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Robert and Helene Browning celebrate 45 years of presenting world music & dance. "Their work set into motion nothing less than a seismic shift in the cultural terrain of New York City and beyond. " - The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage |
Support RBA by making a tax-deductible contribution to Roulette, our not-for-profit partner. Be sure to specify in the Donation Notes box that your donation is to support RBA programming. Or, you may send a check to: Jim Staley, Director Roulette Intermedium, Inc., 228 West Broadway, FL 2 NY, NY 10013-2456 |
2021-2022 SEASON
Photo: Aaron Fairooz
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Robert Browning Associates, Lotus Music & Dance, and Roulette present
NIBAL MALSHI & ENSEMBLE
Directed by FIRAS ZREIK
Golden Age of Arab Music & Song
Saturday, November 6, 2021 at 8:00 pm
This captivating program of vocal and instrumental works features some of the finest Arab artists living in the US, as well as emerging names in Middle Eastern music. The exquisite Palestinian singer Nibal Malshi, who has been noted for her evocative vocals, graduated from the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, and performed with such virtuoso musicians as Simon Shaheen and the National Arab Orchestra under the direction of Michael Ibrahim MORE INFO...
Robert Browning Associates, Lotus Music & Dance, and Roulette present
NIBAL MALSHI & ENSEMBLE
Directed by FIRAS ZREIK
Golden Age of Arab Music & Song
Saturday, November 6, 2021 at 8:00 pm
This captivating program of vocal and instrumental works features some of the finest Arab artists living in the US, as well as emerging names in Middle Eastern music. The exquisite Palestinian singer Nibal Malshi, who has been noted for her evocative vocals, graduated from the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, and performed with such virtuoso musicians as Simon Shaheen and the National Arab Orchestra under the direction of Michael Ibrahim MORE INFO...
Robert Browning Associates, Lotus music & Dance and Roulette present
GRIGORIS MANINAKIS
& his MIKROKOSMOS ENSEMBLE
Rebetika Music of Greece
Saturday, November 13, 2021 at 8:00 pm
Grigoris Maninakis, a major vocalist of traditional and contemporary Greek music, is joined by his Mikrokosmos Ensemble in an engaging concert of rebetika, which is often called “the Greek blues.”. MORE INFO...
GRIGORIS MANINAKIS
& his MIKROKOSMOS ENSEMBLE
Rebetika Music of Greece
Saturday, November 13, 2021 at 8:00 pm
Grigoris Maninakis, a major vocalist of traditional and contemporary Greek music, is joined by his Mikrokosmos Ensemble in an engaging concert of rebetika, which is often called “the Greek blues.”. MORE INFO...
Lotus Music & Dance in partnership with Robert Browning Associates presents
WORLD DANCE FESTIVAL:
Dancing Across Cultural Borders
Red Hawk Native American Dancers/ Peruinca Folk/
Japanese Folk Dance Institute of New York/Saung Budaya
Sunday, November 21, 2021 at 4:00 pm
This exciting dance festival, now in its fifth edition, is a celebration of Mother Earth and the harvest with traditional dance from Asia and the Americas. Featured are the Red Hawk Native American Dancers, performing dances from various nations; MORE INFO...
WORLD DANCE FESTIVAL:
Dancing Across Cultural Borders
Red Hawk Native American Dancers/ Peruinca Folk/
Japanese Folk Dance Institute of New York/Saung Budaya
Sunday, November 21, 2021 at 4:00 pm
This exciting dance festival, now in its fifth edition, is a celebration of Mother Earth and the harvest with traditional dance from Asia and the Americas. Featured are the Red Hawk Native American Dancers, performing dances from various nations; MORE INFO...
©PNCA Pakistan National Council of Arts
Robert Browning Associates, Lotus Music & Dance, and Roulette present
HAMZA AKRAM QAWWAL & BROTHERS
Sufi Chants of Pakistan
Friday, March 4, 2022 at 8:00 pm
Pakistan’s Hamza Akram Qawwal & Brothers, grandsons of the revered Munshi Raziuddin, return to Roulette after their mesmerizing performance there in the spring of 2019. They have been acclaimed for their riveting interpretations of qawwali, the ecstatic improvisational Sufi vocal tradition made famous in the West by the late Pakistani singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. MORE INFO...
HAMZA AKRAM QAWWAL & BROTHERS
Sufi Chants of Pakistan
Friday, March 4, 2022 at 8:00 pm
Pakistan’s Hamza Akram Qawwal & Brothers, grandsons of the revered Munshi Raziuddin, return to Roulette after their mesmerizing performance there in the spring of 2019. They have been acclaimed for their riveting interpretations of qawwali, the ecstatic improvisational Sufi vocal tradition made famous in the West by the late Pakistani singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. MORE INFO...
