Description

World premiere of a newly commissioned work, Circadian Rhythms, composed and conducted by Susie Ibarra featuring soloists Devesh Chandra, Alan and Jake George, Matthew Gold, Roberto Juan Rodriguez, Jim Weber, Mamadabou Camera, Eddie Ade Knowles, and Jennifer Milioto Matsue and scored for an 80 piece percussion orchestra. The work also features a surround soundscape of animal and bird recordings from the Macaulay Library of Cornell.

Circadian Rhythms is inspired by the built-in biological rhythms in plants, animals, birds, insects, and bacteria that oscillate, repeat, and change with patterns of movement, migration, birth, and sleep. The composition is a tribute to Earth Day and to the cyclical rhythms that each one of us has while we move and live on this planet.

Ensembles

Ensemble Congeros, Union College Taiko Drum Ensemble, Williams College Percussion Ensemble, Troy High School Drum Core, Troy Samba Group, Bennington College World Percussion Ensemble, Woodstock Day School Guinean Drummers, Rensselaer Percussion Ensemble and the Empire State Youth Orchestra Percussion Ensemble.

Bios

Susie Ibarra is known for her innovative style and cultural dialogue as a composer, improviser, percussionist and humanitarian. Her music is profoundly influenced by the interconnection of nature and cities and the intersection of Indigenous and urban ecologies. Within these relationships, Ibarra is interested in tradition and avant-garde and how this informs and inspires interdisciplinary art, education and public service. In most recent years Ibarra has been developing composition and improvisation that blends traditions and crosses rhythms and tunings of Asia Pacific, Middle East, Americas, Europe and Africa.

Devesh Chandra, of Latham, N.Y., began the Tabla at the age of 3. He has learned Northern Indian Classical Music from his mother, Smt. Veena Chandra.

Alan George, Cayuga Nation, has over 30 years drumming and dance experience, and has appeared with the American Indian Dance Theater in Oklahoma City. He is also active in cultural teaching at the Iroquois Indian Museum.

Matthew Gold directs the Williams College Percussion Ensemble and is a New York based percussionist with a deep commitment to new music. He is a member of Talea and Talujon percussion groups.

Roberto Juan Rodriguez, Cuban-American composer and percussionist, was born in Havana and since resides in New York. He is deeply committed to acoustic and electronic music and actively involved in creating music that crosses cultures such as Cuban, African, American, Sephardic and Arabic, Indian, Philippine, Korean.

Jim Weber is co-director of the Berkshire Bateria and Bossa Triba. He has studied extensively with Samba masters in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil, and performs programs in a variety of venues, including schools and major festivals.

Mamadouba “Mimo” Camara was a lead performer with Les Ballets Africains, the national company of Guinea, West Africa for 18 years before he moved to the Hudson Valley in 1995. Since then, he has continued to spread the richness and joy of his country’s cultural heritage through teaching youth and adults in a variety of venues.

Jennifer Milioto Matsue is an ethnomusicologist specializing in modern Japanese music and culture. She is Director of Asian Studies and the World Musics and Cultures Program, and serves as Associate Professor in Music, Asian Studies, and Anthropology at Union College.

Eddie Ade Knowles is an accomplished musician and Professor of Practice in the Arts with over 45 years of performance, residency, workshop, and recording credits as a percussionist. Ade’s artistic focus is on African, Afro-Cuban, and New World percussion.

Parking available at College Avenue Parking Garage, near EMPAC.
Shuttles begin running at 1pm between EMPAC and Prospect Park.