MergingArts Conversations: Recent Episodes
Toni Pennacchia and Paul Elsnau
Edo is the founder of the World Music Collider series taking place in Western MA and oriented towards dance rather than traditional concerts and a partner with Laudable Productions, a creative agency based in Easthampton, Massachusetts in the US.
Edo most recently co-founded Barbes in the Woods, a new global music festival taking place in August in rural Western MA, inspired by the unique club, Barbes, in the Park Slope area of Brooklyn, NY.
Rara Bel Poze, a traditional Haitian street band that plays a mix of Haitian traditional music, gospel music, and American music with acoustic instruments along with custom Haitian horns, performing at the 33rd Lowell Folk Festival.
The Lowell Folk Festival takes place each year, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, of the last full weekend in July that takes place in Downtown Lowell, Massachusetts. It is the longest running free folk festival in the United States.
GRAMMY and NAMA nominated, Dawn has worked with musical luminaries Luciano Pavarotti, Phillip Glass, John Cage, Ustad Sultan Khan, and R. Carlos Nakai. She has toured the world playing Delta Blues with the Soldier String Quartet and Sufi Persian Funk with Sussan Deyhim, and Jazz masters Will Calhoun and Grover Washington, Jr., to Indian electronic master, Karsh Kale.
She worked in musical theatre and global music performances, including The Rumi Concert with Coleman Barks. She made several acclaimed albums, including working with Guitarist Larry Mitchell.
Dawn's original soundtrack and recording, Crane, is part of the Ibex Puppetry show Ajijaak on Turtle Island, produced by Heather Henson. Ajijaak’s story puts forward visions from indigenous communities to reach the next generation of storytellers and change-makers.
Dawn’s latest recording is Beloved on the Sufi theme of spiritual love, integrating its message with her Mohawk heritage, that values gratitude for all of creation, peacefulness with all our relations, and hope for generations to come.
The Zhou Family Band plays traditional wind and percussion music that has accompanied birth and death of people in Central-Eastern China for more than 600 years.
Coming from Lingbi, Anhui Province, the Zhou family have been musicians for seven generations, and are bearers of a tradition that represents the this Chinese folk music with Bolin Laba, a national intangible cultural heritage of China.
We spoke about the band’s origin, instrumentation, members, and performances, including the 2018 BU Global Music Festival.
The BU Global Music Festival takes place in October on the campus of Boston University, in partnership with the BU Global Arts Initiative.
Jose is the bassist and band leader of Orchesta El Macabeo, a Puerto Rican salsa group created in 2008 in Trujillo Alto and part of their particular sound is based on the fact that the group is made up mostly of musicians who played in rock, punk, ska and reggae groups.
We chatted about the band’s music, his record label Discos de Hoy, and performing globally, including the 2018 BU Global Music Festival, where the band will be performing in its 10th anniversary tour.
The BU Global Music Festival takes place in October on the campus of Boston University, in partnership with the BU Global Arts Initiative.
Marie is an Assistant Professor of Music in the Department of Musicology and Ethnomusicology at Boston University.
Marie is the founder of BU Global Music Concert Series, aiming to bring artists steeped in folkloric, popular, and traditional music around the world, for Boston University and Boston area communities.
As an active performer and improviser of the accordion, Marie performs and records with artists around the world. She performs with the Boston-based Ethiopian music collective, Debo Band.
Marie serves as the Artistic Director of the BU Global Music Festival which takes place in October on the campus of Boston University, in partnership with the BU Global Arts Initiative.
Ty began as the Managing Director of the BU Global Arts Initiative in 2012.
Prior to that, he was the Director of the Platt Student Performing Arts House at the University of Pennsylvania and served as Managing Director of the Barrymore Award winning Vagabond Acting Troupe.
We chatted about the 2018 inaugural edition of the BU Global Music Festival. The BU Global Music Festival takes place in October on the campus of Boston University, in partnership with the BU Global Arts Initiative.
People of Rhythm Productions founded by Brian Keigher serves as a performing arts presenting organization, a record label and a creative music production company. Serving various music needs on all levels from event production to providing live, original or licensed music for ad agencies and brands.
He specializes in live music event programs and music event series and presenting and providing free arts programs and arts education to the public whenever possible, with over 20 years of experience.
The BU Global Music Festival takes place in October on the campus of Boston University, in partnership with the BU Global Arts Initiative.
Kevin Dwyer, Executive Director of the Lowell Festival Foundation, chatted with us about the Lowell Folk Festival history through the 32nd edition of the festival.
The Lowell Folk Festival takes place each year, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, of the last full weekend in July, providing the best in traditional folk music around the world, artisan crafts, and international foods created and supporting area community groups.
The festival is produced by The Lowell Festival Foundation along with the City of Lowell, the National Park Service, and the National Council for the Traditional Arts.
This interview has aired leading up to the festival in Kingston, RI on WRIU and in Boston, MA on WZBC both on 90.3 FM.
