|
|
Scroll down to read or go directly to: Los Cenzontles Performs with Los Lobos In Remembrance - Richard D. Crum Governor Proposes Increase in Funding for the Arts Proceeds from the license plate sales will benefit the California Arts Council (CAC)
|
WHAT'S NEWSubscribe to The New Moon, ACTA's Monthly E-Newsletter. See the latest edition of The New Moon ACTA Welcomes New Board Member Robert ArroyoACTA is pleased to welcome new board member Robert Arroyo. Now retired, Arroyo taught political science and Chicano/Latino studies for 30 years at Fresno City College. He also served as the community college’s Associate Dean of Student Services and Associate Dean of Instruction. He was a leader in the field of education, actively influencing educational policy through participation in organizations such as the National Advisory Committee of Special Services for Disadvantaged Students, and serving as the State President of the Association of Mexican American Educators, Inc., and Chapter President of the California Teachers Association. In addition to his career in the field of education, Arroyo has also been engaged in over 30 years of community civic participation. He was a Founding Board Member of Arte Américas La Casa de la Cultura, a center dedicated to Latino arts in Fresno, and served as Board President of the Arte Américas Board of Directors from 2000-2002. Jose Francisco Barroso Produces African Cuban Dance Instructional DVD
Photo credit: Christina Noyes ACTA Living Cultures grantee Obakoso Drum & Dance Ensemble shared this news about a recent release. Master teacher of Cuban folkloric dance and Yoruba traditional practice, José Francisco Barroso, has just released a new instructional DVD entitled Dances of the Orishas: African Cuban Dance Technique. The idea for the video grew from repeated requests from students of dance and music who have taken his classes throughout the United States and internationally. Mr. Barroso, a Havana native, began his career with the renowned folkloric company Raices Profundas. Living in the U. S. for the last decade, he is regarded highly for his strong performance ability as well as his teaching and lecturing on the African roots of Cuba. He has deepened his knowledge of the religious basis of the dance by studying the African origins of the language, movement and ceremonial life. The DVD is a guide to understand the musical rhythms, songs, dance steps and characterizations associated with the deities. The 112 minute DVD, features the expertise of other special guests including, Ramon Sandy Peres, formerly principal percussionist with the Afro-Cuba Matanzas, Ysidro Valor Perez of Clave y Guaguanco, dancer Yismari Ramos of Ballet de la televicion Cubana, Jose Luis Gomez, singer with Fito Reinoso y Su Armonia. For more information and to order a copy email obakoso@earthlink.net or call 510-459-4609 or visit the Boogalu Productions website. Los Cenzontles Performs with Los Lobos
Los Cenzontles with Los Lobos Photo Credit: Courtesy of Los Cenzontles Mexican Arts Center ACTA Living Cultures grantee Los Cenzontles Mexican Arts Center shared this news about their recent performances. Los Cenzontles Mexican Arts Center (LCMAC) has trained well over 1,000 community youth in traditional and vernacular Mexican musical styles since 1994 at its center in the East Bay City of San Pablo. One of their lesser-known accomplishments is the substantial number of young musicians trained at LCMAC who currently perform with various regional groups. In December 2005, famed roots rockers Los Lobos invited current and alumnae members of Los Cenzontles to perform with them on tour in San Francisco, Hollywood, Anaheim, Las Vegas and San Diego. Instrumentalists included Angel Abundez; Lucina Rodriguez, zapateado; Hugo Arroyo, tuba; Hector Espinoza, clarinet; Ramon Delgado, clarinet; Cristian Rodriguez, tarolas, Tom Fuglestad, trumpet and Eugene Rodriguez, tambora. Los Cenzontles will also perform for the live DVD of the concert in February. In Remembrance - Richard D. CrumLily Kharrazi, ACTA Richard D. “Dick” Crum died on December 12, 2005 at the age of 77 in Los Angeles. A prolific teacher and lecturer of Balkan dance and music to students, aficionados and performing groups, Dick’s impact was far reaching in North America and beyond. He did ethnographic research, recording dance and music in its cultural context, as well as publishing written articles on the cultural arts of the Balkans. He consulted on many recordings of ethnic music. Dick’s choreographic ability to adapt and present dances for the concert stage was utilized by the Duquesne University Tamburitzans for many years, as well as by the Aman Folk Ensemble, two performing companies that were at the forefront of introducing this material to audiences in the 1960s and 1970s. As a dance instructor, his workshops and residencies at folkdance camps were always high points for the attendees. Dick was able to impart through his knowledge and celebrated quick
wit an important consciousness about the responsibility of presenting
dance and music of another culture. A favorite anecdote recalled by
fellow folk dancer and long time friend of Mr. Crum, Richard Oakes,
