WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:24.620 ["Theme from The 00:24.620 --> 00:33.340 Welcome to Monday Night Live. 00:33.340 --> 00:38.220 The wind may be whistling around the streets of Kalamazoo, bringing winter in for the first 00:38.220 --> 00:42.820 time this year, but here in the Access Studio we have these wonderful lights. 00:42.820 --> 00:50.700 We're warm, we're relaxed, we're looking forward to the week's festivities, and I mean that. 00:50.700 --> 00:55.460 Wonderful things are going to be happening in the next few days in Kalamazoo, and we're 00:55.460 --> 01:01.380 going to be talking to two of the key people in the Festival of Sacred Music in just a 01:01.380 --> 01:02.380 moment. 01:02.380 --> 01:08.220 As usual, however, before I introduce our guests, one or two thoughts for you to hold 01:08.220 --> 01:10.900 on to. 01:10.900 --> 01:20.700 The Bible has a story about the hunter who settled for the night and lit a fire and was 01:20.700 --> 01:28.460 afraid and took a piece of wood and carved for himself an image so he felt safer with 01:28.460 --> 01:31.140 the God of his own creation. 01:31.140 --> 01:35.580 And then in the morning, of course, he got up and he carried his image away with him. 01:35.580 --> 01:41.060 You probably remember the film with Tom Hanks, Castaway, and there was the Bible story all 01:41.060 --> 01:42.060 over again. 01:42.060 --> 01:50.740 Tom Hanks, I think, cut his hand and had some kind of a ball, a basketball or a soccer ball, 01:50.740 --> 01:57.060 and there was the imprint of his hand on that ball, and it was stuck on a stick and became 01:57.060 --> 02:03.460 an image, became something he could worship in a way for the rest of the movie, took it 02:03.460 --> 02:08.540 back to real life when he was rescued, when he was found. 02:08.540 --> 02:10.380 Mythology. 02:10.380 --> 02:17.300 People from the very beginning of time have needed to look outside themselves, find something 02:17.300 --> 02:22.620 beyond the everyday, and mythology develops. 02:22.620 --> 02:28.280 And a number of years ago, the late Joseph Campbell had a wonderful interview with Bill 02:28.280 --> 02:31.060 Myers on public television. 02:31.060 --> 02:39.580 The book, the series had the same title, The Power of Myth, and there's a book which captures 02:39.580 --> 02:43.540 more or less everything that was in the public television series. 02:43.540 --> 02:46.140 And one page, I thought, might be worth quoting. 02:46.140 --> 02:50.740 They're talking about myths, they're talking about religions. 02:50.740 --> 03:00.680 Campbell says, Brotherhood, in most of the myths I know, is confined to a bounded community. 03:00.680 --> 03:05.680 In bounded communities, aggression is projected outward. 03:05.680 --> 03:10.660 For example, the Ten Commandments say, Thou shalt not kill. 03:10.660 --> 03:17.020 Then the next chapter says, Go into Canaan and kill everybody in it. 03:17.020 --> 03:19.300 That's a bounded field. 03:19.300 --> 03:25.340 We're in this particular religion, we're in this particular myth. 03:25.340 --> 03:30.340 Brotherhood exists there, but beyond, everyone is fair game. 03:30.340 --> 03:40.740 And what our friend Campbell says is, the problem is, we now need a myth for the planet. 03:40.740 --> 03:42.420 And there isn't a planetary myth. 03:42.420 --> 03:48.040 He says the nearest thing we have to it is Buddhism. 03:48.040 --> 03:55.380 Because the Buddhists see the Buddha in every one of us, in every living being. 03:55.380 --> 04:03.420 So maybe the closest thing we come to having a planetary myth is Buddhism. 04:03.420 --> 04:06.300 We still need that rounded thing. 04:06.300 --> 04:13.620 And this week in Kalamazoo, we're going to be celebrating sacred music from many faiths 04:13.620 --> 04:14.620 right here. 04:14.620 --> 04:16.740 It's going to be an exciting hour. 04:16.740 --> 04:23.220 Please stay with us, because this is an important subject for this time on the planet, not just 04:23.220 --> 04:26.580 in Kalamazoo. 04:26.580 --> 04:32.020 Now we have probably a broad shot, and I can introduce our mystery guests who we're hiding 04:32.020 --> 04:33.380 in the dark for a while. 