ETHEL with Robert Mirabal
Jan. 27, 2012
Dimnent Chapel
7:30pm
Website: http://www.ethelcentral.com
Website: http://mirabal.com/
ETHEL, the pioneering string quartet, collaborates with three-time Grammy-winning Native American flutist Robert Mirabal to present a program inspired by the sun mythology of Native America. Using the instruments of the string quartet, Native American flutes and drums, as well as the spirited voices of Hope students, ETHEL and Mirabal unite to create a cross-cultural contemporary music event. The New York Times calls ETHEL “extraordinarily skilled, passionate musicians.”
ETHEL
Acclaimed as America's premier postclassical string quartet, ETHEL invigorates contemporary concert music with refreshing exuberance, fierce intensity, imaginative programming and exceptional artistry. Formed in 1998, New York's ebullient ETHEL is comprised of Juilliard-trained performers Jennifer Choi (violin), Cornelius Dufallo (violin), Ralph Farris (viola), and Dorothy Lawson (cello).
ETHEL performs adventurous music of the past four decades, with emphasis on works composed since 1995. Their repertoire includes self-composed works, as well as works by such luminaries as Julia Wolfe, Phil Kline, John Zorn, Steve Reich, John King, JacobTV, David Lang, Scott Johnson, Don Byron, Marcelo Zarvos, Evan Ziporyn, and Mary Ellen Childs.
Boldly exploring new synergies between tradition and technology, ETHEL initiates innovative collaborations with an extraordinary community of American and international artists such as Joe Jackson, Kurt Elling, Bang on a Can, Todd Rundgren, David Byrne, Ursula Oppens, Loudon Wainwright III, STEW, Ensemble Modern, Jill Sobule, Joshua Fried, Andrew Bird, Iva Bittová, Colin Currie, Thomas Dolby, Steve Coleman, Stephen Gosling, Jake Shimabukuro and Polygraph Lounge.
ETHEL tours the world, appearing on stages as varied as Venice Biennale, Sydney Opera House, Ravinia, TED, Lincoln Center, Holland's TROMP Festival, Kennedy Center, FIAC in Guanajuato, Mexico, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Highlights of recent seasons include the world premieres of: Phil Kline's SPACE at the gala reopening of Alice Tully Hall; ETHEL's TruckStop®: The Beginning at BAM's Next Wave Festival; RADIO by Osvaldo Golijov at the debut of WNYC Radio's Jerome L. Greene Space; ETHEL Fair: The Songwriters at opening night of Lincoln Center's Out of Doors Festival; WAIT FOR GREEN with choreography by Annie-B Parson, commissioned by arts>World Financial Center; new collaborative works with members of Merce Cunningham Dance and Arena Dances company; and a commissioned original live film score at Celebrate Brooklyn!. Other highlights include performances at: the annual TED Conference; the TROMP Festival with Colin Currie and Todd Rundgren; in Eindhoven, Netherlands, as the Ensemble-In-Residence at the Muziek Gebouw Frits Philips; Merkin Hall as part of New Sounds Live: ETHEL Plays JacobTV; Jazz at Lincoln Center's Allen Room, and the Grand Canyon Music Festival, where ETHEL is Ensemble-in-Residence with the Native American Composers Apprenticeship Project. ETHEL currently serves as the 2011 Artists-in-Residence at New York City's Park Avenue Armory.
ETHEL has released several albums since its debut, self-titled ETHEL (Cantaloupe Music, 2003), which was named one of Billboard's "Best Albums" for that year. The group's next recording, Light (Cantaloupe Music, 2006), was selected as #3 on Amazon.com's "Best of 2006: Top Classical Editor's Picks" and ETHEL's most recent release, OSHTALI (Thunderbird Records, 2010), marks the first recording of American Indian student works. The group has appeared as a guest artist on a dozen music labels and was recently featured with vocal group Lionheart on John the Revelator: A Mass for Six Voices by Phil Kline (Cantaloupe, Music, 2008) and the Grammy® Award-winning Dedicated to You: Kurt Elling Sings the Music of Coltrane and Hartman (Concord Records, 2009).
ROBERT MIRABAL
Two-time GRAMMY Award winner, Robert Mirabal, lives with his family at the foot of the sacred Taos Mountain in northern New Mexico.
Maintaining a traditional life, keeping the centuries-old customs of the Taos Pueblo people, Robert has been described as a Native American "Renaissance man" - musician, composer, painter, master craftsman, poet, actor, screenwriter, horseman and farmer - and he travels extensively playing his music all over the world. If you live a traditional life you see things differently—spiritually and musically. His first flute came when he was 18 with money he borrowed from his grandmother, and shortly afterward he had the opportunity to meet Native American flute player R. Carlos Nakai who greatly influenced him. When we met he looked at my hands and laughed. He said, "I have that same scar. It's the scar of the flute maker."
In the years since, Robert has continued the evolution of his flute making and has also become an accomplished novelist, poet, craftsman, composer, dancer, actor, painter, sculptor, concert performer and recording artist. His dozen albums of traditional music, rock and roll, and spoken word present a contemporary view of American Indian life that is unequaled. My music is informed by the ceremonial music that I've heard all my life. What I create comes out of my body and soul in a desire to take care of the spirits of the earth. A leading proponent of world music, Robert has merged his indigenous American sound with those of Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean, tapping into a planetary pulse with a style that defies categorization. My travels have provided me with experiences that I could have never imagined, and exposed me to a global sound and a global voice.
Whether as a composer, songwriter, or musician, Robert has won many honors including two-time Native American Artist of the Year, three-time Songwriter of the Year, a 2006 GRAMMY Award for Sacred Ground, and his 2008 GRAMMY Award for Johnny Whitehorse Totemic Flute Chants, blending all of Robert's influences into a musical landscape that conjures up both the historic and contemporary West. His 2002 breakthrough PBS Special, Music From a Painted Cave is unsurpassed in Native American theatrical expression. He is also the author of A Skeleton of a Bridge - a book of poetry, prose, and short stories, and most recently his book, Running Alone in Photographs - a memoir laced with gritty, introspective prose, that opens a window to a palpable experience of life in the Pueblo through the voice of Robert's alter-ego Reyes Winds.
© 2012 Hope College Holland, MI 49423