NAMASTE KIRKLAND 2010
Namaste Kirkland returns to KPC this season with a line-up of talented and diverse artists from India! Whether you like jazz, world fusion, or classical Indian music, these artist offer music you are sure to enjoy!
Rudresh Mahanthappa
Friday, March 12, 2010 - 8:00 pm
Mahanthappa was born in Trieste, Italy, and grew up in Boulder, Colorado. He graduated from Berklee College of Music and completed a master's degree in jazz composition at Chicago's DePaul University. During his time at Berklee, he was introduced to the music of Indian saxophonist Kadri Gopalnath, whose use of a Western instrument in the context of Carnatic music surprised and inspired Mahanthappa. He would later travel to India on a grant to work with Gopalnath; the two played together in concert in 2005 and 2007, and collaborated on the album Kinsmen (2008), which fuses Western and Indian approaches to improvisation.
Mahanthappa has been named a "rising star" in Down Beat's Critics Poll for the past 4 years, rising to number 2 on the list in the most recent publication. He has been awarded numerous grants for his compositions, including being given the NY Foundation for the Arts Fellow in Music (2006), three Rockefeller MAP grants, and two New York State Council on the Arts grants. In 2008, he was named a Guggenheim fellow to pursue his interest in how Indian Carnatic music can inform and serve as an inspiration for American jazz. Mahanthappa's playing and composing are firmly ensconced in the highest echelons of the New York jazz scene today.
Delhi 2 Dublin
Saturday, March 13, 2010 - 8:00 pm
Vancouver-based Delhi 2 Dublin is a group of five musicians who mash up electronica and world music, keeping it heavy on the Bhangra, Celtic and Dub flavours. Fusing tabla, fiddle, dhol, Punjabi vocals, and electric sitar with scorching electronic beats, the crew takes listeners on a wild ride through global sounds and synchronicities.
A short history: In 2006, a couple of Punjabi guys walked into an Irish Pub where a hot fiddler was playing. After her set they shared some drinks, some thoughts, and lots of profanity. They became fast friends and decided to walk to a nearby warehouse to check out a DJ playing at an afterhours party. On the way, they noticed a Korean guy busking with his sitar outside of a 99 cent pizza place. Upon buying the sitar dude a slice they decided that he should just come and party with them too. He did. The DJ at the party ended up being pretty decent, so after his gig the group of four invited him to go eat. He went. The food was okay, the service sucked, and the rest is history.
U Srinivas
Friday, April 9 - 7:30 pm
co-sponsored by Abhinay Fine Arts
U Srinivas is an Indian mandolin player of the Carnatic musical tradition of Southern India. Srinivas plays an electric mandolin and has collaborated with John McLaughlin and Michael Nyman. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1998 and the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 2010.
At the age of six he picked up his father Satyanarayana's mandolin. Upon realizing the talent of his son, his father started teaching him. Soon, Satyanarayana's guru, Rudraraju Subbaraju, realized the potential of U. Srinivas and started teaching him. Since Rudraraju Subbaraju did not know how to play the mandolin he would just sing and U. Srinivas would play it on the mandolin.
U. Srinivas made his first public Carnatic concert performance in 1978 in Gudivada, Andhra Pradesh, during the Thyagaraja Aradhana festival. Soon, he came to perform in the Madras Music Season in 1981 for theIndian Fine Arts Society. In 1983, he performed at the JazzFest Berlin where the audience requested him to do a repeat performance. He has since continued touring the world — Australia, Southeast Asia and then Southwest Asia, followed by the United States and Canada.
Nrityagram
April 15-17, 2010
at The Moore Theatre and KPC
Kirkland Performance Center partners with Seattle Theatre Group to present world-renown Indian dance company Nrityagram at The Moore Theatre in Seattle on Saturday, April 17, 2010.
Education events will be held at KIRKLAND PERFORMANCE CENTER and include:
MASTER CLASS
What: Introduction to Odissi Classical Indian Dance
When: Thursday, April 15, 2010, 4:30-6:00pm
Cost: $15; Pre-registration strongly recommended.
To register: email Liz Young at LizY@stgpresents.org or
call 206-315-8009.
Description: An Introduction to Odissi that includes a demonstration of the language of the dance and of dance pieces. This is an opportunity to learn very basic phrases of pure Odissi movement and the isolated body training specific to Odissi.
LECTURE/DEMONSTRATION
When: Thursday, April 15, 2010, 7:30-8:30pm
Cost: FREE; Open to the public (RSVP recommended)
RSVP: email Liz Young at LizY@stgpresents.org or call 206-315-8009.
Description: An Introduction to Odissi that includes a demonstration of the language of the dance and of dance pieces, the lecture/demonstration provides an opportunity for participation and interaction with the dancers and serves as a vital aid to better understanding of a performance.
Both programs are located at Kirkland Performance Center
350 Kirkland Ave. Kirkland, WA 98033.
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Program Information
April 2, 2010, 7:30pm
Études (1994-1999)
These études are part of an evening length work of 16 études for piano completed in 1999. Each étude approaches the piano in a somewhat different way, producing a highly diverse set of pieces.
Four Metamorphoses (1989)
This is a set of piano pieces drawn from both Errol Morris’ film A Thin Blue Line and a staging of Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, part of The Kafka Trilogy (The Process) by Gerald Thomas, first performed in Sao Paulo, Brazil. As both projects were undertaken at the same time, the music seemed to lend itself well to a synthesis of this kind.
Mad Rush (1980)
This piece was commissioned by Radio Bremen and originally composed for organ. Lucinda Childs choreographed a solo dance to this piece shortly after its premiere.
Excerpts from A Musical Journey (1988)
These piano works by Philip Glass were created in collaboration with Gambian Griot Foday Musa Suso.
The Fourth Knee Play (1976)
The Knee Plays from Einstein on the Beach, composed in collaboration with theater director, designer and author Robert Wilson, formed a series of short interludes, which appeared throughout this six hour, four-act work. The original version, from which this arrangement was made, was scored for male chorus and the solo violinist who played the part of Einstein.
Satyagraha (1980)
Satyagraha is the second in a trilogy of operas, which began with Einstein on the Beach and concluded with Akhnaten in 1984. The opera explored the theme of social change through non-violence as seen in the politics and life of Mahatma Gandhi. The trilogy as a whole was performed in Stuttgart, Germany in 1989. The music heard in this piano arrangement appears at the conclusion of Act III and serves as an epilogue to the opera.
