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CAMA Event!
Saturday, February 13, 2010 – 7:30pm
Webster University Community Music School Concert Hall – map
Located behind the Loretto-Hilton at 535 Garden Ave, Webster Groves

Douglas R. Ewart, Flute, Sopranino Saxophone, Didjeridu, Voice and Percussion
Shirley LaFlore, Poet
Rashu Aten, Percussion
Jim Hegarty, Electronics

This concert is an homage to Zimbabwe Nkenya, composer, musician and community activist, who is currently recuperating from a stroke; the late grand poet, philosopher and activist Ajule Sonny Rutlin; and Haiti, the Pearl of the Antilles.

This is an opportune time to open our mind, heart, conduct, and pocket book, and to truly be our Sisters’ and Brothers’ keepers.

What this Haitian tragedy points out is that we need to assist each other before we have tragedies like we just experienced in Haiti. Haiti has been crying out for substantive support for hundreds of years. Haiti has been punished/isolated for being successful at fending off the slave promoting and maintaining countries of the world: France, England, America, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Netherlands, etc. Haiti has been suffering ever since its successful slave rebellion 1790s and independence in 1804. Haiti is the only nation on the planet that has had a successful slave rebellion. Thus Haiti’s infrastructure was never fully developed after its revolution. Dictatorships, corruption, and reprehensible Haitian governments have been fostered, bolstered, and well-supported by many powerful governments outside of Haiti with selfish agendas.

–Douglas R. Ewart

Douglas R. Ewart is perhaps best known as a composer, improviser, sculptor, and maker of masks and instruments. Douglas R. Ewart is also an educator, lecturer, arts organization consultant, and all-around visionary. In projects done in diverse media throughout an award-winning and widely-acclaimed 40-year career, Mr. Ewart has woven his remarkably broad gifts into a single sensibility that encourages and celebrates–as an antidote to the divisions and compartmentalization afflicting modern life–the wholeness of individuals in culturally active communities.

Ewart became associated with the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) in 1967, studying with Joseph Jarman and Roscoe Mitchell. He served as that organization’s president from 1986 to 1979.

Ewart has performed or recorded with J. D. Parran, Muhal Richard Abrams, Art Ensemble of Chicago, Anthony Braxton, Alvin Curran, Anthony Davis, Robert Dick, Von Freeman, Joseph Jarman, Amina Claudine Myers, Roscoe Mitchell, James Newton, Rufus Reid, Wadada Leo Smith, Cecil Taylor, Richard Teitelbaum, Henry Threadgill, Hamid Drake, Don Byron, Malachi Favors Maghostut, and George Lewis.

The outstanding acoustics of the Webster University Community Music School Concert Hall will be the ultimate space to hear the unique and vibrant sounds of Ewart’s unique flutes and other instruments.

More information about the artists:

Douglas R. Ewart
Shirley LaFlore
Rashu Aten
Jim Hegarty

Saturday January 30, 2010, 7:30 pm
Kranzberg Arts Center Black Box Theatre
Grand Center 501 N. Grand

Featuring
Jim Hegarty, Fred Tompkins, Deb Summers (representing the NMC)
Bobo Shaw, drums and George Sams, trumpet
Dave Cheli’s “Tribal Chicken”
HaZMaT (Tom Zirkle and Matt Henry)
Baba Mike Nelson, trumpet
Poets Curtis Lyle and Michael Castro

Zimbabwe Nkenya is a St. Louis native and a highly regarded and creative bass player.  Zimbabwe has appeared on several New Music Circle events recently and is one of our beloved performers.

Sadly, he experienced a stroke earlier this past fall that has prevented him from playing.  Because the NMC greatly supports our musicians and has especially enjoyed his wonderful spirit and creativity, our board of directors decided to try to help him in a tangible way.  Rather than charge for tickets, admission to this concert will be by contribution, with all proceeds going to Zimbabwe and his wife Deborah.  All the musicians are volunteering their services.

Since moving back to St. Louis in 2007, Zimbabwe has performed at the Ivory Perry Park Festival, St. Louis African Arts Festival, the Art Outside Festival at Shlafly Bottleworks, at the Gramophone, Legacy Books, Open Lot, Scott Joplin House State Historic Site, the St. Louis County Library, St. Louis Art Museum, Jazz at the Holmes Series, Kemper Art Museum (Birth of the Cool Tribute to Miles Davis and a spring 2008 solo Mbira performance), at the Third Degree Glass Factory, with original member of The Last Poets Dahveed Nelson at Central Reform Congregation, at KDHX’s Midwest Mayhem Festival, Performance/Workshop with Tatsuya Nakatani & a BAG II Workshop Series at the Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center, with Douglas Ewart at the Velvet Lounge in Chicago and with Cooper-Moore at Joe’s Cafe.

