BRYN MAWR, PA – August 19, 2013 – The 2013-14 season of the Bryn Mawr College Performing Arts Series begins in November with the music of Turtle Island Quartet with Nellie McKay and a performance of sacred dance and music by Tibetan monksfrom Drepung Loseling Monastery. [A full schedule of events follows below].
On Sunday, November 3, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and actor Nellie McKay will join two-time GRAMMY® Award-winning Turtle Island Quartet to present A Flower is a Lovesome Thing, featuring the music of 1920’s Berlin as well as jazz standards made famous by Billie Holiday. McKay’s talents on piano, mallets and ukulele combined with Turtle Island’s famed innovative rhythmic techniques create the opportunity for an unprecedented range of possibilities in this sweeping concert. The one night only event will also include original music, for which both Ms. McKay and the Turtle Island Quartet are renowned, rounding out this delightfully kaleidoscopic evening.
Endorsed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan Monks from Drepung Loseling Monastery share their cultural traditions that date back 600 years in a presentation of Sacred Music, Sacred Dance on Friday, November 22. Sacred Music, Sacred Dance — a contribution to world peace and greater awareness of the endangered Tibetan civilization — features the famed multiphonic singers in an inspiring performance of music and chants for purification and healing. The presentation of sacred performing art includes dances of the Black Hat Masters, Skeleton Lords and Snow Lions. The Drepung Loseling monks appeared with Philip Glass in a live performance of his Academy Award nominated score to the Martin Scorsese film Kundun. They are featured on the Golden Globe nominated soundtrack of Seven Years in Tibet and have shared the stage with Kitaro, Paul Simon, Sheryl Crow, Michael Stipe, Patti Smith, Natalie Merchant, the Beastie Boys, and many others.
Bryn Mawr College is located at 101 N. Merion Avenue in Bryn Mawr, PA. Tickets to individual events in the Bryn Mawr Performing Arts Series are $20, $18 for seniors over 65, $10 for students with ID and Dance Pass holders, and $5 for children under 12. Tickets, subscriptions and more information are available online at brynmawr.edu/arts/series.html or by calling 610-526-5210.
PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE
Turtle Island Quartet with guest Nellie McKay*– A Flower is a Lovesome Thing
Sunday, November 3 at 2:00 p.m.,
McPherson Auditorium, Goodhart Hall
*In collaboration with Monterey International
Tibetan Monks from Drepung Loseling Monastery – Sacred Music, Sacred Dance
Friday, November 22 at 8:30 p.m.
McPherson Auditorium, Goodhart Hall
ABOUT TURTLE ISLAND QUARTET
“It must have been like this when Beethoven was taking Vienna by storm – the exhilaration of seeing the future of classical music unfold before your eyes and ears.” – St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Its name derived from creation mythology found in Native American Folklore, the Turtle Island Quartet, since its inception in 1985, has been a singular force in the creation of bold, new trends in chamber music for strings. Winner of the 2006 and most recently, the 2008 Grammy Award for Best Classical Crossover Album, Turtle Island fuses the classical quartet esthetic with contemporary American musical styles, and by devising a performance practice that honors both, the state of the art has inevitably been redefined. Cellist nonpareil Yo-Yo Ma has proclaimed TIQ to be “a unified voice that truly breaks new ground – authentic and passionate – a reflection of some of the most creative music-making today.”
The Quartet’s birth was the result of violinist David Balakrishnan’s brainstorming explorations and compositional vision while completing his master’s degree program at Antioch University West. The journey has taken Turtle Island through forays into folk, bluegrass, swing, be-bop, funk, R&B, new age, rock, hip-hop, as well as music of Latin America and India …a repertoire consisting of hundreds of ingenious arrangements and originals. It has included over a dozen recordings on labels such as Windham Hill, Chandos, Koch and Telarc, soundtracks for major motion pictures, TV and radio credits such as the Today Show, All Things Considered, Prairie Home Companion and Morning Edition, feature articles in People and Newsweek magazines, and collaborations with famed artists such as clarinetist Paquito D’Rivera, vibraphonist Stefon Harris, guitar legends such as Leo Kottke and the Assad brothers, The Manhattan Transfer, pianists Billy Taylor, Kenny Barron and Ramsey Lewis, the Ying Quartet and the Parsons Dance Company.
