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2014-15 CONCERT SEASON IN REVIEW

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HarmoNYom in association with Robert Browning Associates presents
Saturday, October 4, 2014 at 7:30pm  
Women’s Voices Festival: A Celebration of Women in Indian Classical Music 
ROOPA PANESAR, sitar
 – NY debut

Saint Peter’s Church, 619 Lexington Ave at 54th St, NYC  
 +7pm talk w/ Indian music specialists moderated by author Kavita Das about the evolution of female artists in Indian music

The soulful Roopa Panesar is a rising young sitar star in the UK’s Indian music scene.  Noted for her distinctive style, she began her training at the age of seven with sitar maestro Ustd Sharambir Singh. ...MORE INFO   

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HarmoNYom in association with Robert Browning Associates presents
Friday, October 10, 2014 at 7:30pm  
Women’s Voices Festival: A Celebration of Women in Indian Classical Music 
MEETA PANDIT, vocals 
Saint Peter’s Church, 619 Lexington Ave at 54th St, NYC  
+ 7pm talk w Francesca Cassio, Associate Professor at Hofstra University, moderated by author Kavita Das about the evolution of female artists in Indian music
Meeta Pandit has emerged as a prominent star in the world of classical music. An exponent of the Gwalior gharana ), she is the granddaughter and disciple of Pt. Krishna Rao Shankar Pandit...MORE INFO   

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HarmoNYom in association with Robert Browning Associates presents
Friday, October 17, 2014 at 7:30pm
Women’s Voices Festival: A Celebration of Women in Indian Classical Music  
ANUPAMA BHAGWAT, sitar 
Saint Peter’s Church, 619 Lexington Ave at 54th St, NYC 
+ 7pm talk with Professor Akeel Bilgrami, Sidney Morgenbesser Chair in Philosophy, Professor, Committee on Global Thought, Director, South Asian Institute, Columbia University, NY moderated by Robert Browning about the evolution of female artists in Indian music
The commanding sitarist Anupama Bhagwat is one of the leading disciples of the world-renowned Pt. Bimalendu Mukherjee, exponent of the famous Imdadkhani gharana, which is admired for...MORE INFO

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HarmoNYom in association with Robert Browning Associates presents
Friday, October 24, 2014 at 7:30pm
Women’s Voices Festival: A Celebration of Women in Indian Classical Music
ANANDI BHATTACHARYA , vocal – NY debut
Saint Peter’s Church, 619 Lexington Ave at 54th St, NYC 
+ 7pm talk with Pta. Tripti Mukherjee (vocalist and disciple of Pandit Jasraj) and Suphala (tabla player and disciple of Zakir Hussain), moderated by author Kavita Das about the evolution of female artists in Indian music
The mesmerizing vocalist Anandi Bhattacharya, born in 1996, became a child prodigy in a family of renowned musicians and singers, including her father, slide guitar master Debashish Bhattacharya...MORE INFO 

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Robert Browning Associates presents
Saturday, October 25, 2014 at 8pm  
SHAKIR KHAN with ENAYET HOSSAIN   
Classical Indian Music
Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave (at 3rd Ave), Downtown Brooklyn  


One of the most sensitive and dynamic young classical sitar players internationally, the brilliant Shakir Khan follows in the footsteps of his illustrious father and guru Shahid Parvez...MORE INFO                                          

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Robert Browning Associates presents
Saturday, November 15, 2014 at 8pm  
ESPIRITU GITANO  
Flamenco: Felah-Menguz (Fugitive Peasant) 
Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave (at 3rd Ave), Downtown Brooklyn

Directed by guitarist-composer Arturo Martinez who has been a noted figure in the New York flamenco scene since the 1980s, the 10-member Espiritu Gitano ensemble of musicians, singers and dancers reveals the beauty and boldness of flamenco....MORE INFO       

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 Asia Society & Robert Browning Associates present
Saturday, January 31, 2015 at 8pm
DAVOD AZAD - SOLD OUT!
Echoes of the Mystic: Spiritual Music of Iran
Asia Society, 725 Park Avenue, NYC   

Tehran based Davod Azad, based in Tehran, is a vocalist, composer, multi-instrumentalist and master of the tar and setar, two instruments fundamental to the Persian music repertoire.  He is admired for his distinctive...MORE INFO         