In addition to his active playing career, Nkenya has also been an educator, playing concerts, workshops and residencies for school children. For some 20 years, he hosted one of New Mexico’s most respected radio shows, KUNM’s Sunday night special, “The House that Jazz Built.”

Zimbabwe has performed with some of the finest internationally known musicians on the creative music scene including Cooper-Moore, Ajule Sonny Rutlin, Warren Smith, Ku-umba Frank Lacy, Jerome ‘Scrooge’ Harris, Julius Hemphill, Rob Brown, Douglas Ewart, Abdul Wadud, William Parker, Fred Ho’s Afro-Asian Music Ensemble, Anthony Braxton, Oliver Lake, Daniel Carter, Frank Morgan, Eddie Gale, J A Deane, Floyd LeFlore, Chris Jonas, Mary Redhouse, Bill Cole’s Yoruba Proverbs, Jim Marshall, Tom Hamilton, and Maurice ‘Malik’ King. Zimbabwe has also collaborated with poets Quincy Troupe, Eugene B. Redmond, Linda Piper, Mike ‘360’ Ipiotes, Joy Harjo, Virginia Hampton, Michael Castro, Shirley LeFlore, K. Curtis Lyle and Arthur Ray Brown.

Zimbabwe has performed at Brooklyn Academy of Music, Lincoln Center, Knitting Factory, NYU, Hunter College, PS 122, and Riverside Church as well as The BRIDE in Philadelphia and One World Festival, Detroit. In New York he was featured in the two-year run of Izulu Dance Theater’s Off-Broadway musical production HALALA, at the Douglas Fairbanks Theater.

The Douglas R. Ewart performance originally scheduled for this date (1/30/10) has been rescheduled to Saturday, February 13.  Please see our website for more information on Mr. Ewart’s performance.

ATNAS – An Experimental Video Story
Written and directed by Kelsey LaPoint (in collaboration with the Cast)
December 2, 3, and 4, 2009 – 7:30 pm
Regional Arts Commission
6128 Delmar Blvd.

Unless otherwise noted, tickets to all shows are $15 regular admission, $7 for students/artists with a valid ID.

A new heroine is here to revamp the habits of the x-mess-stress holiday. Whoosh!!! “Release” is the buzzword of her business.

Yes, Santa’s daughter was at one time a spoiled princess, but now her mission involves flying around the world on a vacuum cleaner and helping get rid of the gunk we wish to see go.

To some, Atnas may appear as a cleaning lady, humbling hauling away your trash. To others, she can be a life coach, walking you through the deep process of releasing unhelpful habits and beliefs. Or she may tote her whole toolbox down the chimney to bring in the vast sweep of change. It is all up to you, and what you ask for. Arriving at such a role, and standing firm in the realm of service is a journey that Atnas continues to navigate.

The video leads us through Atnas’ life via experimental animation and filming techniques. Writers and artists Kelsey LaPoint and Lyndsey Scott (Atnas) team up with filmmaker and choreographer Rebecca Rivas to bring you a video that will rock your holiday spirit.

Sunday, November 8, 2009 – 7:30 pm
MadArt Gallery
2727 S. 12th Street

In collaboration with St. Louis contemporary dancers and choreographers, New Music Circle is excited to present Rob Voisey’s multimedia project, 60×60 Dance. The work combines 60 live dance pieces with 60, 60-second musical compositions, each by a different composer. Voisey is a New York-based composer and impresario of electroacoustic and chamber music.

As a presenter and producer of new music, he is the Director of the 60×60 project, Co-Director of the Composer’s Voice Concert series, Vice President of Programs for the Living Music Foundation, and Founder of Vox Novus. Having produced over 150 concerts in more than 10 countries around the world, Voisey seeks innovative and creative approaches to promote the music of today’s composers.

Begun in 2003, the 60×60 project is an annual event of worldwide concerts. 60×60 Dance, is an off-shoot of the original concept, which brings opportunities for exposure to many working composers, dancers, and choreographers.

… 60×60 Dance … is a masterpiece of organization. The idea … is quite mad. But it’s this kind of madness that makes the cultural world go round. –Roslyn Sulcas, New York Times