Join the University of Pittsburgh’s world music ensembles for music making, dancing, and refreshments! This year's World Music Festival will feature the Carpathian Music Ensemble: Dr. Adriana Helbig, Director; University Gamelan: Dr. Andrew Weintraub and Indra Ridwan, Directors; Indian Tabla Ensemble: Pandit Samir Chatterjee, Director; African Music and Dance Ensemble: Charles Lwanga, Director.
Come and join Pitt's Carpathian Ensemble for an evening of Gypsy, Klezmer, Armenian, Moldavian, Ukranian, and Macedonian music.
Pitt’s Carpathian Ensemble will engage attendees in a Slavic Dance Party. Participants will be able to learn songs and dances from the Carpathian and Balkan regions of Eastern Europe (immediately following the Festival of World Music).
The University of Pittsburgh campus will come alive with the music of many cultures at Pitt’s second annual Festival of World Music from 2 to 8 p.m. Dec. 4 in the Ballroom of the William Pitt Union. The festival is free and open to the public and families are welcome.
From 2 through 6 p.m., Japanese, African, and Indonesian groups will perform, including Pitt’s African Music and Dance Ensemble and the University Gamelan. Attendees can sample ethnic foods from these regions of the world.
For Pitt's Department of Music, the end of each semester is always full of wonderful music in diverse styles, and this spring is no exception. The Carpathian Ensemble performed on March 26 at Frick Fine Arts Auditorium, and this video captures the group's lively performance of Chaje Shukarije (Beautfiul Girl). Enjoy!
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette recently featured music department graduate Ken Haney in an article about how the passage of healthcare reform will affect individual Pittsburghers and small business owners. Haney, a clarinetist and member of our Carpathian Ensemble,
“… has multiple sclerosis. He is being kept relatively functional by monthly infusions that cost $3,000 each, paid for by Medicaid because he couldn't get health insurance due to his pre-existing condition. He wants to work full time, but if he earns more than $200 a month he won't qualify for Medicaid. Without treatment, he'll become too disabled to work.”
The Carpathian Music Ensemble, led by Assistant Professor of Music Adriana Helbig, will join the Kyiv Ukrainian Dance Ensemble for the world premiere of The Bayan Player on Saturday February 6, 2010, 3 p.m. at Andrew Carnegie Music Hall in Carnegie, Pennsylvania. The Bayan Player is an original Ukrainian Folk ballet about a village put under the spell of an angry witch, the young woman on a mission to save them, and the bayan player with the power to do so!
For complete details about the event visit the Kyiv Ukrainian Dance Ensemble home page.
Tickets in advance though ProArts: general admission $8.50, students and seniors $5. Visit www.proartstickets.org or call 412-394-3353.
Tickets at the door: general admission $15, non-Pitt students and seniors $10. Pitt students free with ID.
Pitt's Carpathian Music Ensemble, founded and directed by Professor of Ethnomusicology Adriana Helbig, is featured this week in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. It's an extensive article and you will want to read the whole thing, but here's a snippet that provides good insight into what the Carpathian Ensemble is all about. According to Helbig,
"[The music school] said I could start whatever ensemble I wanted. I looked at what I knew, and what would fit with Pittsburgh — there are so many Eastern European immigrants in this area — and instead of going country by country, I decided to choose the name 'Carpathian' which is regional. It includes Hungary, Slovakia, Ukraine and Poland, so I can focus on ethnicities from that region."
As the Ensemble congealed, however, Helbig realized that there's already a strong Balkan music scene in Pittsburgh, so now they play music from that area of Europe as well. "We seem to have developed a genre that people like. Instead of doing it traditionally like you'd hear it in a village, we play the instruments in our own interpretative way, like a fusion approach."
Pitt's Carpathian Music Ensemble is throwing a dance party on Saturday, December 5 at 8 p.m. in the Willliam Pitt Union Assembly Room. The party is free (but donations will be accepted) and will include regional food and lots of great music.