Word & Violin: Poetry and Music by Pireeni Sundaralingam and Colm O Ri February 26, 2011

Weaving together poetry and music, Irish violinist Colm O Riain and Sri Lankan poet Pireeni Sundaralingam explore the rich interconnections between a host of lyric traditions, including Portugese Fado, Bayou Blues and Indian raag. They have performed across three continents, including the UN Headquarters (NYC), the Cheltenham Festival of Literature (UK), and the Irish Embassy (Vietnam), as well as appearing on national radio in Sweden, Ireland, England, and the US. Their latest CD, "Bridge Across the Blue", recipient of the Potrero Nuevo Prize for Social Justice in the Arts, was chosen as one of the ten best recordings of poetry and music of all time by the editors of About.Com. Pireeni is a PEN USA poetry fellow and editor of Indivisible, the first anthology of South Asian American poets --winner of the 2011 N. California Book Award. Colm is currently in studio recording his forthcoming CD, to be released Fall 2011.

Dedicated to examining the confluence of science and art, Pireeni Sundaralingam has held national fellowships both in cognitive science and in poetry. Currently, she is a Resident Artist at the De Young Fine Arts Museum. Educated at Oxford, Sundaralingam was the founding director of the Number Perception Laboratory at CSULA and has held research posts at Cornell, UCLA and MIT. She is a former professor of Cognitive Development.

Both violinist and composer, Colm O Riain likes to sit on borders. Classically, a former leader of the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland, he is also a well-known fiddler on the Irish music scene - in San Francisco and beyond. He and his new Band have started to make waves in both the US and Europe exploring the connection between Irish music and Jazz, Brazilian, Cuban, Indian, Gypsy and other musical genres. As Word & Violin, Colm composes and performs with partner-in-crime, Sri Lankan poet Pireeni Sundaralingam, at festivals and other venues around the world.

Official Website: http://www.ciis.edu/News_and_Events/Event_Calendar/Pireeni_Sundaralingam_Word_and_Violin.html