Music for the Soul
The Amherst Survival Center is proud to announce Music for the Soul: Sounding the World at the Amherst Survival Center, a yearlong music performance program supported by the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities. The project continues the periodic lunch-time music concerts performed over the last year by local professional musicians. Beginning in January 2012 the project will feature a series of monthly lunch-time concerts at the Amherst Survival Center, occurring each 3rd Thursday of the month, as well as three Thursday evening dinner concerts that are followed by roundtable discussions featuring Humanities scholars in conversation with performers and audience members. The full schedule is listed below.
Each concert will feature music from different cultural traditions and will include discussion with the audience about the historical context, musical characteristics, and other elements of the performed music. The proposed program includes African music, Latin jazz, Brazilian choros, Bebop, Bluegrass, American folk music, Classical music, the Broadway songbook, Tango, Italian waltzes, 1960s jazz, and Renaissance music. We aim to offer an uplifting and inspiring experience to the lunch and dinner communities at the Survival Center, to engage new musical audiences (at the Center and in the wider community), to educate and offer new musical and cultural experiences to clients who cannot ordinarily afford to attend concerts, and to raise awareness among musicians (especially student musicians) about community engagement and the reality of poverty in the Pioneer Valley. In a challenging time for the Arts, when work opportunities have diminished for artists, we are looking to reconnect musicians with their local communities, through sharing their uplifting and enriching gifts with those in need.
Project director: Bob Weiner
Humanities scholar: Jason Robinson, Assistant Professor of Music, Amherst College
Schedule: upcoming concerts | past concerts
Thursday May 17, 2012 – dinner concert and roundtable discussion (4:30pm)
Performers: Tony Vacca (percussion, balafon, vocals) and Sekou Sylla (percussion, dance)
Roundtable discussion: “West African, Caribbean and African Diaspora Music”
Moderator: Olabode Omojola, Five College Associate Professor of Music
Thursday May 31, 2012 – lunch-time concert (12pm)
Performers: Eshu Bumpus (vocals, storytelling), Doug MacMillan (guitar) and Bob Weiner (drums, percussion)
Thursday June 21, 2012 – lunch-time concert (12pm)
Performers: John Sheldon (guitar, vocals) and Bob Weiner (drums, percussion)
Thursday July 19, 2012 – lunch-time concert (12pm)
Performers: Mark Ricker (guitar), Jimmy Burgoff (bass) and Bob Weiner (drums)
Thursday September 20, 2012 – dinner concert and roundtable discussion (4:30pm)
Performers: TBA
Roundtable discussion: “American Traditional Music”
Moderator: Becky Miller, Associate Professor of Music, Hampshire College
Thursday October 19, 2012 – lunch-time concert (12pm)
Performers: Doug Tanner (chromatic harmonica) and Bob Weiner (drums, percusssion)
Thursday November 15, 2012 – lunch-time concert (12pm)
Performers: Jim Matus (guitars, electric laoutar) and Bob Weiner (drums, percussion)
Additional concert TBA…
Thursday March 8, 2012 – dinner concert and roundtable discussion (4:30pm)
American jazz in the 1960s
Performers: Felipe Salles (saxophones), Stephen Page (keyboard), Dave Hassell (bass) and Bob Weiner (drums)
Roundtable discussion: “Jazz and the American Experience”
Moderator: Jason Robinson, Assistant Professor of Music, Amherst College
Monday April 9, 2012 – lunch-time concert (12pm)
African song and story
Performers: Eshu Bumpus (vocals and storytelling), Paul Arslanian (keyboard), Bob Weiner (percussion/drums)
Thursday February 16, 2012 – lunch-time concert (12pm)
Classical flute duo
Performers: Nancy Janosen (flute) and Sue Kurian (flute)
Thursday January 12, 2012 – lunch-time concert (12pm)
Performers: Aldo Fabrizi and Aaron Bousel