Picturephoto: Sahiba Kaur Chawla
 Robert Browning Associates, Asia Society & Composers Now present
Saturday, February 21, 2015 at 8pm   
KIRAN AHLUWALIA     
Indian Song: Roots & Revolution
Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave (at 3rd Ave), Downtown Brooklyn 
 
Noted for “her soul-stirring voice” (Los Angeles Times), vocalist-composer Kiran Ahluwalia brings a modern               sensibility to her songs of Sufi mysticism and yearning romantic love... MORE INFO                                                  “fascinating, newly revealed music.”  -Los Angeles Times                                              

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Robert Browning Associates presents
Friday, March 6, 2015 at 8pm  
BASSAM SABA ENSEMBLE with Juan Perez Rodriguez   
Arab Music from the Levant to Al-Andalus
Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave (at 3rd Ave), Downtown Brooklyn 

One of the nation's leading figures of Arab music, Bassam Saba is a world-renowned nay virtuoso and multi-instrumentalist performing on oud, violin, buzuq, saz and Western classical flute. His extensive... MORE INFO
"Technical genius shines in Saba's nay, flute, oud and violin performance." -Chicago Tribune                                                                  

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The Town Hall presents in association with Robert Browning Associates and Festival Flamenco Gitano USA
Friday, March 20, 2015 at 8pm 
GENERATIONS OF GYPSY FLAMENCO: 
Concha Vargas, Pepe Torres & Gema Moneo with special guest Esperanza Fernandez 
The Town Hall, 123 W. 43rd Street, NYC 


Taking one back to the heart of flamenco puro, this mesmerizing program features four extraordinary dancers representing several generations and styles from four different towns in Andalusia (Lebrija, Moron de la Frontera and Jerez de la Frontera)...MORE INFO                                         

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Robert Browning Associates presents
Saturday, March 21, 2015 at 8pm  
KALA RAMNATH with ABHIJIT BANERJEE   
North Indian Music for Violin
Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave (at 3rd Ave), Downtown Brooklyn       


Master violinist Kala Ramnath hails from a musical family that has produced some of the greatest Indian violinists, including T. N. Krishnan, and N. Rajam.  While her musical roots are in the south...MORE INFO                                     

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Carnegie Hall presents in partnership with Robert Browning Associates    
Friday, March 27, 2015 at 8:30pm   
LUCILLA GALEAZZI  
Festa Italiana
Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, Seventh Avenue between 57th and 56th Street, NYC    
                                                   
                                                             
Lucilla Galeazzi, noted for her exquisite voice, brings to life the old folk music of Italy  - from Umbria, Lombardy and Rome to Calabria, Puglia and Sicily with Festa Italiana....MORE INFO

Picturephoto: Stephane Najman
Robert Browning Associates presents
Friday & Saturday, April 10 & 11, 2015 at 8pm  
THE FRENCH CONNECTION: QUEBECOIS MUSIC FESTIVAL   
Apr 10: Le Bruit Court dans la Ville  / Apr 11: Le Vent du Nord 
Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave (at 3rd
Ave), Downtown Brooklyn    

This exciting festival featuring concerts and a dance party will be hosted by Gilles Garand, a major figure in the revival of traditional French-Canadian music in Montreal. Artists include Le Bruit Court Dans La Ville, and Le Vent du Nord, one of the most beloved Québecois bands in the world, is a driving force in progressive folk...MORE INFO

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Carnegie Hall presents in partnership with Robert Browning Associates    
Friday, April 24, 2015 at 8:30pm  
IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF BABUR  
Music of the Mughal Court
Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, Seventh Avenue between 57th and 56th Street, NYC


This program brings together remarkable musicians from Afghanistan, India and Tajikistan in a program that celebrates the exuberant vitality of the Mughal court in the 16th century... MORE INFO                                                                                                             

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Robert Browning Associates presents
Thursday, April 30 – Sunday, May 3 , 2015 at 8pm
A WORLD IN TRANCE FESTIVAL
Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave (at 3rd Ave), Downtown Brooklyn
www.aworldintrance.com

This festival features the music of Guinea, Morocco, Mauritania, Pakistan, Tuva and the US that transcends boundaries and brings the listener to a state of ecstasy and enchantment...MORE INFO 

Picturephoto: Jack Vartoogian/FrontRowPhotos
Robert Browning Associates presents
Thursday, April 30, 2015 at 8pm   
NOURA MINT SEYMALI 
FULA FLUTE
part of A World in Trance Festival
Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave (at 3rd Ave), Downtown Brooklyn

Noura Mint Seymali is heir to a Mauritanian iggawin (griot) lineage stretching back for untold generations. Her stepmother Dimi Mint Abba was one of Mauritania’s most famous musicians and a major figure in bringing Mauritanian music to international audiences.

