Fresh off their triumphant debut, Okavango: An African Orchestra returns for an encore performance!
Okavango: An African Orchestra is an ambitious new musical project that could happen only in a great multicultural city like Toronto. Batuki Music Society Artistic Director Nadine McNulty has assembled a cast of seven accom…plished African-born musicians who now live in Toronto and Montreal: Daniel Nebiat (Eritrean Krar), Pasipamire Gunguwo (Zimbabwean marimba/mbira), Donne Roberts (Malagasy guitarist), Nuudi Kooshin (Somali kaban), Waleed Abdulhamid (Sudanese bass/guembri), Sadio Sissokho (Senegalese kora/percussion) and Walter Maclean (Ghanaian percussion). The musical friendships formed with hard work over months of rehearsals, culminated into a cohesive ensemble which was enthusiastically received by the sold-out audience at the Glenn Gould Studio on February 25.
The orchestra takes its name from the Okavango Delta, a basin in the Kalahari Desert in Botswana, where many different animal species come together to feed and find water. Predators and prey are forced to coexist and share the meager resources because of the harsh environment around them. Similarly, Okavango: An African Orchestra brings together the traditional music and instruments of several major African cultures that historically have had little or no interaction. The musicians of Okavango have created a common meeting place for these disparate cultures, and a new musical language that harmonizes their different tuning systems, rhythms, and timbres. The multicultural spirit of modern-day Canada bridges ancient African solitudes.
Okavango: An African Orchestra – 13 instruments, 10 languages, 7 countries… one special concert!
Event also features Jaivah Dance Showcase with Saba and Fumu Jahmez.
Friday April 15, 2011
Doors – 8 PM, Show – 9:00 PM
Door – $20, Advance – $15
info@batukimusic.com, Facebook Page
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