recalls a workshop Dick offered entitled, “From Folklore to Fakelore,” “It
was a hilarious, hands-and-feet-on demonstration of how true folk dance “evolves” from
village amusement to some unrecognizable balletic enterprise suitable
for touring and tourists." In Remembrance - Robert Brown“World Music” academic Robert Brown, one of first students to receive a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from UCLA, died in San Diego in November, shortly after returning from taking 56 students on a tour of Indonesia. He was one of the founders of the world music/ethnomusicology program at Wesleyan University where he worked from 1962 to 1971. He coined the term “world music” to describe the program of study there. According to Bob, “world music” was a study based on the presence of living music because students had direct contact with master musicians and could then pursue study leading to acquisition of “bi-musicality,” a pedagogical concept adapted from his teachers, Mantle Hood and Charles Seeger at UCLA. This experience provided students with the foundation in performance practices that resonated powerfully, if not without controversy in academia. As part of Wesleyan’s program, Bob brought Balasaraswati, the most renowned classical South Indian classical Bharata Natyam dancer of the 20th century to the United States. She along with her musician brothers were a major influence on many American students in the study of world arts and cultures. Bob played an important role in the organization of the American Society for Eastern Arts, founded by Sam and Louise Scripps. This led to the formation of the non profit Center for World Music that became an important center for world music classes and concerts. He also served on the faculty of UC Berkeley and California Institute of the Arts. Until his retirement in 1992, he was a Professor of Music at San Diego State University. Bob was also owner of Flower Mountain, a center for traditional Balinese performing arts in Payangan, Bali. His recordings of music from around the world are still traveling in space on the Voyager spacecraft, a legacy of Earth recordings meant to inform the universe of intelligent and beautiful sounds existing on this planet. As one friend wrote at his death, many people have impossible dreams. Bob was a man who actually lived his impossible dreams. Edited by Lily Kharrazi from information written by David Roche, Executive Director, Old Town School of Folk Music and Jacqueline Cogdell DjeDje, Chair, Department of Ethnomusicology, UCLA. Governor Proposes Increase in Funding for the ArtsIn 2006-2007 State Budget released January 10, Governor Schwarzenegger proposed a 57% increase in the California Arts Council’s budget, and $100 million for arts and music education in K-8 public schools in the form of block grants to school districts administered by the Department of Education. The arts and music education proposed funding would be the first meaningful investment in music and arts education in over 25 years. The Governor’s Budget also included $428 million for after-school program funding required under Proposition 49 to be distributed by the Department of Education. While the Budget did not outline the way these funds would be distributed, the California Arts Council noted that the funding may benefit arts and music programs. The California Arts Council’s proposed budget is $5.11 million and the augmentation is largely the result of increased revenues from the sale of the Arts License Plate after the prices were raised on January 1, 2005. (Visit the California Arts Council website to learn more about purchasing an Arts License Plate). In an opinion piece in the San Francisco Chronicle on January 6, 2006, Alma Robinson, executive director of California Lawyers for the Arts,notes that the proposed increase in funding for the California Arts Council “is a laudable step in the right direction, but it doesn't address the critical need to restore the state's arts infrastructure.” The Governor’s Budget must undergo a lengthy legislative process before the State of California’s Budget will be approved this summer. ACTA will keep readers informed about opportunities to advocate for increased arts funding in California. AdvocacySCR 64 Scott (D-Altadena) Arts Education MonthSenate Concurrent Resolution #64 (SCR 64) would proclaim March 2006 as Arts Education Month, would encourage all educational communities to celebrate the arts with meaningful activities and programs for pupils, teachers, and the public that demonstrate learning and understanding in the visual and performing arts, and would urge all residents to become interested in and give full support to quality school arts programs for children and youth. This resolution passed out of the Senate Rules Committee and moves to the Senate Floor for a vote before January 31. For more information, go to this web link. SCR 64 will be heard in Assembly Rules committee on Thursday, February 2nd. It will be a consent item, but the public can show support! If anyone is interested in voicing their support, letters can be sent to: Assembly Committee on Rules Cindy Montañez, Chair
|
