Interfaith Works presents:

The 2009
World Sacred Music Festival
"Artbeat of the Spirit"

a celebration of the sacred through the uplifting music & dance of the world

Saturday March 7, 2009

at the Minnaert Center for the Arts

Abráce’s five singers perform rich harmonies in 14 languages, including English, Spanish, French, Italian, Swahili, Xhosa, Bulgarian, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese, Lucumí (archaic Yoruba), Ladino, Hebrew, Arabic, and nonsense syllables. Abráce’s repertoire celebrates sacred traditions from around the world, including pieces that celebrate the Coptic, Jewish, Lukumi, Muslim and Christian faiths. The word abráce, means “embrace,” reflecting the group’s mission to “embrace the world through music.” Ranging from the 15th Century to the contemporary, our music jumps continents and cultural barriers, taking our audiences across time as well as geography.
Abráce has performed at The Folklife Festival, Beyond the Borders Festival, Bainbridge Art & Music Expo, Seattle Museum of Art, Tall Ships Festival and many other venues throughout Western Washington.

www.myspace.com/abraceworld

Arpan presents Bharatanatyam -- a 2000 year-old classical dance form that was danced in India's temples. Joyce Paul is an accomplished Bharatanatyam dancer who believes that dance is a wonderful medium that can transport you to a level of consciousness that is difficult to reach otherwise. Contemporary Bharatanatyam is practiced as Natya Yoga, a sacred Hindu meditational tradition. It is the manifestation of the ancient idea of celebrating the eternal universe through celebrating the beauty of the material body.

www.joycekpaul.com

performance details

The Dances of Universal Peace are a participatory, embodied spiritual practice using movement, sacred chant, and music. They draw on a variety of faith traditions and each dance is inspired by a particular sacred or mantric phrase
The Dances have been offered in Olympia for 25 years, in diverse settings. This workshop will be led by Jo Thornton Curtz, a certified leader for Dances of Universal Peace, with musicians from the Community for Interfaith Celebration. Our intention is to cultivate community, joy, and inner as well as outer peace. You are warmly invited to join in these simple circle dances. Every chant and movement will be taught. No experience is necessary. All are welcome.

www.peaceworksdancesna.org

Play the Didgeridoo! This workshop and performance promotes awareness, respect, and celebration of creativity via the ancient sound instrument -- the didgeridoo. From beginners to advanced practitioners, this workshop will explore the techniques of playing, to examine and experience the artistry and the unique sound of the didgeridoo. Doug and Ted will also perform various compositions. All ages are welcome at the workshop, and practice "Didgeri-tubes" will be available.

While Hassidic masters led spiritual communities chanting nigunim in Europe and then America, klezmorim were gracing Jews and everybody in these same places with in essence the same music. Klezmer is kli – z’mer, translating from Yiddish as "vessel of song." This refers to the musicians, who in sacred dedication open their hearts, minds, and bodies to allow the spirit of the music to pour through them. Creative, soulful musicians have explored this music in relation to every place and time on the planet it has lived. With a deep respect and love for klezmer The Erev Ravs joyfully celebrate it in Olympia, Washington!

www.myspace.com/theerevravs

Jewbilee plays traditional Jewish Music in a nontraditional way. Based in Monroe, WA, Jewbilee plays music from the liturgy -- such as prayers you would hear in a typical Sabbath service -- as well as music taken from Torah texts and Jewish tradition.

www.jewbilee.110mb.com

LaVon Hardison and Darriel Menefee are pleased to present a program of gospel music and gospel-influenced inspirational songs.

LaVon Hardison’s musical experience began in the Baptist church, where she absorbed the roots of gospel by singing in the church choir. This experience led her to a career in music and theater. Her live performances and three CD recordings span a range of jazz, opera, blues, swing, and gospel/inspirational music. She has served as a church choir director and is a dramatic actor as well as a musician.

Darriel Menefee leads, directs and guides three choirs, and a staff of five musicians at New Life Baptist Church. Menefee began performing at age eight, playing drums for a church choir in Alaska. An active member of the Gospel Music Workshop of America, Menefee is a talented pianist, vocalist, and songwriter, among whose works is a show entitled “The Evolution of Gospel Music.”

Hardison & Menefee recently had their international performance debut at the 2009 International Festival of Sacred Arts in New Delhi, India.

www.lavonhardison.com

The music of our Zikr presentation was created by Jelaleddin Loras, head of the Mevlevi Order of America. The Zikr is a chanting and movement practice which is supported by music rooted in ancient Sufi practices of Turkey. Zikr is the Sufi practice of remembrance, refreshing the connection with the divine spark of life which lives in all of us.