Robert Browning Associates and Roulette present
TAKHT AL-NAGHAM
Classical Music of Syria
Saturday, March 12, 2022 at 8:00 pm
Takht al-Nagham, the performing ensemble of the Syrian Music Preservation Initiative, is committed to playing the Syrian classical and folk repertoire that is rarely heard in the US. This acclaimed New York-based ensemble features the sound of a traditional takht (Arab chamber music group). MORE INFO...
TAKHT AL-NAGHAM
Classical Music of Syria
Saturday, March 12, 2022 at 8:00 pm
Takht al-Nagham, the performing ensemble of the Syrian Music Preservation Initiative, is committed to playing the Syrian classical and folk repertoire that is rarely heard in the US. This acclaimed New York-based ensemble features the sound of a traditional takht (Arab chamber music group). MORE INFO...
© Andrés Pino
Robert Browning Associates, Lotus Music & Dance, and Roulette present
OMAR SOSA & SECKOU KEITA
featuring GUSTAVO OVALLES
"SUBA": Cuban/African Connections
Thursday, March 31, 2022 at 8:00 pm
Cuban piano virtuoso Omar Sosa and Senegalese kora (21-string harp lute) master Seckou Keita, whose collaborations brilliantly embrace jazz, Latin and African influences, celebrate the release of their second album, SUBA. Written and recorded in 2020 during the global lockdown, SUBA is a hymn to hope, to a new dawn of compassion and change in a post-pandemic world, and a visceral reiteration of humanity’s prayer for peace and unity. MORE INFO...
OMAR SOSA & SECKOU KEITA
featuring GUSTAVO OVALLES
"SUBA": Cuban/African Connections
Thursday, March 31, 2022 at 8:00 pm
Cuban piano virtuoso Omar Sosa and Senegalese kora (21-string harp lute) master Seckou Keita, whose collaborations brilliantly embrace jazz, Latin and African influences, celebrate the release of their second album, SUBA. Written and recorded in 2020 during the global lockdown, SUBA is a hymn to hope, to a new dawn of compassion and change in a post-pandemic world, and a visceral reiteration of humanity’s prayer for peace and unity. MORE INFO...
Robert Browning Associates, Lotus Music & Dance, and Roulette present
L. SHANKAR with VIKKU VINAYAKRAM, V. SELVAGANESH & SWAMINATHAN SELVAGANESH
Indian Masters
Saturday, April 2, 2022 at 8:00 pm
This concert brings together the internationally renowned violinist/singer/composer L. Shankar (aka Shenkar) with three generations of the “first family” of Carnatic (South Indian) percussionists, known as “3G.” L Shankar, renowned for his deeply soulful performances of Indian classical music, is a major soloist who has also accompanied many of South India’s leading vocalists. In the 1970s, with John McLaughlin, Zakir Hussain, and Vikku Vinayakram, he co-founded the innovative Indo-jazz group Shakti. In the 1980s, he introduced a 10-string double violin capable of covering the whole range of the orchestra’s string section from violin to double bass. The percussion trio, noted for its rhythmic fireworks, features the legendary Vikku Vinayakram, one of the most celebrated percussionists of South India, who is responsible for popularizing the ghatam (clay pot); his son, V. Selvaganesh (kanjira – small frame drum, hybrid drumset), who was a member of Remember Shakti and toured with Zakir Hussain’s Masters of Percussion; and his grandson Swaminathan Selvaganesh (kanjira, konakkol – vocal percussion), who has been lauded as one of the top kanjira players of his generation. MORE INFO...
L. SHANKAR with VIKKU VINAYAKRAM, V. SELVAGANESH & SWAMINATHAN SELVAGANESH
Indian Masters
Saturday, April 2, 2022 at 8:00 pm
This concert brings together the internationally renowned violinist/singer/composer L. Shankar (aka Shenkar) with three generations of the “first family” of Carnatic (South Indian) percussionists, known as “3G.” L Shankar, renowned for his deeply soulful performances of Indian classical music, is a major soloist who has also accompanied many of South India’s leading vocalists. In the 1970s, with John McLaughlin, Zakir Hussain, and Vikku Vinayakram, he co-founded the innovative Indo-jazz group Shakti. In the 1980s, he introduced a 10-string double violin capable of covering the whole range of the orchestra’s string section from violin to double bass. The percussion trio, noted for its rhythmic fireworks, features the legendary Vikku Vinayakram, one of the most celebrated percussionists of South India, who is responsible for popularizing the ghatam (clay pot); his son, V. Selvaganesh (kanjira – small frame drum, hybrid drumset), who was a member of Remember Shakti and toured with Zakir Hussain’s Masters of Percussion; and his grandson Swaminathan Selvaganesh (kanjira, konakkol – vocal percussion), who has been lauded as one of the top kanjira players of his generation. MORE INFO...