04:33.380 --> 04:36.100 It really is a pleasure to introduce you. 04:36.100 --> 04:40.900 Let me first of all make sure I get the names right, and then we can talk a little bit about 04:40.900 --> 04:44.460 yourself before we talk about the festival. 04:44.460 --> 04:48.420 We'll start with the ladies, of course. 04:48.420 --> 04:50.420 That's an old kind of... 04:50.420 --> 04:53.420 Yeah, age two, you know. 04:53.420 --> 04:56.740 Oh, let's not go there. 04:56.740 --> 04:57.740 Dr. Elizabeth Start. 04:57.740 --> 04:59.220 May I call you Elizabeth? 04:59.220 --> 05:00.220 Sure. 05:00.220 --> 05:06.140 But we have to, from time to time, we'll flash up Dr. Elizabeth Start, your executive director 05:06.140 --> 05:08.580 of the Michigan Festival of Sacred Music. 05:08.580 --> 05:12.380 You are the boss of the festival. 05:12.380 --> 05:13.380 What you say goes. 05:13.380 --> 05:19.740 Well, I do have a board that I answer to, and I do have a program committee that helps 05:19.740 --> 05:21.220 in the initial programming. 05:21.220 --> 05:22.220 I'm being facetious. 05:22.220 --> 05:23.220 Okay, yeah. 05:23.220 --> 05:24.740 I didn't mean you were a bossy person. 05:24.740 --> 05:27.260 I do say nobody can touch me, yeah. 05:27.260 --> 05:32.420 You do need a guiding light, particularly in a complicated festival like this. 05:32.420 --> 05:35.060 There's a lot going on. 05:35.060 --> 05:39.500 And then across the table from me, Rohan Christian-Murthy. 05:39.500 --> 05:42.100 Did I get anywhere close to the pronunciation? 05:42.100 --> 05:43.100 Pretty close, yeah. 05:43.100 --> 05:44.100 Christian-Murthy. 05:44.100 --> 05:45.100 Okay. 05:45.100 --> 05:46.100 May I call you Rohan? 05:46.100 --> 05:47.100 Sure. 05:47.100 --> 05:52.420 You can use my lotus or whatever. 05:52.420 --> 05:55.900 You are going to be part of the festival. 05:55.900 --> 05:58.580 Let's talk about you first, and then we'll come back to Elizabeth. 05:58.580 --> 05:59.580 Okay. 05:59.580 --> 06:05.020 You're part of the festival because you are a student, a senior at Kalamazoo College. 06:05.020 --> 06:06.020 Correct. 06:06.020 --> 06:07.020 And double major. 06:07.020 --> 06:11.620 I'm double majoring in music and chemistry, and I'm actually coordinating the program 06:11.620 --> 06:13.620 on November 11th. 06:13.620 --> 06:16.220 That is Sunday. 06:16.220 --> 06:23.620 And this is sort of a music and dance collaboration featuring two of these artistic traditions 06:23.620 --> 06:29.220 from southern India, music and dance traditions. 06:29.220 --> 06:30.740 Tell us how you got to Kalamazoo. 06:30.740 --> 06:32.020 Tell us a bit about yourself. 06:32.020 --> 06:33.020 Don't be shy. 06:33.020 --> 06:34.020 Okay. 06:34.020 --> 06:38.020 You don't have to reveal anything with which you feel uncomfortable, but you weren't born 06:38.020 --> 06:39.020 in Kalamazoo. 06:39.020 --> 06:40.300 I wasn't born in Kalamazoo. 06:40.300 --> 06:46.340 I was actually born in California, and I moved here when I was around four. 06:46.340 --> 06:48.860 But I'm, for the most part, a product of Kalamazoo. 06:48.860 --> 06:52.900 I've gone to school completely here in Kalamazoo. 06:52.900 --> 06:57.220 I'm a graduate of Kalamazoo Central and the Meth and Science Center. 06:57.220 --> 07:00.220 And I've been a student at Kalamazoo College for the past three years. 07:00.220 --> 07:05.420 As you mentioned, I'm a senior there, double majoring in music and chemistry. 07:05.420 --> 07:10.840 So that's just a little bit about my background and what I've been doing here at Kalamazoo. 07:10.840 --> 07:16.420 But obviously, I've also been pursuing music alongside my academics. 07:16.420 --> 07:21.540 And I've been specializing in percussion for about the past ten years. 07:21.540 --> 07:28.420 So how I began learning this instrument, which is not the usual percussion that most people 07:28.420 --> 07:29.420 know. 07:29.420 --> 07:30.420 The modungum. 07:30.420 --> 07:31.420 Modungum, correct. 07:31.420 --> 07:32.420 Modungum. 07:32.420 --> 07:33.420 I'll get it right. 