New BMRE Concert Explores Global Scope of Black Music

New BMRE Concert Explores Global Scope of Black Music

To: News assignment editor, photo desk, music editors, reporters,
critics

What: Media coverage requested

Why: The New Black Music Repertory Ensemble (New BMRE), the
performance organization of the Center for Black Music
Research at Columbia College Chicago, will present a special
evening concert celebrating the black musical experiences. The
concert will celebrate a vast selection of these traditions
including African gourds and the roots of black banjo and fiddle
traditions, classic gospel, jazz and the world premiere of three
new works for chamber orchestra.

When: Wednesday, March 15 at 8 p.m.

Where: The Harris Theater for Music and Dance in Millennium Park, 205 E.
Randolph Drive

Highlights:

-- World premieres of new works for chamber orchestra composed for
the New BMRE by T.J. Anderson, Wendell Logan and Olly Wilson.
Kirk Edward Smith, conductor.
-- Vocal performances by Maggie Brown of blues, gospel, Negro
spiritual and jazz and by the Boyer Brothers (Horace and James)
of classic gospel.
-- A special demonstration on the development of the banjo from
African gourd instruments and the subsequent development of the
blues song. Featuring Cheik Hamala Diabate (ngoni), James Leva
(banjo and fiddle), Mike Seeger and Joe Thompson (perhaps the
only surviving practitioner of the black short-bow fiddle
tradition).
-- Music of New Orleans, including Edmond Dede (a "Creole of color"
who expatriated to France in the 19th century), and 1920s blues
and jazz as performed by Sippy Wallace and Louis Armstrong.

Who: The New BMRE concert is the public event of the 2006 Conference
on Black Music Research which is presented jointly with the 32nd
Annual Conference of the Society for American Music. Developed
and hosted by the Center for Black Music Research (CBMR) at
Columbia College Chicago, the Conference on Black Music Research
will welcome scores of musicians and ethnomusicologists to the
city to explore such scholarly topics as Black Women's Activism
through Music, Black Music in Italy, Diasporal Connections in
Black Music of the Americas, John Coltrane and Black America's
Quest for Freedom and Researching and Teaching Black Music.

The Center for Black Music Research was founded in 1983 by Samuel A. Floyd Jr. in recognition of a need for an integrated approach to the study of black music that encompasses the arts and humanities as well as social, political and historical approaches to scholarship. The CBMR documents, collects, preserves and disseminates information about black music in all parts of the world and promotes understanding of the common roots of the music, musicians and composers of the global African Diaspora. The CBMR presents public lectures, performances and symposia throughout the year as well as hosting international conferences and publishing two scholarly journals, a monograph series, a number of newsletters and a book series with the University of California press. In addition, the CBMR works with the Chicago Public Schools to provide classroom teachers in the system's Fine and Performing Arts Magnet Cluster Schools with scholarship and pedagogy on the history and contribution of the music of the African Diaspora. The CBMR is a research unit of Columbia College Chicago and its programs have been funded by a number of major foundations and giving agencies.

Media Contact: Priscilla Hunter, +1-312-344-7805, +1-312-286-6624 (cell),

or phunter@colum.edu

PRNewswire -- March 14

Source: Columbia College Chicago

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