© Nelly Küfner
Robert Browning Associates and Roulette present
MAMADOU DIABATE & PERCUSSION MANIA
Percussion of West Africa
Friday, April 8, 2022 at 8:00 pm
Award-winning balafon (xylophone) master Mamadou Diabate comes from a family of griots (oral historians/praise singers) of the Sambla people in Burkina Faso. Helping to keep alive the balafon’s 800-year-old history, he is a popular performer at festivals in Africa, Europe, Malaysia and India. Often when he performs balafon solos, he creates the impression that three balafonists are playing together. MORE INFO...
MAMADOU DIABATE & PERCUSSION MANIA
Percussion of West Africa
Friday, April 8, 2022 at 8:00 pm
Award-winning balafon (xylophone) master Mamadou Diabate comes from a family of griots (oral historians/praise singers) of the Sambla people in Burkina Faso. Helping to keep alive the balafon’s 800-year-old history, he is a popular performer at festivals in Africa, Europe, Malaysia and India. Often when he performs balafon solos, he creates the impression that three balafonists are playing together. MORE INFO...
© Brenda Kenneally
Robert Browning Associates, Lotus Music & Dance, and Roulette present
PEDRITO MARTINEZ
Afro-Cuban Rhythms
Saturday, April 23, 2022 at 8:00 pm
A consummate master of the Afro-Cuban folkloric music and the bata drum, Pedrito Martinez is one of Cuba’s hottest musical exports. He has performed with dozens of Cuban rumba groups and contributed to several important films, including Calle 54 (2000) and Chico and Rita (2010). MORE INFO...
PEDRITO MARTINEZ
Afro-Cuban Rhythms
Saturday, April 23, 2022 at 8:00 pm
A consummate master of the Afro-Cuban folkloric music and the bata drum, Pedrito Martinez is one of Cuba’s hottest musical exports. He has performed with dozens of Cuban rumba groups and contributed to several important films, including Calle 54 (2000) and Chico and Rita (2010). MORE INFO...
© Alena Soboleva
Robert Browning Associates and Roulette present
THE SECRET TRIO:
Ismail Lumanovski, Tamer Pınarbaşı
& Ara Dinkjian
Thursday, April 28, 2022 at 8:00 pm
The Secret Trio is composed of three extraordinary musicians rooted in Turkish, Balkan Roma (Gypsy) and Armenian music who came together to create a new type of chamber music. Not bound by a single tradition, they perform original pieces and traditional melodies that incorporate the microtonal modes and improvisation of the Middle East, dance beats of the Balkans, and elements of jazz, rock, classical and world music. MORE INFO...
THE SECRET TRIO:
Ismail Lumanovski, Tamer Pınarbaşı
& Ara Dinkjian
Thursday, April 28, 2022 at 8:00 pm
The Secret Trio is composed of three extraordinary musicians rooted in Turkish, Balkan Roma (Gypsy) and Armenian music who came together to create a new type of chamber music. Not bound by a single tradition, they perform original pieces and traditional melodies that incorporate the microtonal modes and improvisation of the Middle East, dance beats of the Balkans, and elements of jazz, rock, classical and world music. MORE INFO...
IN REMEMBRANCE:
Sabah Fakhri • Dijivan Gasparyan
Photo credit: Ira Landgarten
Sabah Fakhri
May 2, 1933 - November 2, 2021
Sabah Fakhri, a Syrian singer who was adulated throughout the Arab world for his superb interpretation of the Arab-Andalusian repertoire, died in Damascus at the age of 88. Known for his superb renditions of the classical muwashshah and qasidah, he was one of the last of the great 20th century Arab singers and was an icon throughout the Middle East and Arab communities around the world. The son of a sheikh, Fakhri grew up in the city of Aleppo surrounded by the sounds of the mosque, including Quranic recitation and Islamic hymns. One of his first jobs was as a Syrian state muezzin reciting the call to prayer.
Sabah Fakhri made his New York debut at Town Hall in 1992 with his 12-member ensemble. He had been invited by ethnomusicologist and musician Dr. A.J. Racy to perform at UCLA, and World Music Institute (WMI) took advantage of his US visit to present him in New York. The concert was a resounding success. Richard Gehr, reviewing the event in New York Newsday, compared his vocal mastery to that of the most powerful jazz and soul singers: “….Fakhri would repeat a single phrase over and over, a dozen times or more, draining out the last drop of emotion like a great soul singer. In a word: transcendant.”
We invited him to perform again at Town Hall in 1993 as part of WMI’s 18-month tribute to music from the Islamic world. In 1998, he performed again at Town Hall for Simon Shaheen’s Maharajan Al-Fan. Once again, Sabah Fakhri wowed the audience with his virtuosity. He will be sorely missed.
