The Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra and the Vancouver Public Library present New Sound Worlds ~ an educationalconcertof intercultural music ~ Wednesday, September 24, 2008 Alice MacKay Hall Vancouver Public Library Main Branch 350 Georgia Street, Vancouver, BC The Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra gratefully acknowledges the support of the following organizations that made New Sound Worlds possible. ¢[¾;TY OF VANCOUVER ~ ~:~::.- ,:::m:11 iU Vancouver Public Library ~~"t.~i: Arts New Sound Worlds is the opening event of the Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra (VICO) 2008-09 season. This mini-concert is intended to make the innovative new art form of inter-cultural music accessible to everyone, whether a veteran composer, a beginning student of music, or simply a music lover wishing to learn more about the many musics of the world and the bridges between them. PRODUCTION CREDITS Musical Director: Joseph "Pepe" Danza Project Manager: Moshe Denburg Ensemble Joseph "Pepe" Danza (Shakuhachi, Hand Drums, Mbira); Moshe Denburg (Guitar, Voice, Conductor); Amy Stephen (Accordion, Whistle, Voice); Mei Han (Zheng); Coat Cooke (Flute, Sax); Neel Dhillon (Tabla, Sitar); Navid Goldrick (Santur/Oud) Clyde Reed (Double Bass); Kocassale Dioubate (Hand Drums) Support Staff Sound Technicals: Don Xaliman Vancouver Public Library Coordinator: Eleanor Innes VancouverInter-Cultural Orchestra(VICO) Staff and Volunteers Moshe Denburg, Artistic Director Melanie Thompson, Administrator/Publicist Cindy Cheng, Intern VICO- Boardof Directors K. Louise (Naomi) Amey, President Lan Tung, Vice-President Mark Armanini, Secretary-Treasurer Ian Migicovsky, Director Ramona Wu, Director About the Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra The Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra (VICO) is unique in the world, and uniquely Canadian: an ensemble dedicated to the performance of new, large-scale musical works that fuse and transcend diverse cultural traditions. In the VICO, violins and flutes rub shoulders with the shakuhachi, the erhu and the sitar ... and fertile ground is created for cross-cultural teamwork between classical, jazz and world music artists. The VICO's central artistic objective is to develop a large-scale ensemble of skilled "inter-cultural" Canadian musicians and composers - to develop an effective organization with the ability to commission and perform inter-cultural works on a grand scale, as well as existing and new works created for more intimate intercultural ensembles. In a country as diverse as ours, forms of expression that cross cultural boundaries and encourage relationships between communities are the social building-blocks of the future. VICO' s fundamental artistic mission is to foster the creation of a new musical art form, in which all of Canada's resident cultures take part. The VICO's composers and musicians are on the cutting edge, writing and performing the Canadianmusic of the future. VICO strives to be a fresh and relevant voice in the contemporary music of our country ...a creative force for innovation, diversity and understanding. www.vi-co.org 2 Concert Programme Fusion 1: Chinese - Western Jazz Mei Han (Zheng- Chinese Long Zither) and Coat Cooke (Flute/Saxophone) Fusion 2: Middle Eastern - Indian Navid Goldrick (Santur) and Neelamjit Dhillon (Tabla) Fusion 3: Japanese - Western Pepe Danza (Shakuhachi) and Clyde Reed (Bass) Fusion 4: Celtic - Jewish Amy Stephen (Accordion/Tin WhistleNoice) and Moshe Denburg (GuitarNoice) Fusion 5: Afro - Latin Pepe Danza & Kocassale Dioubate (African & Latin American Drums) I Dream of Fountains by Joseph "Pepe" Danza *World Premiere Entire Ensemble Bios of Composer/Performers Joseph 'Pepe' Danza (Composer/Performer) is an electrifying percussionist and multi- instrumentalist. A native of Montevideo, Uruguay, he began classical guitar studies at age eight, and started his professional career at thirteen. Pepe developed an interest in world music which led him to spend three years in Japan studying shakuhachi, another two years in India and Sri Lanka for Indian music, and shorter periods in Indonesia (studying gamelan) and Korea. Pepe is an active composer, arranger and musical director, and works with a large array of fine ensembles, including the Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra, Music for a New World Ensemble, Jou Tou, and Soulstream. Moshe Denburg (Composer, Conductor, VICO Program Director) has studied