The world comes to Syracuse University, and during the fall semester the music of the world can be heard as well.
Biboti Ouikahilo
The world music concert series Performance Live begins at 8 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 12, in Setnor Auditorium with a West African drum and dance performance by Biboti Ouikahilo and Wacheva. The performance is free and open to the public as well as all performances in the series.
These concerts are organized by Sydney Hutchinson, associate professor of music history and cultures in the College of Arts and Sciences in conjunction with her course Performance Live. The course provides an introduction to world musical cultures and basic concepts about music and performance through direct experience with tradition bearers through concerts and workshops.
“This semester our discussions center on how national and ethnic identities are performed, and how belonging is negotiated through performance in multicultural societies like our own,” says Hutchinson.
Performance Live also provides the only world music concert series in the city of Syracuse.
“The concerts give the general public the opportunity to experience musical cultures that aren’t often heard in Syracuse,” says Hutchinson. “It will expose audiences to new sounds and new ideas about music, thus broadening their understanding of the world of music.”
The concert series begins with a performance featuring local artist and musician Ouikahilo, who was born in the Ivory Coast. In December of 1980, Ouikahilo began his professional dance, drum and choreography career, touring with the prominent Ivory Coast National Dance & Drum Co. In 2003, Ouikahilo moved to Syracuse, where he shares his artistic talents with the Central New York community through workshops, classes, performances, lectures and demonstrations at Wacheva Dance and Drum Studio. The studio brings together children and adults from different cultures, religions and ethnicities under the same roof.
All concerts are at 8 p.m. and are free and open to the public. The full schedule is:
Sept. 12: Biboti Ouikahilo and Wacheva present West African dance and drum, Setnor auditorium
Sept. 19: Aura: “West Embraces East” (new music by Cambodian and Vietnamese composers, presented in cooperation with the Society for New Music), Hendricks Chapel
Sept. 26: Patience Munjeri, the healing sounds of Zimbabwean mbira, Setnor Auditorium
Oct. 17: Latif Bolat, “Into the Mystic” (Turkish Sufi music, presented in cooperation with the Humanities Center, religion department and the South Asia Center), Setnor Auditorium
Oct. 24: Steve Gorn: “The Transformative Power of Music” (North Indian flute), 105 Life Sciences Building
Nov. 7: The Edgar Pagán Trio, (salsa fusión), 105 Life Sciences Building
At the end of the semester, there will be a special event, the Music and Food in Multicultural Syracuse at 6 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 2, in Grant Auditorium. This features a celebration of the traditions of Syracuse’s refugee communities from Burundi, Bhutan, Syria and Burma. A reception will follow in the Wildhack Room. Presented in cooperation with food studies and the Humanities Center.