“Indefatigable and precise, he made the traditional melodies seem as if they were occurring to him on the spot, even when his voice was joined in every twist by the ensemble. And when he rose into improvisations, there were phrases in which laughter turned to suffering, then was transformed into triumphal high notes.” - Jon Pareles, New York Times
May 2, 1933 - November 2, 2021
Sabah Fakhri, a Syrian singer who was adulated throughout the Arab world for his superb interpretation of the Arab-Andalusian repertoire, died in Damascus at the age of 88. Known for his superb renditions of the classical muwashshah and qasidah, he was one of the last of the great 20th century Arab singers and was an icon throughout the Middle East and Arab communities around the world. The son of a sheikh, Fakhri grew up in the city of Aleppo surrounded by the sounds of the mosque, including Quranic recitation and Islamic hymns. One of his first jobs was as a Syrian state muezzin reciting the call to prayer.
Sabah Fakhri made his New York debut at Town Hall in 1992 with his 12-member ensemble. He had been invited by ethnomusicologist and musician Dr. A.J. Racy to perform at UCLA, and World Music Institute (WMI) took advantage of his US visit to present him in New York. The concert was a resounding success. Richard Gehr, reviewing the event in New York Newsday, compared his vocal mastery to that of the most powerful jazz and soul singers: “….Fakhri would repeat a single phrase over and over, a dozen times or more, draining out the last drop of emotion like a great soul singer. In a word: transcendant.”
We invited him to perform again at Town Hall in 1993 as part of WMI’s 18-month tribute to music from the Islamic world. In 1998, he performed again at Town Hall for Simon Shaheen’s Maharajan Al-Fan. Once again, Sabah Fakhri wowed the audience with his virtuosity. He will be sorely missed.
“Indefatigable and precise, he made the traditional melodies seem as if they were occurring to him on the spot, even when his voice was joined in every twist by the ensemble. And when he rose into improvisations, there were phrases in which laughter turned to suffering, then was transformed into triumphal high notes.” - Jon Pareles, New York Times
©Jack Vartoogian/FrontRowPhotos
Dijivan Gasparyan
October 12, 1928 – July 6, 2021
The legendary Djivan Gasparyan, the foremost virtuoso of the duduk (an ancient oboe-like instrument), was renowned for his haunting and meditative performances that eloquently evoked his native Armenia and its people. Owing in part to his recordings and concerts over his lifetime, the duduk and Armenian music received widespread international attention. His collaborations included a wide array of artists, such as Peter Gabriel, Queen's Brian May, the Kronos Quartet and Hossein Alizadeh, and his deeply soulful sound was heard on the soundtracks of The Last Temptation of Christ, Dead Man Walking, and Gladiator.
When Gasparyan was a child, he was attracted to the duduk while hearing it played in the cinema as an accompaniment to silent films. After performing as a soloist in the Yerevan Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of 20, he went on to have a noteworthy career in Armenia. When Armenia became independent in 1991, Gasparyan began to tour widely and make numerous recordings. It was in the early and mid-90s that we presented him four times under the auspices of World Music Institute. One of these concerts, which took place at Washington Square Church on January 12, 1994, was reviewed by Jon Pareles in The New York Times.
"he turned nearly every (song) into a quiet, riveting drama: elegiac, sultry, nostalgic, reverent." — New York Times
We thank you, Djivan, for all your years of entrancing music!
NPR obituary by Anastasia Tsioulcas
Songlines obituary by Simon Broughton
October 12, 1928 – July 6, 2021
The legendary Djivan Gasparyan, the foremost virtuoso of the duduk (an ancient oboe-like instrument), was renowned for his haunting and meditative performances that eloquently evoked his native Armenia and its people. Owing in part to his recordings and concerts over his lifetime, the duduk and Armenian music received widespread international attention. His collaborations included a wide array of artists, such as Peter Gabriel, Queen's Brian May, the Kronos Quartet and Hossein Alizadeh, and his deeply soulful sound was heard on the soundtracks of The Last Temptation of Christ, Dead Man Walking, and Gladiator.
When Gasparyan was a child, he was attracted to the duduk while hearing it played in the cinema as an accompaniment to silent films. After performing as a soloist in the Yerevan Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of 20, he went on to have a noteworthy career in Armenia. When Armenia became independent in 1991, Gasparyan began to tour widely and make numerous recordings. It was in the early and mid-90s that we presented him four times under the auspices of World Music Institute. One of these concerts, which took place at Washington Square Church on January 12, 1994, was reviewed by Jon Pareles in The New York Times.
"he turned nearly every (song) into a quiet, riveting drama: elegiac, sultry, nostalgic, reverent." — New York Times
We thank you, Djivan, for all your years of entrancing music!
NPR obituary by Anastasia Tsioulcas
Songlines obituary by Simon Broughton