Fula Flute's Bailo Bah and Sylvain Leroux perform a hypnotic duet combining voice and flute with a rhythmic intensity that brings to mind the harmonica of of Sonny Terry's "whooping the Blues." MORE INFO

Picturephoto: Jack Vartoogian/FrontRowPhotos
Robert Browning Associates presents
Friday, May 1, 2015 at 8:00pm   
FARID AYAZ, ABU MUHAMMAD & BROTHERS QAWWAL
part of A World in Trance Festival
Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave (at 3rd Ave), Downtown Brooklyn

Farid Ayaz, Abu Muhammad & Brothers Qawwal perform qawwali, the ecstatic devotional music of Sufi Muslims made famous in the West by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. The 9-member ensemble has gained international recognition for its renditions of both the popular traditional form and the more introspective ancient classical... MORE INFO

Picturephoto: Derek Beres
Robert Browning Associates presents
Saturday, May 2, 2015 at 8pm   
HASSAN HAKMOUN
part of A World in Trance Festival
Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave (at 3rd Ave), Downtown Brooklyn

Born in Marrakech, Hassan Hakmoun is the premier exponent of Moroccan Gnawa trance music in America and a commanding figure in world music circles. While punching out a groove on the sintir, a bass lute, his ecstatic vocals invoke the spirits of healing... MORE INFO

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Robert Browning Associates presents
Sunday, May 3, 2015 at 7:00 PM
ALASH: Masters of Tuvan Throat Singing
NED ROTHENBERG & GLEN VELEZ 
part of A World in Trance Festival
Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave (at 3rd Av
e), Downtown Brooklyn

This 2-part festival finale features a stunning collaboration with Ned Rothenberg and Glen Velez, two veteran virtuosos of reeds and frame drums respectively in the new music and world music realms, followed by Alash, throat-singing masters from the Siberian Republic of Tuva.

Ned Rothenberg (alto saxophone, clarinets, Japanese shakuhachi flute) and Glen Velez (frame drums) have extended the woodwind and drum language through their three decades of musical explorations, forging highly personal styles on their intimate knowledge of the sonic possibilities of their instruments.  Their works incorporate aspects of various cultures, including Central Asian overtone singing....MORE INFO


2014-15 CONCERT SEASON IN REVIEW
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Parissa & Dastan Ensemble - Friday, November 8, 2013  at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall 
Parissa, noted for her command of the classical and Sufi repertoires of Persian music, is acknowledged as Iran’s foremost female vocalist. She came to prominence as a  singer in her teens at concerts organized by the Iranian Ministry of Culture in the mid 1970s. While she has not performed publicly in Iran over the past 33 years she has built a considerable reputation abroad performing at prestigious festivals and concert halls throughout the world. The Dastan Ensemble. founded in 1991, is one of Iran's most important traditional music groups. It has toured the world, produced many award- winning recordings, and performed and recorded with many of Iran's finest vocalists. The ensemble features Hamid Motebassem (tar), Hossein Behroozinia (barbat), Saeed Farajpoury (kamancheh), Hamin Honari (tombak), Arjang Ataollahi (daf).

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Bombino - Friday, December 6, 2013 at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall
Omara “Bombino” Moktar is a guitarist and singer from the Sahara desert who has built a legendary reputation in his homeland as a musical harbinger of peace. Born and raised in Niger, Bombino is a member of the Tuareg Ifoghas tribe, a nomadic people descended from the Berbers of North Africa. For centuries the Tuareg tribes, scattered throughout Niger, northern Mali, southern Algeria and Libya, have fought against colonialism and the imposition of strict Islamic rule.  He is accompanied by Moussa Kildjate Albadi (bass, vocals), Mohamed Emoud Atchinguel (guitar, vocals) Corey Wilhelm (drums) and Avi Salloway (harmonica).

