CWM at Urbana Sweetcorn Festival

CWM will present Balinese gamelan and dance, performed by the Asnawa family and friends, and Ghanaian drumming, performed by the Adzido Drum Club.

West African Dance Classes with Djibril Camara

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Event Date: 
Repeats every week until Wed Sep 28 2011 .
August 14, 2011 - 11:00pm - August 15, 2011 - 12:30am
August 21, 2011 - 11:00pm - August 22, 2011 - 12:30am
August 28, 2011 - 11:00pm - August 29, 2011 - 12:30am
September 4, 2011 - 11:00pm - September 5, 2011 - 12:30am
September 11, 2011 - 11:00pm - September 12, 2011 - 12:30am
September 18, 2011 - 11:00pm - September 19, 2011 - 12:30am
September 25, 2011 - 11:00pm - September 26, 2011 - 12:30am
Venue: 
Channing-Murray Foundation
Address: 
1209 West Oregon, Urbana
Description: 

About the Classes: Open to beginners through advanced. Offered every Sunday evening.

The classes introduce attendees to dances from Guinea, in particular. Dances from other West African countries are also presented. Yankadi, Macru, Soli, Dundunba, Lamban, Sinte, Triba, Koukou and more are among the dances taught. Live drumming accompanies the class. Class begins with a warm up with live drumming, instruction in particular steps associated with a dance (w/o drums), dancing those steps (drumming), and solo circle (drumming).

What to Bring: Water, wear comfortable dance/workout clothes, and shoes are optional.

About Djibril: Djibril Camara teaches these classes. He is originally from Guinea in West Africa. He has danced professionally for 17 years and was the principal choreographer and dancer with the Ballet du Afrique Noir, touring throughout Africa, Europe and the U.S. He has been introducing various U.S. communities to the joys of African dance for over 5 years. He has lived in Champaign-Urbana for the past 3 years.

Admission: 
$10 for students/$12 for non-students; Or buy in bulk for reduced rates
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Desafinado at Victory Park

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Event Date: 
August 10, 2011 - 11:30pm - August 11, 2011 - 3:00am
Venue: 
Victory Park
Address: 
Green and Lynn, Urbana
Description: 

Based in Champaign-Urbana, IL, Desafinado is a six piece ensemble that plays a combination of Samba, Bossa Nova, and MPB (Musica Popular Brasileira).

Part of the Neighborhood Nights Concert Series, an Urbana tradition for 20 years featuring free music in a different park each week through the summer. Free popcorn and lemonade. Bring a chair or blanket. In case of rain, the concert will be rescheduled for the next evening.

Admission: 
Free Admission
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The Twenty-Third Annual Tagore Festival

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Event Date: 
September 24, 2011 - 10:00pm - September 25, 2011 - 3:00am
Venue: 
Channing-Murray Foundation
Address: 
1209 W. Oregon Street, Urbana
Description: 

Twenty-Third Annual Tagore Festival

Additional details will be provided as they become available.

5:00 pm: Reception & Invocation

6:00 pm: Catered Dinner

7:00 pm: Keynote Speech - Prof. Keya Ganguly (Associate Professor, Department of Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis)

Cultural Program

Admission: 
All events are open to the public and free of charge except for the dinner.
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Laura MacKenzie with Gary Rue

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Event Date: 
November 16, 2011 - 2:00am
Venue: 
Heartland Gallery
Address: 
112 West Main Urbana, IL
Description: 

With ardent mastery, Laura MacKenzie commands a vast repertoire of wonderfully arresting traditional music. Laura performs a wealth of tunes and songs from Ireland, Scotland, England, Central France and Northern Spain on a splendid array of wind-powered instruments, including flutes, whistles, concertina, many bagpipes and voice. She has received numerous awards and honors for her work in this realm of music, including a prestigious Bush Artists Fellowship in Traditional and Ethnic Performing Arts. With astonishing versatility, Laura's performance is supported by the grace, warmth and humor, the craft, knowledge and lore gleaned over a lifetime of music-making.

