Area Concerts Funded by Rockefeller Music Grant
These funds will provide unique experiences and cultural exposure that these children would otherwise never have. A series of free public concerts in area schools will take place over the next few weeks as a result of the $40,000 grant received by The Roxbury Arts Group to provide innovative music experiences to 5th through 8th grade participants in the summer CROP programs in Andes, Margaretville, Roxbury, Stamford, Jefferson and S. Kortright Central Schools.
The first concert will be by The Electric Junkyard Gamelan Orchestra at a 2:15 pm assembly at Roxbury Central School on Monday, September 25 followed on September 26 in concert at S. Kortright at 2:15.. The funding came from The New York State Music Fund was created when the New York State Attorney General’s Office resolved investigations against major record companies that had violated state and federal laws prohibiting “pay for play” (also called “payola”).
The settlement agreement stipulated that funds paid by music businesses would support music education and appreciation for the benefit of New York State residents. The Attorney General’s Office enlisted the services of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, one of the nation’s largest and most experienced philanthropy services, to develop and manage the grant program.
CROP is a 21st Century Community Learning Center Project grant, administered by the New York State Education Department through the No Child Left Behind Act and the United States Department of Education. The comprehensive goal of CROP is to promote academic achievement, personal growth, social awareness and physical and emotional health to students in grades K-8.
The participating artists each spent a week in two schools in a program called Katskill Kids Make Music, working with students in a variety of musical experiences that included the making of instruments from discarded or recycled materials as well as learning the principals of composition, rhythm, scoring and conducting, The upcoming concerts are the planned culminating activities that will introduce the musicians to the general community.
The other concerts
in the program are: John Kirk and Trish Miller, traditional
folk musicians in Margaretville at 8:20 am and in Andes on October 27 at
a time to be announced; and Lisa Karrer and David Simons in
Jefferson on October 16 and Stamford on October 17, times to be announced.
Call the Roxbury Arts Group at (607) 326-7908 for updated information.
Electric Junkyard Gamelan is the brainchild of bandleader and composer Terry
Dame. Born out of desire to create a totally new and original sound Dame
fused her two passions, making music and inventing and building things to
form this totally unique group. While studying Balinese Gamelan in graduate
school in 1997, Dame became intrigued with the high energy interlocking rhythms
and the amazing ring of overtones created by the ensemble of metal gongs
and xylophone-type instruments used in traditional Balinese music.
An inventor by nature she began experimenting with making mainly percussion instruments out of found objects and junk from the local scrap yard. Thus was born the Electric Junkyard Gamelan. Today the group's music is influenced by everything from Indian classical to klezmer, rock to jazz and is shaped by Dame's unique and humor laced voice. They perform on innovative instruments such as the Rubarp and Big Barp (electric rubber band harps), the Sitello (an electric cello/sitar combo), the Terraphone (copper pipe horn), the Clayrimba (a three octave tuned clay pot "marimba") and an arsenal of percussion instruments fashioned from old farm equipment, turntable platters, saw blades, and truck springs. The result is a super original sound with haunting melodies, funky bass lines and layers of danceable interlocking rhythms that ride over thrilling clashes of metal on metal and colorful harmonic washes. Audiences are transfixed by the beauty and strangeness of the unusual collection of instruments on stage and the amazing array of carefully placed sounds they produce. The five musicians in EJYG hail from diverse musical backgrounds.
Band leader and composer Terry Dame, a saxophonist by training, has studied music from around the world including Indonesia, the Middle East, the Balkans, India and Brazil. She has been living and working in New York City since 1985, composing and performing for film, video, theater, dance, and concerts. She was the music director, composer and saxophonist with the seven piece global beat jazz group Monkey on a Rail from 1998-2002 and a founding member of the improvisation trio Trophy Wife . She was composer in residence and saxophonist with Jennifer Miller's New York based Circus Amok from 1994-2004 . Ms. Dame is also a member of Gamelan Dharma Swara, the traditional Balinese Gamelan based at the Indonesian Consulate in New York City and Paprika, Brooklyn’s acclaimed all-female international dance music band. She was an artist in residence at HERE Art Center in New York City during 2003 & 2004 and has received commissioning funds from the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, The Rockefeller Foundation, New York State Council for the Arts and the Meet the Composer Fund. Dame was recently selected to be a 2006 Sundance Institute Composer Lab Fellow.
She met Julian Hintz aka Julz A, a singer, hip-hop accordionist and classically trained percussionist while in grad school at Cal Arts. Mary Feaster, Lee Frisari and Dame met while playing together in the Circus Amok Band. Feaster, also a member of the trio Trophy Wife, is a bassist that plays everything from punk to funk, Latin to klezmer. Frisari is a classically trained percussionist and punk rock drummer. She performs with her own gender-bending punk rock trio Inner Princess and tours nationallyas a drummer with Bitch. Master hand drummer Robin Burdulis who has played Cuban and African drums for over twenty years rounds out the group. EJYG has been performing together since 1998. They released their self-titled debut cd in 2002 and have just finished a live dvd to be released in the fall of 2006. This highly adaptable group has performed at every type of venue possible from prestigious art centers such as the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and the Kitchen in New York City to rock clubs such as The Knitting Factory and CBGB’s to underground music parties and outdoor festivals.
Lisa Karrer and David Simons perform their own compositions
for Indonesian Gamelan, Homemade Instruments, Western orchestra, theremin,
sampler, computers, opera, new music theater as well as acoustic and electronic
arrangements of Estonian, Bosnian, Yiddish, Thai, and other deconstructed
world music pieces. They have received numerous grants, commissions and travel
awards to perform their operas and other works in New York City, Hawaii,
Indonesia, the Baltics, and throughout Eastern and Western Europe.
As educators Lisa and David have been teaching music and performance skills
in the New York City school system, and in places as far as Kansas, Hawaii,
and Poli Talu Arts Center in Estonia.
John Kirk & Trish Miller are a married couple from
the foothills of the Adirondacks. They work together full time, playing music
and singing in concerts, festivals, schools, and both call dances. John is
lead singer and a versatile instrumentalist on mandolin, guitar & banjo
as well as fiddle. Trish plays banjo and guitar. Sing Out magazine said,"John
Kirk is a fine player on all his instruments and he sings quite well. With
such a widely varied repertoire, there's really something here for everyone.
These folks are worth seeking out." The duet has the drive of an old-time
stringband, the depth of moving ballads and show-stopping clog dances to
boot!
Since 1988, they have toured throughout the U.S. and abroad, from a school down in the Grand Canyon to Barbados, from the local Dance Flurry Festival to a concert at the Academy of Culture in St. Petersburg, Russia. They are in demand as arts-in-education specialists, participating in several residence programs at schools and colleges throughout the United States. They have been featured on two WMHT-Public TV specials; "Songs from the Heart of the Adirondacks" and "Christmas in the Adirondacks". Together they have several recordings available and both John and Trish teach at Skidmore College and John also teaches at Bennington College.
Jenny Liddle, Executive Director of The Roxbury Arts Group says, “These funds will provide unique experiences and cultural exposure that these children would otherwise never have. The New York State Music Fund has provided a very direct and financially efficient way to provide top quality cultural programming; we are thrilled to have been awarded this prestigious grant”