This week in NY Carib News Arts of South Africa Concludes with Angélique Kidjos Tribute to Miriam Makeba The month-long, citywide festival UBUNTU: Music and Arts of South Africa concludes in early November with events ranging from concerts at Carnegie Hall to music, theater, and film screenings at partner venues throughout New York City. Acclaimed, Grammy Award-winning vocalist Angélique Kidjo closes the festival on Wednesday, November 5 at 8:00 p.m. in Carnegie Halls Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage, leading a tribute to the life and music of the late, iconic South African singer Miriam Makeba with special guests Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend and singer Laura Mvula. Also appearing at the concert will be Makebas former supporting singers Zamokuhle Zamo Mbutho, Faith Kekana, and Stella Khumalo. Known throughout the world as Mama Africa, Makeba was celebrated both for her voice and for her staunch opposition to Apartheid. In 1963, she became the first artist to testify about the repressive regime of her country at the United Nations--testimony that led to her loss of citizenship and right of return. In the years she spent in exile, Makeba performed across the globe, becoming a citizen of the world with honorary citizenship in ten countries, and spreading the message of the plight of her homeland. Makeba, who died in 2008, was a great mentor and friend to Angélique Kidjo. Speaking about Makeba, Kidjo said, For the generation of my mother she was an example of a woman having a career, and showing, already at that time, a different vision of Africa. She was the one that really gave me the opportunity to think that one day as an African woman, I can have a career as a singer, because when you start singing in Benin or in any other African country, as long as you ... are singing traditional songs its okay. But as soon as you start performing on stage with drums, guitar, keyboards, or whatever it is ... old people say that is evil. So when I became a performer on stage it was not easy at all for me. So here comes Miriam Makeba (when) I was struggling, asking myself if it was worth the singing, and she really nailed the choice for me. I said to myself, she is an African woman, she had a career, she has a voice, and she presents the Africa that I want to represent. So if she can, I surely can too. Kicking off week four of the festival, on Saturday, November 1 at 9:00 p.m. in Zankel Hall, traditional-instrument maker and master musician Dizu Plaatjies and his groupIbuyambo perform an energetic concert of traditional music of the Xhosa people--a Bantu ethnic group, and the second largest group in South Africa--and of other Southern African traditions. The music features drums, rattles, whistles, flutes, mouth harps, and stringed-instruments in addition to group singing and hand clapping. Popular Xhosa songs include a wedding song, Qongqothwane, performed by Miriam Makeba as Click Song #1, and Nkosi Sikelel iAfrika (God Bless Africa), a hymn written in 1897 by Enoch Sontonga, which was later adopted by the liberation movement, eventually becoming the national anthem of a democratic South Africa. Additional festival highlights taking place throughout New York City include a second festival performance by Cape jazz musician, composer, drummer, and band leader Kesivan Naidoo with his quintet Kesivan and the Lightson Saturday, November 1 at 7:30 p.m. This free concert at Flushing Town Hall follows the ensembles Zankel Hall performance onThursday, October 30 at 8:30 p.m. and is part of Carnegie Halls Neighborhood Concerts presented by the Weill Music Institute. Throughout the UBUNTU festival, an exhibition in Carnegie Halls Zankel Hall lobby, entitledJohannesburg in Print, celebrates the expression of South Africas visual arts community through the medium of printmaking. The displayed works were created in the city of Johannesburg and highlight the vibrant David Krut Print Workshop, which has fostered a creative community of emerging and established artists in South Africa for more than a decade. UBUNTU extends throughout New York City, with festival programming at leading partner cultural institutions featuring music, dance, film, visual arts, panel discussions, and more. On Saturday, November 1 at 2:00 p.m. andSunday, November 2 at 2:00 p.m., festival partner The Paley Center for Media presentsSpotlight on South Africa--a series of screenings featuring select interview and performance footage by celebrated South African artists and performers. Featured screenings include: Soul! (1971) with Hugh Masekela and the Union of South Africa; Paul Simons Graceland: The African Concert (1987); an interview with Nadine Gordimer on Voices: Writers and Politics (1985); and a 1965 appearance by Miriam Makeba on The Hollywood Palace. The Isango Ensemble--a theatrical group whose performers are drawn from townships around Cape Town--under the direction of Mark Dornford-May, performs the New York premiere of The Magic Flute: Impempe Yomlingo, featuring Mozarts score arranged for an orchestra of marimbas and percussion onSaturday, November 1 at 2:00 p.m. at The New Victory Theater, with eight additional performances through November 9. Sung in English by an ensemble of more than two dozen voices, the show is a fusion of fairy tale and African myth and won an Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival (Young Vic, London) and a Globes de Cristal for Best Opera (Théâtre du Châelet, Paris). On Monday, November 3 at 8:00 p.m., at the Juilliard School, the New Juilliard Ensembleunder the baton of Music Director Joel Sachspresents a selection of music by contemporary South African composers. The performance features world premieres by Robert Fokkens, Andile Khumalo, and Bongani Ndodana-Breen, as well as US premieres by Michael Blake, Paul Hanmer, and Clare Loveday, and a work by Kevin Volans.
Posted on: Sat, 25 Oct 2014 12:19:38 +0000