OneBeat Announces 2019 Tour
Featuring Twenty-Five Pioneering Musicians from Seventeen Countries
“A United Nations of Music… world music in its truest sense.”
OneBeat, a cultural exchange initiative of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs produced by Bang on a Can’s Found Sound Nation, is among the world’s leading music diplomacy programs. From September 16 – October 12, 2019, twenty-five innovative and socially engaged musicians from seventeen countries, ranging from Algeria to Cuba to Madagascar to the United States, will participate in an intense month of musical collaboration, public performances, installations, pop-up events and workshops.
Today, OneBeat announces its 2019 ten-day tour throughout the Southeast U.S.:
Sept. 21 at 7:30pm – Timucua White House – Orlando, FL
Sept. 28 at 7:30pm – Atlantic Center For The Arts – New Smyrna Beach, FL
Sept. 30 at 8pm – Heartwood Soundstage – Gainesville, FL
Oct. 2 at 8pm – ArtsXChange – East Point, GA
Oct. 3 at 8pm – Grocery on Home – Atlanta, GA
Oct. 4 at 6pm – The High Museum – Atlanta, GA
Oct. 5 at 12pm – Community Day at ArtsXChange – East Point, GA
Oct. 7 at 7pm – Fourth Presbyterian Church in partnership with Big Ears – Knoxville, TN
Oct. 9 at 7:30pm – The Bijou in partnership with Big Ears – Knoxville, TN
In each location, the OneBeat Fellows will present world premieres of their collaborative works-in-progress in a series of performances, workshops, and interactive public events. Complete tour information: www.1beat.org/#events
“It makes so much sense, to use music as a strategy to generate peace and cooperation. Found Sound Nation, our former Fellows and now our esteemed colleagues, have built through OneBeat a global community of young visionaries, based on a common belief – that music can open hearts, bridge differences and collaboratively create a better world. We’re so fortunate that the U.S. Department of State supports these noble goals,” says Pulitzer Prize winning composer and co-founder of Bang on a Can David Lang.
This year’s eclectic musicians include: Rodney Barreto, one of Cuba’s leading jazz drummers and member of the Chucho Valdes Quintet; Nepalese multi-instrumentalist and film music composer Jason Kunwar; pioneering modular Chinese synth designer and sound-artist Meng Qi; Baltimore-based producer, educator and award-winning entrepreneur Kariz Marcel; and virtuosic young Mongolian Yatga player Oyuntuya Enkhbat. To read about all the OneBeat fellows, visit www.1beat.org/people
The OneBeat tour brings Fellows’ musical collaborations, developed during their two-week residency at the Atlantic Center For The Arts in New Smyrna Beach, FL, to a diverse set of communities across this region of America, connecting with leading community-based organizations, local artists, audiences, and young people to build an even stronger network of musical changemakers and socially-engaged musicians.
Each performance or event will tell a unique story of OneBeat from individual and collaborative perspectives, in venues ranging from DIY theaters to public parks to art museums. Educational and collaborative workshops with local partners are integral to the OneBeat theme of exploring how artists can find innovative ways of locating their art within emerging movements for the betterment of humanity. These collaborations with local social organizations, youth, and artists serve as a launching pad into new ways of thinking about how we experience music.
More information about OneBeat’s local partners in each tour city:
Gainesville, FL (Sept 30): In Gainesville, OneBeat partners with PULP Arts, an artist collective and creative arts hub centered around two world-class recording studios and visual art production facilities. PULP supports working artists through opportunities for cross-discipline collaboration, state of the art resources, and meaningful community engagement. OneBeat will make a site visit to their brand new interdisciplinary artist studio + recording facilities, and present a OneBeat performance at the Heartwood Soundstage.
