grenzenlosfoundation.com Blog

The Silkroad Foundation

“The Bridge between Eastern and Western Cultures”
http://www.silkroadfoundation.org/

This is an interesting foundation (different to Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Project), also providing field trips to areas along the Silk Route, including one this July. The have an informative magazine on research on the Silk Road, and exchange practices: http://www.silkroadfoundation.org/toc/newsletter.html

The Silkroad Foundation is a non-profit organization, established in 1996, to promote the study and preservation of cultures and art on Inner Asia and the Silk Road. The Silkroad Foundation provides resources, information, and interactive exchange toward the pursuit of educating the Bay Area community about Inner Asia and the Silk Road. The Silkroad Foundation operates from private funding and donations and has its headquarters in Saratoga, California.

I was interested to read about Henry Eichheim, ‘one of the first American composers to combine the sound of indigenous Asian instruments with western orchestral colors.’ I am wondering where I can get recordings of his works. This is his biography in Wikipedia:

Henry Eichheim (January 3, 1870 – August 22, 1942) was an American composer, conductor, violinist, organologist, and ethnomusicologist. He is best known as one of the first American composers to combine the sound of indigenous Asian instruments with western orchestral colors.
Contents

He was born in Chicago, where he studied at the Chicago Musical College. He later went to Boston to play with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. After about 1912 he became more interested in conducting and composition than in violin performance; he was an early promoter of the works of contemporary French composers, particularly Debussy, Ravel and Gabriel Fauré, in the United States.

Following some trips to east Asia, including Korea, Japan, and China, he began to study the music of those cultures, and as a result began to use both the instruments from east Asia and Indonesia in his compositions, as well as some of the rhythmic and melodic elements of the indigenous music. He moved to Santa Barbara, California in 1922, although he continued to travel widely. On two of his trips–to Bali, and India—he went with Leopold Stokowski, a friend of his.

After Eichheim’s death, the University of California, Santa Barbara inherited his collection of papers, photographs and musical instruments.

Works

Some of his better known compositions include Oriental Impressions (1919–1922), which contains transcriptions of Japanese, Korean and Thai melodies; Java (1929), and Bali (1931), which use instruments from the gamelan ensembles of those two islands; and The Moon, My Shadow and I (1926), a setting of poems by Li Bai.

He also composed a number of settings of poems of William Butler Yeats.

ROCK MUSIC. ROCK ART
http://uk.amref.org/news/music-a-force-for-good-the-ugandan-story/

Review here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/oct/01/worldmusic.uganda

Lolui Island, Lake Victoria, Uganda.

Four rock gongs have been silent for generations.

February 2007. A group of musicians comprising members of the London Sinfonietta, five Ugandan master musicians and composer Nigel Osborne, along with sculptor Peter Randall-Page, travel to the island, accessible only by a seven-hour boat journey through dangerous waters. Their aim is bring life back to the rock gongs, natural rock formations that possess unique sonic properties found in only a few places on Earth. During the trip the gongs were digitally sampled to allow the sounds to be transported first to Kampala and ultimately back to the UK. They became the basis of a remarkably powerful musical collaboration.

This autumn the London Sinfonietta welcomes the Lead Musicians of Uganda Dance Academy – Bernard Kayiggya, Samuel Bakkabulindi, Hakim Kiwanuka, Robert Lubanga, and Mathias Muwonge – to London for the culmination of this two-year collaboration. In a mini-festival of music, talk, dance and art – the first at the newly opened Kings Place – audiences will have the opportunity to hear the results of this remarkable meeting of Western and African cultures.

Events during the week will include concerts, drumming workshops, exhibitions, talks, films and a club night. The final concert will feature the world premiere of Rock Music by Nigel Osborne – a London Sinfonietta commission – alongside music by leading Ugandan composer Justinian Tamasuza and rising British star Tansy Davies.

Promoted by London Sinfonietta in association with Kings Place Music Foundation.

Supported by the British Council, Ruwenzori Sculpture Foundation, Moose Foundation for the Arts, and London Sinfonietta Kings Place
Campaign supporters.

Rock Music. Rock Art Schools Concert.
Hall One 2pm.

An interactive and participatory event, presented by Richard Frostick, for students aged 10-13 and their teachers exploring traditional Ugandan music and cross-cultural musical collaborations.

For more information about community and schools programmes run by the London Sinfonietta contact Anna Rice (anna.rice@londonsinfonietta.org.uk or 020 7239 9340) or Joanie Magill about Kings Place Music Foundation’s outreach programme (joanie.magill@kingsplace.co.uk or 020 7520 1450).

***
Rock Art: Peter Randall-Page
Hall Two 7pm

Peter Randall-Page with the London Sinfonietta and Lead Musicians of Uganda Dance Academy

An illustrated talk by the sculptor Peter Randall-Page about his new exhibition at Pangolin London inspired by his experiences in Uganda, with live music from members of the London Sinfonietta, Lead Musicians of Uganda Dance Academy and Trinity College of Music.

