FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Sarah Snyder
ssnyder3@umd.edu
301.405.8151
College Park, MD—Known for its rich and unexpected musical collaborations, the Kronos Quartet will join in concert with famed Malian vocalist Hawa Kassé Mady Diabaté and instrumentalists Fodé Lassana Diabaté and Mamadou Kouyaté, in Trio Da Kali's first visit to the United States, on February 22 at 8pm at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center’s Dekelboum Concert Hall.
Kronos Quartet and Trio Da Kali will present the world premiere of arrangements by Fodé Lassana Diabaté, Grammy-winning music producer and ethnomusicologist Lucy Durán and composer Jacob Garchik, who were commissioned for the Kronos Quartet and Trio Da Kali by the Aga Khan Music Initiative, a program of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, and the Kronos Performing Arts Association. This concert is presented in collaboration with the Aga Khan Music Initiative.
The evening’s program will also feature the Kronos Quartet playing Bryce Dessner’s Aheym (Homeward) and Valentin Silvestrov’s String Quartet No. 3.
About Trio Da Kali
The three musicians of Trio Da Kali hail from the Mande culture of Mali, from a heritage of distinguished griots (hereditary musical artisans). Long-term collaborators, the artists highlight the neglected repertoires and performance styles of the griots, celebrating the African continent’s finest, most subtle and sublime music. In doing so, they bring a fresh, contemporary, creative twist to their musical art, breathing new life back into this ancient music.
Trio Da Kali’s performances revolve around the rounded vibrato voice of Hawa Kassé Mady, who performs the songs she grew up with in Kela, one of the most musical centers of the griot world. Their music also features the solo balafon pieces by the group’s leader Lassana Diabaté on the 22-key balafon. Few can match his lyricism and virtuosity, and the resonant sound of the rosewood keys of his balafon. Mamadou Kouyaté underpins the music with punchy bass lines on a large ngoni, West Africa’s oldest string instrument.
The Trio’s project of rescuing old styles with a creative and modern approach arises naturally from their own special upbringing at the heart of the griot tradition. All three members of the trio belong to intensely musical lineages of hereditary musicians, who have passed on to them an astonishing wealth of songs and musical knowledge. Much of this repertoire is now forgotten or neglected, and yet, it represents the heart of a musical culture that has stood the test of time across many centuries. Trio Da Kali shows just how timeless and captivating this extraordinary musical heritage is.
About Kronos Quartet
For 40 years, the Kronos Quartet—David Harrington (violin), John Sherba (violin), Hank Dutt (viola), and Sunny Yang (cello)—has pursued a singular artistic vision, combining a spirit of fearless exploration with a commitment to continually re-imagining the string quartet experience. In the process, Kronos has become one of the most celebrated and influential groups of our time, performing thousands of concerts worldwide, releasing more than 50 recordings of extraordinary breadth and creativity, collaborating with many of the world's most intriguing and accomplished composers and performers, and commissioning more than 800 works and arrangements for string quartet. Kronos is the only recipient of both the Polar Music Prize and the Avery Fisher Prize and has also earned a Grammy for Best Chamber Music Performance (2004) and “Musicians of the Year” (2003) honors from Musical America.
A non-profit organization, the Kronos Quartet/Kronos Performing Arts Association is committed to mentoring emerging musicians and composers, and to creating, performing and recording new works. Each season, Kronos works with selected young student composers within the UMD School of Music to create new works, refine the pieces for maximum musical impact and present initial readings of the works in a public event.
About Aga Khan Music Initiative
The Aga Khan Music Initiative is an interregional music and arts education program with worldwide performance, outreach, mentoring and artistic production activities. Launched to support talented musicians and music educators working to preserve, transmit and further develop their musical heritage in contemporary forms, the Music Initiative began its work in Central Asia, subsequently expanding its cultural development activities to include artistic communities and audiences in the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia. The Initiative promotes the revitalization of cultural heritage both as a source of livelihood for musicians and as a means to strengthen pluralism in nations where it is challenged by social, political and economic constraints.
Tickets
More information can be found on our website. Tickets for this performance are $35/$10 (Regular/Students), and can be purchased online or by calling (301) 405-ARTS (2787).
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Located on the University of Maryland campus and a part of the College of Arts and Humanities, Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center is a premier presenting arts venue and collaborative laboratory shared by the School of Music (SOM), the School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies (TDPS) and the Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library. The Center made its debut in 2001 and has grown into a national model for campus performing arts centers, presenting performances and programs by visiting artists as well as by students and faculty of SOM and TDPS in an environment of creative learning, exploration and growth. The Center remains active in the larger university community through its innovative partnerships and extraordinary experiences.
The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center is supported by a grant from the Maryland State Arts Council, an agency dedicated to cultivating a vibrant cultural community where the arts thrive. An agency of the Department of Business & Economic Development, the MSAC provides financial support and technical assistance to nonprofit organizations, units of government, colleges and universities for arts activities. Funding for the Maryland State Arts Council is also provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.
This concert is presented in collaboration with the Aga Khan Music Initiative, a program of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture.
This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.
This event is part of the Arts in My Neighborhood initiative by the Emerging Arts Advocates of Maryland program of Maryland Citizens for the Arts.