With his full-throated, melodic guitar style and vocal contributions, Gary Rue perfectly compliments MacKenzie's musical prowess. He brings a rich and bountiful background of artistry and composition to traditional "Celtic" music, ensuring an extraordinary duo performance.

When MacKenzie and Rue join forces, when pop sensibilities and traditional artistry come together, something wonderful happens: a driving, intensely melodic profusion of sound. a hybrid of flutes in full flight ~ voices that lilt and soar ~ percussive, persuasive guitar ~ and hold-on-to-your-hats piping, delivering an evening of sustained musical elegance.

Admission: 
$20 Adults, $10 Students/Seniors
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Brendan Begley & Caoimhín óRaghallaigh

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Event Date: 
October 19, 2011 - 1:00am
Venue: 
Independent Media Center
Address: 
202 S. Broadway, Urbana
Description: 

Brendan Begley is a genial giant from the Dingle peninsula in County Kerry, Breandan is a well known and accomplished performer of Irish traditional music on the button accordian, touring at home and in Estonia, Finland, Sweden and France. He is a member of the 'Boys of the Lough', first touring with the band as a guest in th e 1980's in the USA, and full-time member since 1997.

Brendan's exciting dance music, sensitive emotional playing of slow airs on ac cordion, and his singing in his native Irish make him a great favorite. He is acclaimed in Ireland for his TV presentations of traditional music on the Irish language channel TG4.

Caoimhín óRaghallaigh is the Dublin-born fiddler is rapidly becoming known as one of the most interesting and creative musicians in traditional music. Since the widespread success of his 2003 'Kitty Lie Over' album with Mick O'Brien, he has performed in the United States, Canada, Alaska, Asia and all over Europe. Irish performances in 2006 included Farmleigh House, West Cork Music in Bantry, the National Concert Hall, the Kilkenny Arts Festival, Liberty Hall, and a tour for the Improvised Music Company.

His concerts have been broadcast on RTE Radio 1 and LyricFM, including a performance at the Masters of Tradition 2004 festival for West Cork Music. Recent television appearances include 'The Highland Sessions', 'The Raw Bar', 'Ceird an Cheoil', 'Se Mo Laoch' and 'Other Voices', and musicians he has recently worked with include The Waterboys, Iarla O Lionaird, Peadar O Riada, Breanndan Begley.

Caoimhín is part of the new traditional wing of Music Network's MusicWide program.

Admission: 
$20 Adults, $10 Students/Seniors
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Dónal Maguire

Event Information
Event Date: 
October 10, 2011 - 1:00am
Venue: 
Heartland Gallery
Address: 
112 West Main Urbana, IL
Description: 

Like so many other young Irish kids, Dónal was affected by the charismatic Clancy brothers and their triumphant return to Ireland from the USA, in the early 60s. While admiring Luke Kelly's strident style, Dónal soon became enamored of the high style exemplified by Joe Heaney, Paddy Tunney and Elizabeth Cronin.

Dónal's emigration to England as a fifteen-year-old paradoxically accelerated his interest in Irish music and culture. The London Singers Workshop helped to develop his singing and he became a resident at the Singers Club, joining Ewan MacColl, Peggy Seeger, John Faulkner, Sandra Kerr, Terry Yarnell et al. Séamus Ennis and A.L. Lloyd had earlier been resident at the club.

Dónal helped to the set up the Knave of Clubs in Bethnal Green, East London, together with Yarnell, Faulkner, Kerr and other members of agitprop group Combine. Latterly, Dolores Keane joined the residents. Dónal moved to Lancashire in 1976 and soon teamed up with virtuoso 2-row accordion player Liam Webster. They played together for over 20 years.

While Dónal has been primarily associated with unaccompanied singing, he has significant other 'strings to his bow'. Dónal is a fine interpreter of contemporary material, as well as an excellent singer of traditional material, and can accompany himself on a range of stringed instruments. He is universally recognized as one of the finest players of Irish dance music on mandolin and tenor banjo.