ABOUT NELLIE MCKAY
Nellie McKay has won a Theatre World Award for her portrayal of Polly Peachum in the Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera and performed onscreen in the film PS I Love You, as well as writing original music for the Rob Reiner film Rumor Has It and contributing to the New York Times Book Review. Her music has also been heard on the TV shows Weeds, Grey’s Anatomy, NCIS, Privileged and Nurse Jackie, and Nellie has appeared on numerous TV shows including Late Show with David Letterman (with the Brooklyn Philharmonic), The View, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, Live with Regis & Kelly and CBS Saturday Morning. In 2010, the Chase Brock Experience produced a ballet of her third album,Obligatory Villagers, while Nellie recently finished contributing to the soundtrack for the HBO series Boardwalk Empire. Home Sweet Mobile Home is McKay’s latest album of all-original material and features the musical wanderlust, lyrical playfulness and unique point of view that has characterized her music since her breakthrough debut Get Away From Me.
A recipient of The Humane Society’s Doris Day Music Award in recognition of her dedication to animal rights, Nellie is known as an outspoken and fierce advocate for feminism, civil rights and other deeply felt progressive ideals.
This spring, Nellie premiered her latest project, “I Want to Live!” the “brilliant, zany film-noir musical biography” (New York Times) of Barbara Graham, the third woman to die in the gas chamber at San Quentin, “McKay’s virtually unlimited gifts as a singer, songwriter, actress, pianist, ukulele player, mimic, satirist and comedian into a show that is much deeper than its surface might suggest…In the most lighthearted way they evoke a heartless environment of social injustice in which people who fall through the cracks are invisible to everyone else” (New York Times).
ABOUT TIBETAN MONKS FROM DREPUNG LOSELING MONASTERY
The Drepung Loseling Monastery is dedicated to the study and preservation of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition of wisdom and compassion. A center for the cultivation of both heart and intellect, it provides a sanctuary for the nurturance of inner peace and kindness, community understanding, and global healing. In implementing this vision, Drepung Loseling has two main objectives:
- To contribute to North American cultureby providing theoretical knowledge and practical training in Tibetan Buddhist scholarly traditions for Western students, scholars and the general public; and
- To help preserve the endangered Tibetan culture, which today leads a fragile existence in the exiled refugee communities in India and Nepal.
In recent years The Mystical Arts of Tibet tours, featuring the famed multiphonic singers of Drepung Loseling monastery, have taken the world by storm. Endorsed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama as a means of promoting world peace and healing through sacred performing art, they have performed in many of America’s greatest theaters and music halls. The Drepung Loseling monks are featured on the Golden Globe nominated soundtrack of the motion picture Seven Years in Tibet, starring Brad Pitt. They also performed with Philip Glass in the live premiere presentation of his Academy Award nominated music/score to the Martin Scorsese film Kundun. The Mystical Arts of Tibet was featured at the July 4th, 2000 celebration at the National Mall, Washington, D.C. where they performed to an audience of over 50,000. On previous tours, the monks have shared the stage with Philip Glass, Kitaro, Paul Simon, Sheryl Crow, Michael Stipe, Patti Smith, Natalie Merchant, the Beastie Boys and many others. They have also performed in such prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall, the Herbst Theater and the Ravinia Festival, and have appeared in hundreds of university auditoriums, civic halls, festivals and churches across the country.
The Bryn Mawr College Performing Arts Series will continue its 2013/14 season with:
John Kelly – The Escape Artist
Friday, January 24 at 8:00 p.m.,
McPherson Auditorium, Goodhart Hall
Liz Gerring Dance Company – glacier
Friday, February 28 at 8:00 p.m.
McPherson Auditorium, Goodhart Hall
Grunfeld Lecturer: Jennifer Koh – Bach and Beyond Part 3
Saturday, March 29, 8:00 p.m.
Thomas Great Hall