The dance of the Whirling Dervishes is a sacred Sufi prayer in movement. We whirl around our hearts, remembering our connections with the Divine and with all those around us. The Zikr practice we present is “Esta’furullah” asking for the forgiveness of God. We begin with a sitting practice, clearing the rust from our hearts, to provide a clear image of the world, and progress to standing part, taking the symbolic steps to bring the practice into the physical world. This is a participatory practice, the audience is invited to participate and join us in these simple movements.

www.hayatidede.org

The Olympia Sacred Jazz Ensemble was formed in 1998 at Saint John’s Episcopal Church, Olympia. Our mission has been to bring the spiritual side of jazz into a Christian setting. In addition to the rather small body of jazz compositions which were written with this emphasis, most notably the later works of Duke Ellington, we play spiritually oriented jazz classics, traditional hymns in jazz renditions, and a few original compositions. On the fifth Sunday of any month that has a fifth Sunday, we can be heard at the 10:00 a.m. worship service at Saint John’s.

Peter Ali and Tammy Kennedy perform contemporary Native music. The music is free form or improvised, and does not follow any particular tradition from any specific tribe or ancestry. We hope what people will hear are the sounds of healing and peace. This is the reason I started playing eight years ago.

Taiko, the Japanese word for drum and the name of the art form, has its roots in ancient Japanese tradition and was used in religious ceremonies, community festivals and theater. The boundaries of villages were defined by the distance from which the community taiko could be heard. American taiko was born in the late 1960s, and it became a powerful symbol of voice during the struggle for redress of the Japanese American internment.

Portland Taiko’s aspiration is to create taiko performances of the highest artistic quality to touch the universal in all of us and to provide a strong and beautiful voice for Asian America.

www.portlandtaiko.org

Resonance is a new ensemble that composes and performs New World Music and draws its inspiration from musicians and traditions from around the world. The members of Resonance share the belief that music is a powerful form of meditation and can help the player and the listener transcend the reality of the mundane and experience higher planes of consciousness.

Resonance combines the tones and rhythms of flamenco, Middle Eastern, East Indian, and Eastern European styles with the more American styles of funk and jazz, thus creating an eclectic blend of exciting instrumental music that challenges the mind, stirs the heart, soothes the soul, and moves the body.

Everything is sacred. We love to express our joy for life and our connection to all beings though the medium of traditional West African drum and dance. We invite everyone to share in this sacred creative experience by dancing to our music and celebrating their own joy for life.

Music is an international language that has the power to unify, heal, and uplift the human spirit. With that in mind, I have been writing music to help connect humanity, make them smile, and ultimately move them to action.

www.myspace.com/saltonmusic

Sean Gaskell has been playing the kora since 2006, when he started under the instruction of Kane Mathis, a virtuoso of the 21-stringed West African harp. Sean recently spent three months in The Gambia receiving lessons from Malarhini Jobarteh, a griot, and his son Moriba Kuyateh at their family compound.

The kora originates from the traditions of the Mandinka people in Western Africa. The Mandinka encompass a large portion of the region including the present day nations of The Gambia, Senegal, Mali, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, and Burkina Faso. The crystal-clear, harp-like sound of the kora, with its deep Mandinka roots, makes it a truly sacred instrument.

www.myspace.com/seankora

Thione Diop, master griot percussionist, and his group Yeke Yeke will perform exciting and inspirational traditional rhythms from Senegal, West Africa. Thione will play the djembe, tama (or talking drum) and his brother, Gora Diop, also a master griot percussionist, will play the djun djuns.

Before the arrival of Christian missionaries and the later conversion to Islam in Senegal, the indigenous people of Senegal believed in an ancient religious tradition called “ceddo”. Even though the major religion in Senegal is Islam, many people still practice this tradition, in combination with their Islamic faith.

Drums play an integral role in the ceddo tradition. Drums were used to heal people with different ailments such as snake bite or lion attack. Drums were also used to communicate with spirits and heal people that became “possessed”. Drums were used to communicate with animals and also to communicate among the people. Particular rhythms were used when the king wanted the people to gather together. Drums were and still are used today to announce life events, such as the birth of a baby, a wedding, a death, or a loss.

www.thionediop.com

Word-Beat combines the artistry of singer/actor Charles Williams and global-jazz percussionist Tom Teasley in programs featuring the inspirational texts of such authors as Langston Hughes and Nelson Mandela as well as African folk songs. All are accompanied by inventive percussive rhythms and melodies. The duo has performed their critically acclaimed melding of music and voice at prestigious venues and before academic audiences in the U.S. and Europe. Williams and Teasley achieve a true marriage of ancient melody and future sounds of Africa, the West, and beyond. Drawing heavily on various African proverbs and traditional African-American spirituals, Word-Beat delivers ancient wisdom wrapped in powerfully percussive grooves and uplifting melodies.

www.word-beat.com