Dónal has conducted many singing workshops, and they are characterized by his relaxed, yet highly informative, professional style. He has also collected many songs, not only in his native Co. Louth, but from many sources in the U.K.

Admission: 
$20 Adults, $10 Students/Seniors
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Jim Malcolm

Event Information
Event Date: 
September 12, 2011 - 1:00am
Venue: 
Heartland Gallery
Address: 
112 West Main Urbana, IL
Description: 

Jim Malcolm was brought up in Perthshire and Angus and was steeped in the traditional music of Scotland from an early age. He learned to play guitar while at school and by his early twenties was winning songwriting competitions and playing in folk clubs all over Scotland.

His career began to take off when he hosted the open stage at Edinburgh Folk Festival, and through his own playing there secured a contract with Greentrax for his first solo album. This brought in bookings at folk clubs and festivals in Britain and abroad, and established Jim as one of the leading songwriters in the traditional idiom in Scotland. He was dubbed: "The new male voice of Scotland."

Jim has given songwriting and song accompaniment masterclasses at many festivals, including Scotland's foremost festival, Celtic Connections in Glasgow. STV broadcast a documentary on Jim and Angus singer Jim Reid for its Artery series, and their singing was featured in the "best of" programme which rounded off the series. He was one of twelve leading Scottish singers who performed Andy Thorburn's epic work Tuath gu Deas, and has featured on volumes four, five and six of Linn Records Complete Songs of Robert Burns, produced by Dr Fred Freeman. Jim also sang in the Northern Nights series on Grampian TV and STV.

In January 1999 Jim joined one of Scotland's most popular international folk acts, the "Old Blind Dogs" from North East Scotland, and has since worked with them all over the UK, in France, Spain, Italy, Denmark, Germany, USA, Canada and Bulgaria. To date career highlights also include solo tours in USA, Germany, Canada, Denmark, Ireland and England, solo studio spots on Travelling Folk, an appearance on STV's Hogmanay show and a tour in Uganda. His song Neptune featured on an award-winning documentary about a North Sea oil spill.

A busy year of touring on both sides of the Atlantic, 2004 finished on a high when Jim won Songwriter of the Year, and Old Blind Dogs won Scottish Folk Band of the Year, at a glittering awards ceremony in Edinburgh in December, all organised by the Scots Trad Music Society.

Admission: 
$20 Adults, $10 Students/Seniors
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Mwalandiridwa: Welcome to Malawi! Games and Food of Southern Africa

Event Information
Event Date: 
July 30, 2011 - 4:00pm - 5:00pm
Venue: 
Urbana Free Library
Address: 
210 West Green Street, Urbana, IL
Description: 

Explore Urbana's Sister City, Malawi: play a popular win-and-lose stone game, learn a chanting circle game and make yummy treats from Malawi and other countries of Southern Africa.

For children ages 5 and up with their families.

Cosponsored by the Urbana-Zomba Sister Cities Committee, the Center for African Studies, and the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Public Engagement

Location: The Lewis Auditorium (Ground Floor)

Admission: 
Free Admission
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ELLNORA: Marija Temo

Event Information
Event Date: 
September 10, 2011 - 4:00pm
Venue: 
Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, Lobby
Address: 
500 S. Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL
Description: 

ELLNORA | The Guitar Festival | Flamenco is seduction, sensuality, and fire entwined in Spanish music and dance. Through her training in both classical music and flamenco, Marija Temo can unspool the full essence of this pulsating art. These dual sensibilities mingle in her explosive yet exacting performances with Oscar Lopez, Antonio Vargas, Manolo Segura, Zac Brown, and ELLNORA alum Frank Vignola. Her formal instruction came at the Peabody Conservatory of Music and from Manuel Barrueco, but her own conceptions for merging classical guitar and flamenco have led her to arrange music, create flamenco workshops, and present inventive youth shows with the Baltimore Symphony. Temo flourishes her hybrid classical-flamenco guitar in a heartfelt expression of UNESCO’s masterpiece of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity.

Admission: 
Free Admission
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