Earth Day Celebration!
Three World Violin Traditions
Come Together to Beat Climate Change!
Friday, April 22 — 7:00 pm
Emmanuel Church, 15 Newbury Street, Boston
Mimi Rabson, Tara Bangalore, Beth Bahia Cohen
One of the most exciting concerts this year! Enjoy an evening of dazzling virtuosity, daring improvisation and exquisite melody as three great violinists from different world traditions join together to draw attention to the global climate crisis. Featured artists include: the great South Indian violinist Tara Bangalore, Beth Bahia Cohen's Eastern European and Middle-Eastern perspectives, and the vibrant jazz-rock of Mimi Rabson. The music begins at 7:00 pm, at Emmanuel Church, 15 Newbury Street, Boston, MA. Tickets are $20; $15 students/seniors. All proceeds will go to the environmental organization www.350.org. For information or online ticket purchasing, please call 781-396-0734 or go to the event website.
“Violins For The Planet” was conceived as a way for these creative musicians to contribute to the urgent struggle against global warming. Because the climate problem recognizes no national boundaries, the artists represent musical styles from three different parts of the globe. Rabson, Bangalore, Cohen and their accompanists may present different melodic and rhythmic concepts, but they share key musical values: listening, honesty, creativity, and respect. And, of course, all these artists are committed to raising awareness of the potentially devastating effects of global warming. Their choice of beneficiary, 350.org, is focused on building global consensus on reduction of atmospheric CO2 levels — action which climatologists agree is necessary to avoid catastrophic outcomes. It’ll be an incredible evening of powerful music — from some of the finest musicians in New England and the world.
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About the Performers:
Mimi Rabson
Dubbed a "...dazzling, violin phenom" by the Boston Globe, Mimi Rabson has distinguished herself as one of Boston's most creative and versatile musicians. She appears regularly in classical, jazz, Klezmer and other eclectic performances and frequently leads her own ensembles. She is a first-prize winner of the Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship in composition for 2003.
" .... one of the elite players on Boston's jazz-world fusion scene." - the Boston Phoenix.
Ms. Rabson was a founding member of the Klezmer Conservatory Band and worked with that organization for many years touring, recording, composing and acting as musical director. She appeared with Itzhak Perlman on “The Late Show with David Letterman" and was featured in a documentary about Klezmer music called "A Jumpin' Night in the Garden of Eden", while her composition "Klezzified" was featured on Saturday Night Live.
"Great chops and attitude to match"
Washington Post
Ms. Rabson is the founder and leader of the Really Eclectic String Quartet (RESQ) that plays her compositions and arrangements of jazz, funk, fusion, gospel and Latin music. RESQ has made two recordings and performed extensively in the Boston area.
"Talented and fun...What sets RESQ apart...is the wailing intensity, the Jazzy ability to swing and improvise."
Boston Herald
In Ms. Rabson's 2003 recording, "Music," she uses her electric violin in a power trio setting with electric bass and drums, performing noise-rock, post-jazz and electro-acoustic compositions and improvisations. "Music" brought the composer that year's composition award from the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
A dedicated teacher, Ms. Rabson is a faculty member at Berklee College of Music, and has presented master-classes, clinics and workshops at schools, colleges and universities throughout Massachusetts and the country.
"Truly original and marvelous"
Sir Yehudi Menuhin
Ms. Rabson has appeared on "Prairie Home Companion", at Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, Wolf Trap, the Mann Center, the
Place des Arts in Montreal and at many other venues throughout the world. Her other performance credits include: Leroy Jenkins' "Fresh Faust" (premiere performance); the soundtrack for “Sensorium”- Karen Aqua's award-winning film; the Boston Gay Men's Choir; the Boston Camarata; the New England Ragtime Ensemble; the Klezmatics; Sabana Blanca; Abby Rabinovitz; Deborah Henson-Conant; the Pablo Ablanedo Octet; XLCR.
At "Violins For The Planet," Mimi Rabson will be joined by Nick Grondin - guitar, Dave Clark - bass, and Ricardo Monzon - drums.
“… aggressively eclectic and a master of every style she touches” – Bowed Radio
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Tara Bangalore
Tara Bangalore with her disciple Rasika Murali
Tara Bangalore, an accomplished violinist and vocalist in the Carnatic tradition, began vocal training at the age of four. Her gurus have included esteemed artists such as Sri T. M. Tyagarajan, Sri K. V. Krishnan and Sri Shankara Sarma. She began violin at the age of eight with Smt. Vedavalli Ramaswami of Delhi and Smt. T. Rukmini of Madras. She gave her first vocal concert at the age of eight.