music extensively, both formally and informally. He has travelled worldwide, living and studying music in Israel, India, and Japan. His compositions reflect his Jewish roots as well as an ongoing commitment to inter-cultural music making. He has written many works utilizing instruments from non-Western cultures (Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic and more). His works have been performed and broadcast both in Canada and abroad. Moshe has been the moving force behind the Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra's establishment and ongoing activities since its inception in the year 2000. Amy Stephen is a performer, composer, arranger and producer. She has toured internationally from Europe to Japan at festivals and concert series playing traditional celtic and original material since 1995. Amy holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of British Columbia in piano and voice. A founding member of celtic funk band "Mad Pudding", she can presently be seen touring the world with Vancouverbased world music ensemble "Jou Tou" and with her music and in a dynamic Celtic-Iranian duo format with Persian vocalist Amir Haghighi. 3 Mei Han (zheng) is an internationally acclaimed zheng (zither) master and ethnomusicologist. Formerly a soloist of the Zhan You Ensemble in Beijing (leading group of its type in China) for more than ten years, her career spans in five continents, including performing at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, DC and premiering the first original zheng concerto with the China Philharmonic Orchestra in Beijing. she has recorded several albums, the most recent of which is Redgrass,a debut release of Red Chamber, an ensemble she founded and leads. Coat Cooke is one of Canada's most lyrical and inventive saxophonists and composers. His work has included a wide selection projects with dance, theatre, multi-media and film over the last thirty years. Coat has toured Canada, the USA and Europe performing in major festivals in Berlin, Lisbon and Chicago, and his collaborations include work with George Lewis, Wadada Leo Smith, Roscoe Mitchell, Butch Morris, Marilyn Crispell, Oliver Lake and most recently with Diane Labrosse, Pierre Tanguay and John Oswald. His most recent Coat Cooke Trio recording, Up Down Down Up is available on Cellar Live Records Neelamjit Dhillon (tabla, sitar, bansuri, saxophone) graduated from Capilano College jazz studies majoring in saxophone performance. There he studied with Brad Turner, Stan Karp and Mike Allen. He has studied tabla at the Ustad Allarakha Institute of Music in Mumbai, on a Canada Council grant. The tabla is Neelamjit's first instrument and he studies with world-renowned maestro Ustad Zakir Hussain. Neelamjit has worked with some great names in jazz such as Bob Mintzer, Kurt Elling, Nenna Freelon and Cedar Walton. Locally he has performed or recorded with a large number of excellent musicians and ensembles, and in a large variety of genres. He is a founding member of the Arabic-Persian-Indian fusion ensemble, Sangha. Navid Goldrick was introduced to Persian Traditional music from his Iranian mother, and since he was 11 years old has been studying and playing Persian traditional music. He began learning to play the Santur under Afshin Kaymanesh in Vancouver, BC. In recent years Navid has continued studying Persian music with Hossein Behroozinia learning the Barbat, also known as the Oud. Navid has had the privilege of working with many local Persian musicians, and Canadian musicians over the last decade. Most recently, he has played Santur and Oud for the Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra (VICO). -Clyde Reed (bass) has enjoyed long-term musical collaborations with internationally known artists including Rob Blakeslee, Vinny Golia, Rich Halley, George Lewis, Paul Plimley, and Claude Ranger. He is a founding member of the New Orchestra Workshop Orchestra Society. His playing has been featured on a number of critically acclaimed recordings, the most recent being "Blue Rims-The Rich Halley Trio with Bobby Bradford". Kocassale Dioubate is a Guinean of the Mandingo tribe of West Africa. A descendant of the tribe's "Griots" - traditional storytellers and musicians - Koca has been dancing, playing and making music since he was old enough to walk. Since his arrival in Canada in 2005, Koca has played shows and festivals all over Canada, including Island MusicFest, both Calgary and Vancouver's Afrikadey Festival, Vancouver Children's