07:33.420 --> 07:39.900 Modungum, a South Indian drum, is a bit unconventional in that I first started taking lessons from 07:39.900 --> 07:44.500 a graduate student at Western ten years ago who had training in this art form of South 07:44.500 --> 07:46.300 Indian percussion. 07:46.300 --> 07:52.540 And I learned from him for about two months, after which he received a job transfer to 07:52.540 --> 07:53.540 Massachusetts. 07:53.540 --> 07:59.260 And since there were no other modungum instructors within a 300 mile radius of Kalamazoo, which 07:59.260 --> 08:04.700 is still the case, we continued lessons over the speakerphone, which is really the only 08:04.700 --> 08:06.500 option at the time. 08:06.500 --> 08:10.460 And though it was unconventional, it actually worked out quite well. 08:10.460 --> 08:15.900 And within a year of training over the speakerphone, I was in a position to begin performing. 08:15.900 --> 08:22.940 And since then, I've been performing in several venues in the US, Canada, and in India. 08:22.940 --> 08:28.140 And I've been performing in India for about the past nine consecutive years. 08:28.140 --> 08:31.820 So I've had a wonderful opportunity to perform. 08:31.820 --> 08:34.180 And I also enjoy teaching. 08:34.180 --> 08:40.020 I have an Indian percussion ensemble at Kalamazoo College, which gathers about a dozen students 08:40.020 --> 08:41.700 every quarter. 08:41.700 --> 08:45.140 So this is something that we really enjoy at Kalamazoo College. 08:45.140 --> 08:50.300 And we also attract members from Western and just general community members as well for 08:50.300 --> 08:52.260 that. 08:52.260 --> 08:56.340 You might know about the Indian Classical Music Lecture and Performance Series at Kalamazoo 08:56.340 --> 09:02.740 College, which also attracts guest artists and scholars for lectures and performances 09:02.740 --> 09:03.740 at Kalamazoo College. 09:03.740 --> 09:06.620 Your president will be our guest in two weeks' time. 09:06.620 --> 09:09.580 So I can check all this out with her. 09:09.580 --> 09:11.580 And I can certainly ask about that field of studies. 09:11.580 --> 09:12.580 I knew nothing about it. 09:12.580 --> 09:13.580 Definitely. 09:13.580 --> 09:15.780 I think she'll have plenty to say about it. 09:15.780 --> 09:22.540 One of the objectives of Monday Night Live is to let people, not just in Kalamazoo but 09:22.540 --> 09:29.180 in Portage, because it goes out in Portage probably next week, the people who hear about 09:29.180 --> 09:33.540 it in Portage will have missed the festival because that's this weekend. 09:33.540 --> 09:40.300 But the objective of this program is really to let people know the treasures that we have 09:40.300 --> 09:41.300 in this area. 09:41.300 --> 09:48.940 And very often people just don't realize what is beneath their feet, at their fingertips. 09:48.940 --> 09:51.540 Having a teacher who, how many miles away? 09:51.540 --> 09:56.740 Yeah, I mean he was initially here in Kalamazoo, but I guess a lot of people probably didn't 09:56.740 --> 10:00.940 know that there was an instructor in town, but I happened to chance upon him at that 10:00.940 --> 10:01.940 time. 10:01.940 --> 10:06.420 And again, such a dedicated teacher who was even willing to continue lessons over the 10:06.420 --> 10:10.820 speaker phone when he was all the way in Massachusetts. 10:10.820 --> 10:12.060 Don't be shy. 10:12.060 --> 10:17.780 You go back to India where all this started. 10:17.780 --> 10:24.220 How do you match up to the people over there who have been doing this since they were babies 10:24.220 --> 10:25.220 perhaps? 10:25.220 --> 10:28.420 Well that's a tough question, although I think I got a fairly early start as well, 10:28.420 --> 10:30.980 I started when I was eight. 10:30.980 --> 10:37.060 So yeah, I mean I guess that's really not a question for me to address directly. 10:37.060 --> 10:40.660 But I have been going there and I've had the opportunity to perform with several leading 10:40.660 --> 10:42.740 artists in India as well. 10:42.740 --> 10:45.140 Reading between the lines, this means he is very good. 10:45.140 --> 10:47.620 Yes, I think he's won a couple of competitions there. 