MUSIC FROM AFRICA, ASIA, EUROPE, the MIDDLE EAST & the AMERICAS
2023 - 2024 SEASON IN REVIEW
Lotus Music & Dance in partnership with Robert Browning Associates presents
WORLD DANCE FESTIVAL:
Dancing Across Cultural Borders
Sri Lankan Dance Academy / Songhee Lee Korean Dance Company / Sidiki Conde and Friends /
Zerd Buryat-Mongolian Ensemble
Sunday, October 29, 2023 at 5:00 PM
This exciting dance festival, now in its eighth edition, features entrancing Sri Lankan, Korean, West African, and Mongolian dance and music. The Sri Lankan Dance Academy is dedicated to preserving the significant cultural and artistic heritage of Sri Lanka in America through both traditional and contemporary drumming and dancing. The Songhee Lee Korean Dance Company, which presents the diverse music and dance traditions of Korea, is under the direction of Songhee Lee, an award-winning artist who was a principal dancer with the Pusan Metropolitan Dance Company in Korea. National Heritage Fellow Sidiki Conde, who at the age of 14 lost the use of his legs but was determined to become a dancer, will bring Guinean dance, drumming and songs to the stage in an unforgettable, inspiring performance with his ensemble. The New York-based Zerd Buryat-Mongolian Ensemble, with its roots in Inner Asian nomadism, aims to preserve Buryat-Mongolian traditions through its celebrated group of singers, dancers, and horsehead fiddlers. MORE INFO...
WORLD DANCE FESTIVAL:
Dancing Across Cultural Borders
Sri Lankan Dance Academy / Songhee Lee Korean Dance Company / Sidiki Conde and Friends /
Zerd Buryat-Mongolian Ensemble
Sunday, October 29, 2023 at 5:00 PM
This exciting dance festival, now in its eighth edition, features entrancing Sri Lankan, Korean, West African, and Mongolian dance and music. The Sri Lankan Dance Academy is dedicated to preserving the significant cultural and artistic heritage of Sri Lanka in America through both traditional and contemporary drumming and dancing. The Songhee Lee Korean Dance Company, which presents the diverse music and dance traditions of Korea, is under the direction of Songhee Lee, an award-winning artist who was a principal dancer with the Pusan Metropolitan Dance Company in Korea. National Heritage Fellow Sidiki Conde, who at the age of 14 lost the use of his legs but was determined to become a dancer, will bring Guinean dance, drumming and songs to the stage in an unforgettable, inspiring performance with his ensemble. The New York-based Zerd Buryat-Mongolian Ensemble, with its roots in Inner Asian nomadism, aims to preserve Buryat-Mongolian traditions through its celebrated group of singers, dancers, and horsehead fiddlers. MORE INFO...
Photo: Jonathan Fischer
Robert Browning Associates, Lotus Music & Dance, and Roulette present
BASSEKOU KOUYATE & NGONI BA
Blues from Mali
Saturday, February 17, 2024 at 8:00 pm
Bassekou Kouyate, descended from a long line of griots (storytellers/historians), is Mali’s legendary master of the ngoni, an ancient West African lute that is an ancestor of the banjo. Renowned for his innovations, he takes the ngoni into the 21st century and is credited with creating the first ensemble featuring ngonis of different sizes to provide the different ‘voices’ needed for the music. MORE INFO...
Video: Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba – Blues from Mali
BASSEKOU KOUYATE & NGONI BA
Blues from Mali
Saturday, February 17, 2024 at 8:00 pm
Bassekou Kouyate, descended from a long line of griots (storytellers/historians), is Mali’s legendary master of the ngoni, an ancient West African lute that is an ancestor of the banjo. Renowned for his innovations, he takes the ngoni into the 21st century and is credited with creating the first ensemble featuring ngonis of different sizes to provide the different ‘voices’ needed for the music. MORE INFO...
Video: Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba – Blues from Mali
©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 8, 2024 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...
Video: Hamza Akram Qawwal and Brothers Sufi Chants
HAMZA AKRAM QAWWAL & BROTHERS
Sufi Chants of Pakistan
Friday, March 8, 2024 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...
Video: Hamza Akram Qawwal and Brothers Sufi Chants
Robert Browning Associates, Lotus Music & Dance, and Roulette present
in partnership with Flamenco Festival
FLAMENCO FESTIVAL
ANTONIA JIMÉNEZ & INMA LA CARBONERA
A Gaya (To Mother Earth)
Saturday, March 9, 2024 at 8:00 pm
This engaging program in this year's edition of the celebrated Flamenco Festival New York features Antonia Jiménez, one of the most important names among Spanish female guitarists and composers, and Inma La Carbonera, a soulful vocalist from Seville in a rare New York appearance. MORE INFO...
