Berklee Showcases the World - Australia to Canada and China to Ar March 29, 2007

Sample a bit of the world through music as The Sovereign Bank Music Series at Berklee presents the 21st Annual International Folk Festival, Thursday, March 29, at 8:15 pm, in the Berklee Performance Center, 136 Massachusetts Ave., Boston, MA. The international community will be in the spotlight with traditional and folk music, and variations of both, that comes from the fusion of cultures on campus. The evening will include sounds from Australia, Canada, China, Colombia, Lebanon, Pakistan, Puerto Rico, Scotland/Argentina, Spain and Sweden.
General admission tickets are $15; seniors $11.25. Tickets are available at the Berklee box office or through Ticketmaster at 617-931-2000 or www.ticketmaster.com. For more information, please call 617-747-2261 or visit www.berkleebpc.com.
Some of the countries represented are:
Scotland/Argentina:

The Maeve Gilchrist Trio has been heard around Boston in venues like Matt Murphy’s and just got back from performing for a second time by invitation in Hawaii. The group consists of vocalist and harpist Gilchrist from Edinburgh, Scotland, bass player Andres Rotsmistovsky and percussionist Marcelo Woloski, both from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Their combination of Scottish - and Argentinian - rooted music along side jazz and improvisation produces an eclectic and revamped spin to traditional tunes mixed with original songs from Gilchrist’s Scottish/Irish soul.
China:

A 27-piece string performance of the masterwork, Reflections of the Moon in the Er -Quan Spring, regarded as one of the best compositions created by a legendary folk musician and composer from the late 1800’s and early twentieth century. This version, written for strings, emphasizes the beauty of Chinese traditional instruments written for Erhu, a two-stringed bowed instrument. The masterwork is named after “Er-quan Spring” a site in the Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, and expresses the composer’s resentment about the life’s injustices and his hope for a brighter future.
Colombia:

Achuira, the seeds used in Colombian Maracas and also the name of this band, represents the seeds of Colombian Music. The performance will include cumbia and tambora rhythms, as well as an original composition all celebrating the culture, geography and the one- hundred- year tradition of Barranquilla in the country. Touted as the only traditional Colombian ensemble in Boston, Achuira will be joined on stage by BAJUCOL (Ballet Juvenil Colombiano) the only Colombian dance group in the city.
Sweden:

A quartet of jamming buddies, assembled at Berklee, performs a combination of original tunes that incorporate Swedish, old-time, and Appalachian influences, and blends them with other, more Celtic strains. The group includes a student nyckelharpist (a rarity in the United States), a native Swedish string instrument known to weave intriguing melodies, and two student fiddlers, one of whom plays with the group’s guitarist in the Celtic, heavy-metal group “Devil in the Kitchen.”