Atlanta, GA (Oct 1 – 6): Atlanta, GA (Oct 1 – 6): OneBeat will spend one week in Atlanta in residence at the ArtsXchange Community Cultural Center. ArtsXchange is a nonprofit, multicultural, multidisciplinary, multi-ethnic, intergenerational arts organization. ArtsXchange was founded in 1984 by poet, essayist, playwright, and longtime teaching artist Alice Lovelace and late poet and activist Ebon Dooley, with the belief that art is an integral component of culture and has the ability to articulate societal issues. Together they shaped ArtsXchange into a grassroots institution that has supported generations of artists, while making art accessible to marginalized communities. Having recently moved to a new location in East Point, Atlanta, ArtsXchange offers community enrichment events across all artistic disciplines that link arts and artists with the community-at-large. While in residence, OneBeat Fellows will host a community-invited Jam Session night, lead workshops with award-winning youth development organization Moving In The Spirit and the tuition-free school for refugee girls Global Village Project, as well as open workshops with the ArtsXchange community. The residency will culminate with a celebratory community day of public, interactive events and performances.
While in Atlanta, OneBeat Fellows will also perform at the DIY venue Grocery on Home, and at the prestigious High Museum of Art for their First Fridays series, which will feature several intimate performances in the galleries and a collaborative performance with Moving In The Spirit created during the ArtsXchange residency.
Knoxville, TN (Oct 7 – 9): During OneBeat’s final tour stop in Knoxville, TN, OneBeat artists will be hosted by the Big Ears Festival. Founded in 2009, Big Ears explores connections between musicians and artists, effortlessly crossing the boundaries of musical genres and artistic disciplines. Big Ears is a weekend festival of world-class musical performances that celebrates Knoxville’s historic theaters, nightclubs, churches, museums, and outdoor spaces with concerts, discussions, interactive workshops, installations, film screenings, surprise collaborations and unexpected artistic collisions. The festival celebrates the never-ending adventure of artistic creation and exploration, and has been called “the most open-minded music gathering in the country” by New Yorker writer Alex Ross. While in Knoxville, OneBeat will present a panel discussion on global arts communities in collaboration with the multigenerational theatre ensemble Carpetbag Theatre, host workshops with The Joy of Music School and The Change Center, and present a final blowout performance at Knoxville’s historic downtown Bijou Theater.
OneBeat alumni form a global network of over 200 musicians, who have created diverse projects addressing major issues facing their communities, including women’s empowerment, youth engagement, entrepreneurism and conflict resolution. OneBeat alumni have become TED Fellows, created Sunu Kaddu, a Senegal-based hip-hop education program, established Maskeliade Music School, a training center for aspiring electronic music makers in Moscow, formed the chart-topping pan-Latin band LADAMA, and designed the innovative sonic exchange project, Hear Be Dragons. Alumni projects have reached over 400,000 audience members and over 20,000 youth participants in every region of the world.
Additional information can be found at www.1beat.org.
ABOUT FSN
Found Sound Nation (FSN) is a collective of artists who use music-making to connect people across cultural divides. FSN believes that collaborative music creation is a deeply effective way to become aware of the beauty, trauma, and hidden potential in communities. Their process gives voice to the underrepresented, unlocks the creative potential of youth, and supports movements for social justice. Founded by Christopher Marianetti and Jeremy Thal in 2010, Found Sound Nation began its work as part of the groundbreaking new music organization Bang on a Can, created in 1987 by composers Michael Gordon, David Lang and Julia Wolfe. In 2015 Found Sound Nation incorporated as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, and continues to partner with Bang on a Can on various projects.
ABOUT BANG ON A CAN
Since its first Marathon concert in 1987, Bang on a Can has been creating an international community dedicated to innovative music, wherever it is found. With adventurous programs, it commissions, performs, presents, and records new works, develops new audiences, and educates the musicians of the future. Bang on a Can is building a world in which powerful new musical ideas flow freely across all genres and borders.
ABOUT ECA
The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ (ECA) mission is to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries by means of educational and cultural exchange that assist in the development of peaceful relations.
ABOUT ONEBEAT
OneBeat convenes musical leaders from the U.S. and every region of the world to develop collaborative music initiatives that build resilient civil societies and contribute to cross-cultural dialogue. Over the years,OneBeat has grown into a global community of musicians who link their artistic processes with the betterment of their communities. OneBeat has expanded to include OneBeat Abroad, a program in collaboration with U.S. embassies and based in countries with strong OneBeat alumni networks.
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