She subsequently performed with some great artists such as Sri T. R. Subramaniam, Smt. M. L. Vasanthakumari, Prof. Ramanathan, Smt. Sudha Raghunathan, Sri Nookala China Satyanarayana, Smt. R. Vedavalli, Smt. Sikkil Mala Chandrasekhar and Sri R. K. Srikantan to mention a few. She has also played with her guru Smt. T. Rukmini.
The Hindu, a national newspaper of India, commented about the “chaste classicism” of this “accomplished violinist” and the “sweetness, strength and an emotive quality” of her “finely modulated and attractive voice” as a vocalist. It also said that her “admirably phrased Begada did not recall any familiar style but testified to original gnana (insight).”
She has been teaching music — both vocal and violin — for over 2 decades and is one of New England's most sought-after teachers. Her teaching is marked by rigorous standards, care and concern for her students and an infectious love of music; she is a community treasure. In addition to national awards in the USA, she has been honored by the Music Academy and the Krishna Gana Sabha , two long-standing traditional music academies in Chennai, India.
In the United States, she was awarded the Best Teacher award at the Cleveland Tyagaraja Aradhana Festival, a result of her students' continued success at their annual competitions. Her students have also evolved into seasoned musical artists and continue to enrich the musical community with their talent and avid passion for Carnatic music. It is no surprise that some of her students performed in Chennai during the December music season and got opportunities to accompany visiting artists from India.
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Beth Bahia Cohen
Beth Bahia Cohen is of Syrian Jewish and Russian Jewish descent and has spent many years exploring the ways the violin and other bowed string instruments are played in Greece, Turkey, Hungary, and the Middle East. She plays several Greek lyras, the Turkish bowed tanbur and kabak kemane, the Egyptian rababa, the Norwegian hardanger fiddle, and more. She was a Radcliffe Bunting Fellow and has been the recipient of many travel and research grants, including an NEA/Artists International grant to study the classical music of Turkey.
"Beth Cohen...was spectacular, shifting her style to blend with the various settings, but always retaining a Balkan feel and playing with fantastic verve and passion." Elijah Wald, The Boston Globe
Part of Beth Bahia Cohen's collection of bowed instruments from all over the world
In addition to performing throughout the U.S., Ms. Cohen teaches workshops and ensembles on Middle Eastern, Eastern European, Greek and Turkish music in conservatories and universities throughout the U.S as well as teaching privately in her studio in Watertown. She performs solo concerts of traditional and original music on various bowed string instruments from many countries ("The Art of the Bow"), as well as concerts exploring traditional Jewish music from all over the world. At this concert, Beth will be joined by Mac Ritchey (oud, percussion) and Todd Roach (percussion).
"We are treated to superb performances by Beth Cohen on the violin and suzlyne, virtuosic displays of multi-lingual string-playing. Her master of "languages" spoken by violin - Persian, Armenian, Yugoslavian, Hungarian, Yemenite - is astonishing." Sojourner
About her recent solo CD "Weaving the Worlds," Stacey Phillips wrote in Strings Magazine: "Beth Cohen is the Greek/Turkish violin expert in southern New England. Her new album is a departure from her previous traditional recordings with her Greek and Turkish groups. The only instrument on the CD is her acoustic violin. But by using electronic loops, Cohen plays long lines, then as they repeat, she layers on responsive answers. The multiple strands of her life's musical voyage are here, but the Middle Eastern maqam (mode or scale) always returns as the foundation of her improvisations. This is an introduction to a violinist worthy of more attention, to her personal melding of Eastern and Western styles, and to an effective way of using electronics in the service of wonderful music. In the accompanying liner notes, Robert Labaree of the New England Conservatory aptly cites the spirit of Bela Bartok in this CD in the sense of transforming the old music of other peoples into something new."
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About www.350.org and the number 350:
Co-founded by environmentalist and author Bill McKibben, 350.org is the hub of a worldwide network of over two hundred environmental organizations, all with a common target: persuading the world's countries to unite in an effort to reduce global levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide to 350 parts per million or less. Climatologist Dr. James Hansen says, "If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted, paleoclimate evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that CO2 will need to be reduced from its current 385 ppm to at most 350 ppm." (Dr. Hansen heads the NASA Institute for Space Studies in New York City, and is best known for his testimony on climate change to congressional committees in the 1980s that helped raise broad awareness of the global warming issue.) Activists involved in the 350 movement include Rajendra Pachauri (Chairman, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), Vandana Shiva (world-renowned environmental leader and thinker), Archbishop Desmond Tutu (1984 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and a global activist on issues pertaining to democracy, freedom and human rights), Van Jones, Bianca Jagger, Dr. James Hansen, Barbara Kingsolver and many more.
(complete list of "350 Messengers here)
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Warren Senders is the contact person for "Playing For The Planet." He is one of thousands of concerned global citizens hoping to trigger positive change through social action and the arts. He can be reached through his website.