Andrew, who is comfortable on mandolin, fiddle, guitar, mandola and mandocello – is zeroing in on the work he does with his beloved trio: fellow string guru Mike Mezzatesta, whose versatility shines through on guitar, mandolin, fiddle and mandola, and in-the-pocket James McEleney, holding it down on the bass, mandocello and vocals, together as The Andrew Collins Trio.
Showcasing a popular collision of acoustic roots, folk, newgrass and jazz, not to mention a dizzying number and energetic interplay of instruments on stage, The Andrew Collins Trio appear to live by the old adage, “idle hands are the devil’s workshop” likely keeping them just ahead of his grasp, melding multiple genres while tastefully showcasing each of their boundaries.
Betsayda's voice can be heard in the secret villages just a short bus ride from Caracas, tucked deep in foliage. On the right day, and her and her band beat with the pulse and poetry of a band strolling from house to house referenced as parranda, a sound that finds earthy, moving expression in the voice.
She is joined in this interview on her work by Luis Acosta, her tour manager and translator. Her recent release is available called Loe Loa: Rural Recordings Under the Mango Tree, transforming the field recordings that captured her energy under the spreading mango tree that gave the album its name.
Betsayda was selected to perform in globalFest, North America’s most important world music industry event. Betsayda after this event went on tour including a performance on RISD Auditorium in Providence, RI as part of the FirstWorks Frontier Series.
Under threat from large organizations like National Public Radio, college and community radio stations are losing their place on the airwaves. We heard from some of their stories and look at what the future might hold.
We spoke with following folks: Jennifer Waits of Spinning Indie and Radio Survivor, Sharon Scott of WRVU Friends and Family and ARTxFM, Krissy Carlson of BSR and WRIU, Bill Parker of WRIU, and Dario Borim and Adam Lawrence of WUMD, involved in the #SaveWUMD efforts.
We were fortunate to catch up with the kora playing legend, Toumani Diabate, during a tour with his symmetric orchestra on a stop at the University of Rhode Island as part of the 10th anniversairy of the URI Pangea Roots music series back in 2008.
He performs solo, with the symmetric orchestra, and on special projects like his most recent collaboration and tour with Bela Fleck.
Toumani chats us up on his family of kora players, the connection of his sounds seen in American music, and blending with other types of musicians like Bjorkwhile keeping his original sound.
We highly recommend you experience Toumani Diabate and check out his latest tour and his CD releases!
Christopher Dawson grew up in Seattle, back in the days of pre-antitrust Microsoft, coffeeshops owned by something other than Starbucks, and really loud, inarticulate music.
He received a degree in Information Systems from Johns Hopkins University and began a career in health and educational information systems, with a focus on clinical trials and related statistical programming and database modeling.
Christopher Dawson is currently the technology director for the Athol-Royalston, MA school district and often spends his days in a host of computing and IT issues common to most small businesses, educators, and non-profits. He also is an avid blog for the Education blog on ZDNet at http://education.zdnet.com.
In our discussion, we talked about a variety of existing developing social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook, and Ning, and their impact on education, integrated devices and the impact of messaging in a school environment, software purchasing decisions at schools, and effect and use of social networking and Web 2.0 tools on younger children in the K-5 market.
Nancy McCoy-Wozniak became Stony Brook University's first Learning Architect in The Faculty Center where she consults with faculty on the planning and design of courses and effective course management methods. She received her Masters of Arts in Education, specializing in Instructional Technology from the University of Akron. She holds a B.A. in Business Administration from Hiram College and studied television production and communication at Lorain County Community College.
Nancy has worked as an instructional designer, educational technologist and online learning coordinator for over 10 years, and has been dubbed the Wizard of Woz at her previous academic positions. She has taught online and traditional courses in computer applications, multimedia design, communication, and business. Currently, Nancy is documenting future technology trends and challenges in Distance Learning and the pedagogy of Web 2.0 and 3.0 technologies in the classroom.
Nancy has shared her experience and stories with us from her work as a Learning Architect. She discusses her work and research on blending Web 2.0 tools into a traditional, distance, and blended settings through use of applications and devices called clickers. She also touches upon the issues of having to follow school system standards, the uses and struggles to promote social networking communities like Facebook to creatively connect to students of all ages for lifelong learning.
Michael Staton is the Co-Founder and CEO of Inigral, Inc, a company that builds social web applications for education. Their product Schools on Facebook has generated much excitement in the press.
Before starting Inigral, he was an Educational Interaction and Curriculum Designer for a San Francisco start-up and taught in the Houston ISD. He has an MA in International Development from Clark University in Worcester, MA.
In our conversation, Michael discusses Learning Management Systems (LMS) and their placement and standards in university market. Learning how these compare and the heavy process of standard applications in education, has helped Michael shape his product Schools on Facebook to be more social than academic.
He further discusses this offering and its integration with campus social groups, alumni, and what companies need to do to engage campus communities. He expands on what his product has become and existing social networking communities’ benefits and disadvantages (Facebook, Ning, Windows Live Spaces).
You can learn more about Michael Staton and Inigral's work at http://www.inigral.com.