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António Zambujo - Saturday, February 8, 2014 at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall
Portugal’s new fado star António Zambujo has been a major voice in recent years in the resurrection of male fado singers in a genre dominated by females. Winner of the Amália Rodrigues Foundation prize for ‘Best Male Fado Singer,’ Zambujo merges traditional fado with cante alentejano (male chant form from southern Portugal with North African influences) and Brazilian popular music. Zambujo starred as Amalia Rodriguez's husband in the blockbuster musical Amália for four years in Lisbon and then toured Portugal. After recording his first album O mesmo fado in 2002, Zambujo won the prestigious ‘Radio Nova FM’ prize for the ‘Best New Fado Voice’. He has toured Europe, Brazil and North America.

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Alam Khan with Nitin Mitta   - Sat Feb 15, 2014 at 8PM at Roulette
Alam Khan is the youngest son of the late Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, one of the greatest Indian musicians of the 20th century. Like his father, he plays the sarod, a skin-faced lute that is one of the primary instruments of classical Indian music. Following in his illustrious father's footsteps, he is building a reputation for a personal style that is innovative yet steeped in tradition. He currently teaches at the Ali Akbar College of Music in California, an institution founded by his father to teach classical Indian music in the US. Nitin Mitta is an accomplished and distiguished tabla player with a reputation for technical virtuosity, clarity of tone, and sensitivity to melodic nuances. He has performed with some of India's finest musicians and has toured throughout the world. 

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Simon Shaheen w Rima Khcheich - Sat Mar 1, 2014 at 8PM at Roulette
Simon Shaheen is acknowledged as one of the world’s finest exponents of the Arab ‘ud (short-necked unfretted lute). Born in a small  Palestinian village, he studied initially with his father Hikmet, a renowned teacher of Arab music. In addition to the 'ud, he is unparalleled as a violinist who has mastered both the Eastern and Western styles. A brilliant improviser, he has become an icon in the US and a major force in the promotion of Arab music . Rima Khcheich, from Lebanon is fast becoming one of the most sought after singers of classical Arab songs.  She is acknowledged both for the exquisite beauty of her voice and her profound knowledge of both traditional and modern Arab repertoire. She has performed with Simon Shaheen on many occasions in the U.S. and Lebanon.

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Asif Ali Khan Qawwal - Saturday, March 22, 2014 at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall
Asif Ali Khan, a premier disciple of the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, has shot to the forefront of Pakistan's Qawwali musicians over the past few years.  He traces his musical ancestry back more than 350 years. His ensemble includes he father,  seven brothers and a nephew. In 1999, he was elected “Best Young Pakistani Qawwali” by Lok Versa (National Institute of Folk Heritage of Islamabad). While continuing to offer his singing at religious shrines throughout Pakistan, he has made numerous tours in Europe, Asia, Australia and the Middle East performing at festivals and major concert halls.

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Amir Nojan / Nava Ensemble - Sat April 26, 2014 at 8PM at Roulette
Amir Nojan is a virtuoso setar (small unfretted Persian lute) player based in Californina for the past 15 years. Born in Shiraz, Iran, he studied with some of the modern masters of traditional Persian music including Dariush Tala'i, Mohammad Reza Lotfi and Jalal Zolfanoun.  His group, the Nava Ensemble, features musicians steeped in the radif, a repository of  Persian music that is the foundation of today’s repertoire. The trio includes Taghi Amjadi, a vocalist who has mastered the intricate and ornate singing tradition of Persian music and has a deep understanding a of mystical Persian  poetry; and Sina Dehghani, a percussionist par excellence whose instruments include the tonbak (goblet shaped drum) and daf (frame drum).

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Omar Faruk Tekbilek w Murat Tekbilek - Sat May 3, 2014 at 8PM   +7PM Artist Talk at Roulette
Born in the Turkish city of Adana to a musical family, Omar Faruk Tekbilek is a brilliant interpreter of Sufi, folk and contemporary music of the Middle East. An evocative vocalist and virtuoso on several instruments, including the ney  (bamboo flute) and baglama (long-necked lute), he has has been a major force in world music since the 1970s. His collaborations have included composer/producer Brian Keane,  trumpeter Don Cherry, master percussionist Arto Tuncboyaciyan and 'ud and violin virtuoso Simon Shaheen. Murat Tekbilek has been the lead percussionist in his father’s ensembles for a decade and has performed throughout the world. His instruments include darbuka (goblet drum), def and bendir (frame drums)



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Photo used under Creative Commons from asw909