RIVERSIDE, CA – The Department of Music at the University of California, Riverside, presents the seventh annual World Music Celebration featuring the musics of Asia and the Americas on May 20, Friday, 8:00 pm, in the Performance Lab, ARTS 166. This sampler concert celebrates music from around the world. Audience members willing to be thrilled, lulled, charmed, and moved by the sounds of Music from Japan, Java, India, Malaysia, the Philippines, Mexico, and the United States are invited to join us. This fast-moving program will feature UC Riverside students, faculty, and staff as well as community members.

Featured ensembles include:

UCR Taiko Ensemble: Japanese drumming by members of UCR’s taiko class performing traditional and contemporary works

UCR Gamelan Ensemble: Contemporary and traditional music of Java performed on a gamelan ensemble which includes large, tuned bronze gongs, metal-keyed instruments, xylophones and drums.

UCR Rondalla Ensemble: Instrumental music and songs of the Philippines

UCR South Asian Music (Tabla) Ensemble: Tabla are the drums used as timekeepers in many classical, popular and religious South Asian musics.

UCR Mexican Folkloric Ensemble – Conjunto Mexicatl: Vocals and instrumentation in Mexican Ranchera-style music

Bluegrass music ensemble: A combination of country blues and traditional fiddling developed during the mid-20th century

Keroncong music ensemble – Orkes Pantai Barat: Popular music of Indonesia and Malaysia

UCR Sanshin club – Okinawan Minyo: Traditional music of Okinawa, one of Japan’s southern prefectures

Thai music ensemble: Traditional music of Thailand

This program will highlight the ethnomusicology program in the Department of Music, which has expanded dramatically in the last few years. Prof. René T.A. Lysloff has led the UCR Gamelan Ensemble since 1996 and is a noted specialist in the music and shadow theater of Central Java, Indonesia.

Three other ensembles are led by renowned culture bearers who teach at UCR. Tagumpay “Pi” de Leon directs the UCR Rondalla Ensemble, which performs music from the Philippines. Rondalla is a traditional ensemble of small stringed instruments. It is at once quintessentially Filipino and also an intensely intercultural music, reflecting 500 years of Spanish cultural influence. The UCR Taiko Ensemble is taught and led by Rev. Shuichi Thomas Kurai, already well-known to Riverside audiences for his virtuosic drumming. Tabla master Abhiman Kaushal directs our newest ensemble, the UCR South Asian Music Ensemble. Tabla is a percussion instrument of North India.

This celebration enacts the UC Riverside Department of Music’s commitment to education through cross-cultural performance. It will feature over 80 students, some drawn to these musics through heritage and others by curiosity. The end result is

an energetic evening of wildly varied sounds, each representing different places and differently-sounded world views.

TICKET AVAILABILITY

Fine Arts Ticket Office: 951.827.4331 located at the University Theatre north of Lot 6. Open Mon – Fri, 10am – 4pm.

Arts Building Ticket Office: Open one hour before the concert in the ARTS Building.

Ticketmaster: 213.480.3232, 714.740.2000, www.ticketmaster.com

INFORMATION: 951.827.3245 performingarts@ucr.edu www.performingarts.ucr.edu