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Global Musics Local Connections Film Festival
Please join us in attending the Global Musics Local Connections Film Festival.
McConnell Library, 50 Falmouth Street, Sydney, Nova Scotia.
Tuesday and Thursday 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm.
February 28 –The Sunjata Story: Glimpse of a Mande Epic
- The life of Sunjata Keita, the prince who founded West Africa’s greatest empire almost 800 years ago, has been passed down for generations… Witness this special Cape Breton performance featuring two master musicians from Mali: singer Hawa Kasse Mady Diabate accompanied on balafon by Fode Lassana Diabate, with poetic translation by Professor Cherif Keita. FILM PLUS PANEL DISCUSSION & MUSICAL PERFORMANCE BY LASSANA DIABATE
March 7 –Dominion– an iCreate Cape Breton project
- Finn Yarborough– Once attracting a diverse population from around the globe, Cape Breton Regional Municipality struggles to recover from the collapse of the industry that fueled its growth and contributed to one of the worst environmental disasters in North America. The departure of Dominion Steel & Coal Corporation also triggered an economic disaster, fracturing the region’s vibrant social mosaic and tempting many to dream of its return… When dominion over nature becomes oppression of the human body and soul, the key to social and environmental resilience may be turned by the same hand.
March 21 – Zurkhaneh: The House of Strength Music and Martial Arts of Iran
- Professor of ethnomusicology at the University of Cologne, Germany, Federico Spinetti has conducted extensive ethnographic research in post- Soviet Central Asia, Iran, and Italy. An active documentary filmmaker, he directed The Enemy as part of a broader study of the memorialization of the WWII antifascist Resistance in today’s Italian popular music, and Zurkhaneh as part of his research into the intersections of music, ritual, and architecture in Iran.
March 23 – The Enemy: A Partisan Hymnbook
March 30 – Kosovo through the Eyes of Local Romani Musicians
- Svanibor Pettan is professor and chair of the ethnomusicology program at University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. His many publications are concerned with music in the context of politics and war, multiculturalism, music of minorities, ethnomusicology of Central and S.E. Europe. He lectures at universities world- wide and is President of the Cultural and Ethnomusicological Society Folk Slovenia and Secretary General of the International Council for Traditional Music.
Global Musics Local Connections Film Festival
Please join us in attending the Global Musics Local Connections Film Festival.
McConnell Library, 50 Falmouth Street, Sydney, Nova Scotia.
Tuesday and Thursday 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm.
February 28 –The Sunjata Story: Glimpse of a Mande Epic
- The life of Sunjata Keita, the prince who founded West Africa’s greatest empire almost 800 years ago, has been passed down for generations… Witness this special Cape Breton performance featuring two master musicians from Mali: singer Hawa Kasse Mady Diabate accompanied on balafon by Fode Lassana Diabate, with poetic translation by Professor Cherif Keita. FILM PLUS PANEL DISCUSSION & MUSICAL PERFORMANCE BY LASSANA DIABATE
March 7 –Dominion– an iCreate Cape Breton project
- Finn Yarborough– Once attracting a diverse population from around the globe, Cape Breton Regional Municipality struggles to recover from the collapse of the industry that fueled its growth and contributed to one of the worst environmental disasters in North America. The departure of Dominion Steel & Coal Corporation also triggered an economic disaster, fracturing the region’s vibrant social mosaic and tempting many to dream of its return… When dominion over nature becomes oppression of the human body and soul, the key to social and environmental resilience may be turned by the same hand.
March 21 – Zurkhaneh: The House of Strength Music and Martial Arts of Iran
- Professor of ethnomusicology at the University of Cologne, Germany, Federico Spinetti has conducted extensive ethnographic research in post- Soviet Central Asia, Iran, and Italy. An active documentary filmmaker, he directed The Enemy as part of a broader study of the memorialization of the WWII antifascist Resistance in today’s Italian popular music, and Zurkhaneh as part of his research into the intersections of music, ritual, and architecture in Iran.
March 23 – The Enemy: A Partisan Hymnbook
March 30 – Kosovo through the Eyes of Local Romani Musicians
- Svanibor Pettan is professor and chair of the ethnomusicology program at University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. His many publications are concerned with music in the context of politics and war, multiculturalism, music of minorities, ethnomusicology of Central and S.E. Europe. He lectures at universities world- wide and is President of the Cultural and Ethnomusicological Society Folk Slovenia and Secretary General of the International Council for Traditional Music.
Lassana Diabate in Cape Breton on February 2017
Fodé Lassana Diabaté is a virtuoso balafon player who comes from Guinea, where the balafon originates. The balafon as an instrument played by griotsdates back at least to the 13th Century. Lassana began playing balafon at the age of five at home in Conakry with his father, Djelisory Diabaté, a master balafon player, from Kindia. Lassana makes his own balafons out of the finest rosewood from Guinea’s forests, and cultivates a round, resonant tone, earning the reputation from an early age amongst his peers of having ‘sweet hands’.