Festival, the Filberg Festival, KootsRoots and InTheHouse, among many others. Career highlights to date include playing as Head Drummer for BalletKaloumLalein Guinea, soloist for Ballet Bougarabouin Senegal, recording with renowned drummer Moussa M'Boum in the Gambia and playing in concert with Senegalese superstar Youssou N'Dour. 4 Descriptions of Non-Western Instruments Bansuri -A transverse bamboo flute from North India, it comes in many sizes to accommodate various ragas (modes). It has a range of about 2 and 1/2 octaves, and is capable of microtonal variations, sliding pitches and tremendous flexibility. It is a featured solo instrument in the North Indian (Hindustani) classical tradition. Oud [Also spelled Ud] (Arabic Lute) - Central symbol of Arabic traditional and classical music, it appeared in Central Asia and the Middle East more than 2000 years ago. Its rounded body gives a full, warm sound and its fretless neck allows for quarter tones and sliding effects. It can have a biting staccato attack. The European Lute derives directly from it; in fact, the word Lute is derived from El Ud (the Ud). Santur - The santur is the Persian hammered dulcimer (more precisely called a struckzither)whose trapezoid body is made of a hard wood such as walnut or rosewood. It has 72 strings, which are strung over two sets of 9 bridges on either side of the instrument. The instrument is strung 4 strings to a note, and the gamut rendered has a diatonic range of just over 3 octaves. It is played with 2 wooden mallets. Shakuhachi - An end blown notched bamboo flute of Japan, the modern standard version has four finger holes and one thumb hole. Originally imported from China by the early 8th century, it reappeared around the 15th century in a Japanized form and has since come to be used in several quite diverse types of music: meditative solos, small ensemble pieces, folksong, and modern works by both native and foreign composers. Sitar - A North Indian long-necked plucked lute, the Sitar is fashioned from a seasoned gourd and teakwood. It has a track of twenty metal frets, with six or seven main playing strings above them and thirteen sympathetic resonating strings placed below. The instrument is generally tuned to the raga (mode) being played, and the main strings are plucked by a plectrum worn on the index finger of the right hand. Its uniqueness of tone is characterised by a long decay, due both to the resonance of the sympathetic strings and other structural features. Tabla - A set of 2 pitched kettledrums from North India. The right drum has a ringing definite pitch, usually the fundamental tone of the raga (mode) being accompanied, while the left drum is lower and more indefinite in pitch. A staple of North Indian classical music and already very well known all over the world, it is capable of an enormous degree of rhythmic precision, complexity, speed and pitch inflection. Tin Whistle - An instrument best known in its association with Celtic music, it has a clear bright tone and haunting lyricism. Like the recorder it has a whistle mouthpiece and finger holes. It possesses a range of approximately 2 octaves. Zheng (pronunciation: jung) - A plucked half-tube wood zither from China, with movable bridges over which strings are stretched. The strings were traditionally made of silk, but today they are usually made of steel or metal wound nylon. The modern Zheng usually has 21 strings, tuned to a pentatonic scale. The performer uses the right hand to pluck the strings, and the tone can be modulated by the left hand pressing the string on the non-speaking side of the bridge. Excellent arpeggios, chords, glissandi, bends, and delicate ornaments are obtainable from the instrument. For a wide variety of other study materials on topics related to intercultural music, world music traditions and instruments, go to www.vi-co.org and click on 'Study Guides'. 5 With thanks to the VICO's SEASONAL MEDIA SPONSOR, OMNtr• DIVERSITY TELEVISION The VICO would like to extend a special thank you to the Vancouver Public Library for their continued support of our artistic and educational activities. New Sound Worlds is dedicated to n rl WORLD MUSIC DAYS The Daniel Pearl Foundation helps to promote cross-cultural understanding through words and music, in memory of Daniel Pearl. www.danielpearlmusicdays.org Comments, feedback, suggestions? Please let us know at: info@vi-co.org New Sound Worlds is a production of the Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra (VICO). www.vi-co.org 6