World Music and Dance Festival Brings Global Music to CalArts

The CalArts World Music Festival is this weekend.

This weekend (May 1-3), The Herb Alpert School of Music at CalArts presents seven free outdoor concerts in the annual World Music and Dance Festival, part of The Wild Beast Concert Series. This year’s music offerings include West African performance; Persian, Middle Eastern and Hindustani concerts; Balinese and Javanese gamelans; and cross-cultural collaborations.

More from the press release:

The 2015 program features faculty members and revered classical Hindustani music maestros Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri and Ustad Aashish Khan, who will perform in the traditional North Indian Ensemble. This year’s festival also introduces acclaimed Ghanaian drummer, dancer and singer Victor Nani Agbeli, the new director of CalArts’ iconic African Music and Dance Program. Under his direction, the CalArts Aza African Ensemble will offer a spectacular display of Ghanaian music and dance. In addition, celebrated music and dance artists Nanik Wenten and I Nyoman Wenten, longtime members of the CalArts faculty, will direct performances by the CalArts Balinese Gamelan Burat Wangi (“Fragrant Offering”) and a large modern bronze gamelan orchestra.

“In our global age, world music is essential to all music,” says Herb Alpert School of Music Dean David Rosenboom. “For many years, the CalArts World Music and Dance Festival has been a treasured cultural jewel, lighting our way forward towards a borderless culture. It is our honor to continue offering this all-important perspective on the shared traditions we respect, and from which we draw inspiration to fuel the life of music to come.”

Art and craft vendors, as well as African and South East Asian clothing purveyors, will also be on site all weekend.

The CalArts World Music and Dance Festival is free and open to the public, but reservations are requested. Visitors are encouraged to bring lawn chairs and blankets. View the complete schedule here.