Lassana settled in Mali in the late 1980s after being invited to join the band of the diva Ami Koita, and has since recorded with many of Mali’s top artists such as Toumani Diabaté, Salif Keita, Babani Koné, Tiken Jah Fakoly, and Bassekou Kouyaté. He has collaborated with Taj Mahal and participated in Bela Fleck’s Grammy-winning Throw Down Your Heart project; with several world-class artists including American bluesman Taj Mahal and jazz singer Dee Dee Bridgwater. He is also a member of the Grammy-nominated Mali-Cuba collaboration, Afrocubism.
Itinerary for Lassana’s Visit (Updated Thursday, Feb 17th at 8:15 am)
Wednesday, Feb 22nd at 1 pm – Lassana will perform to introduce and close the CBU Library presentation “Viola Desmond’s Canada” with Wanda Robson and Dr. Graham Reynolds. Find more information about this event HERE. If you are unable to attend in person, you can join us via livestream at this link: https://youtu.be/vC14rV1xlf0
Thursday, Feb 23rd (daytime) – Lassana will work with Cape Breton youth in a workshop, “Intercultural Performance Laboratory” at the Centre for Sound Communities Studio.
Thursday, Feb 23rd at 4 pm – Lassana will provide a music educator’s workshop at the Centre for Sound Communities Studio! Please bring any instruments such as wooden xylophones and mallets (for you and other workshop participants).
Friday, Feb 24th at 5 pm – Lassana will engage in intercultural music-making with local musicians, as a means of “Celebrating African Musical Traditions!” Join us for this special event in honour of African Heritage Month. (Livestreaming may be available – stay tuned!)
Sunday, Feb 26th at 2 pm – Lassana will perform in a house concert! Join him and local community members at A Paradise Found Bed & Breakfast (62 Milton Street, Sydney NS), and enjoy a chance to meet and chat with this extraordinary musician. $20 at the door; all proceeds go to the musician.
Tuesday, Feb 28th at 7 pm– Lassana will be presenting The Sunjata Story: Glimpses of a Mande Epic – the first in a series of films as part of the Global Musics – Local Connections FILM FESTIVAL at the Cape Breton Regional Public Library, McConnell Branch!
This series of intercultural learning events is a partnership with Global Musics – Local Connections and the Centre for Sound Communities at Cape Breton University.
For more information about Lassana and his Cape Breton visit and events, please visit write us at sound_communities.ca or call Dr. Marcia Ostashewski at (Mobile) (780) 264-7624!
LINKS:
Your invitation! Launching the Centre for Sound Communities
Dear colleagues and friends,
Please join us next Thursday, September 22nd, as we celebrate the launch of our new research space, the Centre for Sound Communities!
Please extend this invitation widely – all are welcome.
Refreshments will be provided.
The launch of the new Centre for Sound Communities will be broadcast, live, on Mainstreet Cape Breton, CBC Radio One, with host Wendy Bergfeldt.
Excited to be in Kazakhstan at ICTM World Conference!
I’m thrilled to be participating in the International Council for Traditional Music World Conference that opened today in Astana, Kazakhstan at the Kazakh National University of Arts! I’m here with more than 400 delegates from over 100 countries, sharing research and engaging in exciting discussions about music and culture from around the world. We began our first day, welcomed by Kazakhstan’s Deputy Prime Minister, as well as the Rector of the University who is a world-class violinist! The official opening ceremony was followed by a youth music concert, a plenary on safeguarding musical traditions, afternoon panels of exciting new research, a reception (including a traditional Kazakh drink, horse milk), and a spectacular showcase of students and faculty of the National U of the Arts. Follow me on twitter @m_ostashewski (find my twitter feed on my website at marciaostashewski.ca) to see photos and videos of conference events, and my adventures in Astana – a city that is only 20 years old yet has astounding monumental architecture! I’ve also posted more information and photos about Kazakh bardic performances that were on stage tonight on the singingstorytellers.ca project website!
Kazakh bards featured in tonight’s ICTM concert!
It’s been a wonderful first day at the International Council for Traditional Music World Conference in Astana, Kazakhstan at the Kazakh National University of Arts! You can read more about the opening events at this website on the blog. Tonight we were treated to a spectacular concert showcase of Kazakh National U of Arts student and faculty (including the Provost!). Performances by singing storytellers were featured in the concert so I’d like to share a concert photo with you. This student ensemble, led by their teacher, a woman, in playing an instrument that appears to be have been played, historically, by male performers only (much like the bandura it seems)! For more videos (including a bardic performance), follow me on twitter @m_ostashewski and check out the blog on my website at marciaostashewski.ca!
Singing Storytellers – Sunjata Story – featured on BBC!
We are so proud to have had the Singing Storytellers “Sunjata Story” filmic material previewed in London, England at a SOAS conference on identities last week! LISTEN to Cherif Keita tell us about the story during his recent interview on the BBC!
Hawa Kasse Made Diabate, Fode Lassana Diabate, Professor Cherif Keita performing at the Singing Storytellers Symposium.
Come out this Friday at 7 pm to the iCreate showcase event!
Please join us Friday, June 12 for a closing presentation from the iCreate Cape Breton Pilot Project. This youth showcase, starting at 7 pm at the Boardmore Theatre at Cape Breton University, features visual art, rapping, spoken word, theatrical exercises, and a films screenings that young Cape Bretoners have developed over the past six weeks. This event also includes a pilot social enterprise project.