Programme:
Talk by sculptor Peter Randall-Page

London Sinfonietta
David Hockings percussion
Tim Palmer percussion
Steve Smith guitar
Students, names tbc
Sound Intermedia sound diffusion

Steve Reich
Clapping Music (for 2 percussionists, 5’)
Electric Counterpoint (for guitar and tape, 15’)
Music for Pieces of Wood (7’)

Lead Musicians of Uganda Dance Academy
Bernard Kayiggya
Samuel Bakkabulindi
Hakim Kiwanuka
Robert Lubanga
Mathias Muwonge

http://www.on-the-move.org/EN/index.lasso?page=http%3a%2f%2fwww.on-the-move.org%2fEN%2fnews_detail.lasso%3fshow_me_news%3d2319

International theatre conference and solo performance festival, Kerala, India 18-22 Jan 2009 (deadline 30 Nov 2008)
Posted: 05-09-2008

With the themes Body kinesis in Intercultural performance and Matriarchy – Performance of Motherhood.

Natakam International Theatre Research Lab India in collaboration with Sopanam performing Arts Centre and Actes Lies Theatre France.
OBJECTIVES :
To gather a community of performance oriented group from all over India and abroad.
To explore the matriarchal point of view and the performance related to it exploring with traditional lores .
To provide opportunity for presentation and discussion on researches among academic scholars and practitioners in the theatre and performance studies in India.
To theorize on the present state of Intercultural aspects related to body images in Performance. Studies discourse through the series of researches and / or presentations;
To exchange information among scholars and practitioners in the theatre and performance studies regarding this traditional theatre form; and
To build networks among scholars and practitioners for future collaboration in research, academic exchange and performance praxis.
Performance Studies scholars interested and / or focused on Body exploration /kinesis.
PARTICIPANTS :
Researchers, academics and consultants with research interests on Theatre and Performance Studies (especially those who specialize in intercultural studies)
Theatre practitioners: actors, directors, artistic staff, production staff and stage staff who specialize or perform.
Graduate and post-graduate students in theatre, performance studies and related fields
Publishers of journals and / or academic textbooks in Theatre and Intercultural Performance Studies
Students in theatre arts, art studies, art education, performance studies and related disciplines.
THEME :
1.Body kinesis in Intercultural performance.
2.Matriarchy- Performance of Motherhood
ABSTRACT DEADLINE: NOVEMBER 30-2008.

email contact :
haikutvla(at)rediffmail.com
sreejithdasaratha(at)yahoo.com
kalari7th(at)gmail.com
Telephones:
india: + 9109985073625
france: +330146591153
TeleFax India :+91922537384 – 89

http://www.barbican.org.uk/theatre/event-detail.asp?ID=6065

Chinese born Shen Wei combines influences from the east and west, and brings dance, music and visual art together in this powerful performance.

Music and Globalization Symposium
Eastman School of Music
September 19-20, 2008

http://esm.rochester.edu/globalization/index.php

Late last year there was an interesting and quite unique event at the Eastman School of Music. I would be interested to hear from anyone who was at the event, have copies of transcripts etc!

The two-day event includes concerts and a symposium at the Eastman School of Music, focusing on issues of cultural self-representation through changing and overlapping musical styles. The conference will approach the subject through scholarly and creative work, with an emphasis on the music of Chinese-American composer Chen Yi.

Presented by the Central New York Humanities Corridor and made possible by a grant from The Mellon Foundation.

I heard about this film from a February Asia Society Podcast.

Gran Torino is a 2008 American drama film directed by, produced by, and starring Clint Eastwood. It is the highest-grossing movie of Eastwood’s career. The film features a predominantly Hmong cast, an ethnic minority from South-East Asia. It seems to be an important film about ethnic relations in American suburbia. Having now watched the trailer and a feature on the behind-the-scenes creation of, I really want to see it.

Here is an excellent review in the Far Eastern Economic Review
Plot:

Walt Kowalski is a widower who holds onto his prejudices despite the changes in his Michigan neighborhood and the world around him. Kowalski is a grumpy, tough-minded, unhappy an old man, who can’t get along with either his kids or his neighbors, a Korean War veteran whose prize possession is a 1972 Gran Torino he keeps in mint condition. When his neighbor Thao, a young Hmong teenager under pressure from his gang member cousin, tries to steal his Gran Torino, Kowalski sets out to reform the youth. Drawn against his will into the life of Thao’s family, Kowalski is soon taking steps to protect them from the gangs that infest their neighborhood.

In celebration of the extraordinary range of artistic expression in the Muslim world, Asia Society, BAM, and New York University’s Center for Dialogues proudly present Muslim Voices: Arts & Ideas.

Muslim artists and speakers from as far away as Asia, Africa, and the Middle East and as near as Brooklyn will gather for an unprecedented ten-day festival and conference. Through performances, films, exhibitions, talks, and other events – ranging from the traditional (calligraphy, storytelling, and Sufi chanting) to the contemporary (video installations and Arabic hip-hop) – the festival offers New York audiences the opportunity to experience the cultural diversity and multiple perspectives that represent the Muslim world.

More information at http://muslimvoicesfestival.org/

Francis Silkstone, advisor to the Grenzenlos Foundation, has worked with this Italian singer, who is involved in many interesting projects

http://www.ameliacuni.de
Intercultural projects with Terry Riley, Francis Silkstone and her own intercultural compositions.

Amelia Cuni: ASHTAYAMA – Song of Hours