Video: Antonia Jimenez Inma La Carbonera A Gaya - Flamenco Festival 2024
in partnership with Flamenco Festival
FLAMENCO FESTIVAL
ANTONIA JIMÉNEZ & INMA LA CARBONERA
A Gaya (To Mother Earth)
Saturday, March 9, 2024 at 8:00 pm
This engaging program in this year's edition of the celebrated Flamenco Festival New York features Antonia Jiménez, one of the most important names among Spanish female guitarists and composers, and Inma La Carbonera, a soulful vocalist from Seville in a rare New York appearance. MORE INFO...
Video: Antonia Jimenez Inma La Carbonera A Gaya - Flamenco Festival 2024
Photos: (top) Arsineh Valladian; (bottom) Alena Soboleva
Robert Browning Associates, Lotus Music & Dance, and Roulette present
ARA DINKJIAN, ARSEN PETROSYAN
& STRING QUARTET
Masters of Armenian Music
Saturday, April 6, 2024 at 8:00 pm
This entrancing evening of Armenian music features Ara Dinkjian, one of the world’s top oud (fretless lute) players; duduk (ancient oboe) virtuoso Arsen Petrosyan; and a string quartet from The Chamber Players of the Greenwich Symphony (Sami Merdinian, Annamae Goldstein, David Creswell and Daniel Miller). MORE INFO...
ARA DINKJIAN, ARSEN PETROSYAN
& STRING QUARTET
Masters of Armenian Music
Saturday, April 6, 2024 at 8:00 pm
This entrancing evening of Armenian music features Ara Dinkjian, one of the world’s top oud (fretless lute) players; duduk (ancient oboe) virtuoso Arsen Petrosyan; and a string quartet from The Chamber Players of the Greenwich Symphony (Sami Merdinian, Annamae Goldstein, David Creswell and Daniel Miller). MORE INFO...
Photo: Felicia Abban
Robert Browning Associates, Lotus Music & Dance, and Roulette present
FIRAS ZREIK
New Journeys in Arabic Music
Saturday, April 20, 2024 at 8:00 pm
Master qanun (zither) player/composer Firas Zreik has been captivating audiences across the world as a leader and highly sought-after collaborator since 2013. Born in Palestine and based in New York, he is a sonic revolutionary who combines his deep understanding of the maqam (mode) tradition in the Levantine, North African and Mediterranean region with elements of modern global musical styles absorbed throughout his musical development. MORE INFO...
FIRAS ZREIK
New Journeys in Arabic Music
Saturday, April 20, 2024 at 8:00 pm
Master qanun (zither) player/composer Firas Zreik has been captivating audiences across the world as a leader and highly sought-after collaborator since 2013. Born in Palestine and based in New York, he is a sonic revolutionary who combines his deep understanding of the maqam (mode) tradition in the Levantine, North African and Mediterranean region with elements of modern global musical styles absorbed throughout his musical development. MORE INFO...
Robert Browning Associates, Lotus Music & Dance, and Roulette present
SHAHID PARVEZ
Indian Masters
Friday, April 26, 2024 at 8:00 pm
The world-renowned Shahid Parvez, one of India’s leading sitarists, belongs to an illustrious musical family and has achieved success in not only preserving the tradition, but in pushing its boundaries to greater heights. He is one of the leading exponents of the Etawah gharana (tradition), which was popularized by Ustad Vilayat Khan, and belongs to the seventh generation of this musical lineage. MORE INFO...
SHAHID PARVEZ
Indian Masters
Friday, April 26, 2024 at 8:00 pm
The world-renowned Shahid Parvez, one of India’s leading sitarists, belongs to an illustrious musical family and has achieved success in not only preserving the tradition, but in pushing its boundaries to greater heights. He is one of the leading exponents of the Etawah gharana (tradition), which was popularized by Ustad Vilayat Khan, and belongs to the seventh generation of this musical lineage. MORE INFO...
Robert Browning Associates, Lotus Music & Dance, and Roulette present
ALAM KHAN
Indian Masters
Saturday, April 27, 2024 at 8:00 pm
Alam Khan, son and disciple of Maestro Ali Akbar Khan and grandson of Ustad Allauddin Khan, is following in his esteemed family’s footsteps with his mastery of the sarod, a skin-faced lute that is one of the primary instruments of classical Indian music. In addition to accompanying his father internationally from 1996 to 2006, he has had a successful solo career, touring worldwide and establishing himself as Ali Akbar Khan's true heir and the face of a new generation of sarod players of the Maihur gharana (tradition). MORE INFO...
ALAM KHAN
Indian Masters
Saturday, April 27, 2024 at 8:00 pm
Alam Khan, son and disciple of Maestro Ali Akbar Khan and grandson of Ustad Allauddin Khan, is following in his esteemed family’s footsteps with his mastery of the sarod, a skin-faced lute that is one of the primary instruments of classical Indian music. In addition to accompanying his father internationally from 1996 to 2006, he has had a successful solo career, touring worldwide and establishing himself as Ali Akbar Khan's true heir and the face of a new generation of sarod players of the Maihur gharana (tradition). MORE INFO...