surrounded by mountains and filled with moonshiners, miners and cows, come the shamanic folk songs that have inspired the music of Albert Kuvezin and his band Yat-kha. Kuvezin combines those sounds, played on unpronounceable instruments, with the Western heavy rock he loves. Go to http://www.yat-kha.com
Lee B. Roberts
09/07/06
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