10:47.620 --> 10:52.100 He wouldn't be invited back in time if he didn't hold his own over there. 10:52.100 --> 10:53.100 That's interesting to know. 10:53.100 --> 10:54.100 Right. 10:54.100 --> 10:58.260 So it's a nice opportunity to go back and see how things are going on, as you said, 10:58.260 --> 11:00.500 sort of in the source of South Indian music. 11:00.500 --> 11:06.700 In terms of a future career, again I'm prying, and if you tell me to shut up I'll do that, 11:06.700 --> 11:07.700 music or science? 11:07.700 --> 11:10.100 Is it an either or? 11:10.100 --> 11:11.100 That's a good question. 11:11.100 --> 11:15.060 That's something that I'm really grappling with at the moment as well. 11:15.060 --> 11:21.860 But I have been pursuing the arts and sciences in parallel pretty much since middle school. 11:21.860 --> 11:27.300 And at this point I think I'm most interested in actually pursuing the music at a professional 11:27.300 --> 11:28.300 level. 11:28.300 --> 11:33.060 So my next step would most likely be a graduate program, a master's, PhD program, most likely 11:33.060 --> 11:37.700 in ethnomusicology, which is sort of the study of world music. 11:37.700 --> 11:39.180 World music. 11:39.180 --> 11:44.580 So again we're coming back to the theme we'll probably explore in the rest of the program 11:44.580 --> 11:53.540 of when we talk about music we're talking about a common language that crosses linguistic 11:53.540 --> 11:57.860 boundaries and faith boundaries. 11:57.860 --> 11:58.860 Thank you. 11:58.860 --> 12:01.100 The spotlight is on you Elizabeth. 12:01.100 --> 12:05.700 How did you, tell us a bit about yourself, where did it all start? 12:05.700 --> 12:11.380 Well actually in Kalamazoo, I'm also a Kalamazoo product, we went to the same junior high school 12:11.380 --> 12:18.780 in high school, and my father taught at Kalamazoo College and was actually a philosophy professor 12:18.780 --> 12:24.660 but also an ordained minister and was very interested in comparative religion courses. 12:24.660 --> 12:29.340 Those were some of his more popular courses, comparative philosophy. 12:29.340 --> 12:39.300 And I just grew up with this interest in looking at the parallels and the things that are similar 12:39.300 --> 12:42.260 between the religions. 12:42.260 --> 12:47.740 And I'm a cellist initially, though I also, it's funny listening to Rohan because when 12:47.740 --> 12:52.880 I was in high school and college I was doing both math and music as well. 12:52.880 --> 12:59.000 And it wasn't until I was well into college that I kind of went straight for music. 12:59.000 --> 13:03.520 But there's always been a technical side, I've done recording techniques, I've done 13:03.520 --> 13:06.980 electronic music composition, things like that. 13:06.980 --> 13:11.020 I've studied acoustics, which of course is something that Rohan's been involved in with 13:11.020 --> 13:14.460 his new design of his drum too. 13:14.460 --> 13:19.940 We've got something going here, Peg, who's behind that camera, teaches at the Math and 13:19.940 --> 13:20.940 Science Centre. 13:20.940 --> 13:21.940 He does? 13:21.940 --> 13:22.940 And is a musician. 13:22.940 --> 13:27.820 So are we talking about the same side of the brain, is there some wiring involved here? 13:27.820 --> 13:32.300 If you can cope with the difference between one and three, can you cope with the difference 13:32.300 --> 13:34.460 between do, la, so? 13:34.460 --> 13:37.900 So I mean, is it, we don't need to go there. 13:37.900 --> 13:40.060 I don't know, a lot of people have written about that. 13:40.060 --> 13:43.860 I think if I could answer that question I wouldn't have to go to grad school. 13:43.860 --> 13:47.540 Oh, you have to go to grad school. 13:47.540 --> 13:48.540 Well thank you very much. 13:48.540 --> 13:53.380 Now let's switch to the main topic for the night and make sure I get it right. 13:53.380 --> 13:59.100 It is the 4th Michigan Festival of Sacred Music. 13:59.100 --> 14:04.420 And it's going to start on, well it's already started to some extent, I know various events 14:04.420 --> 14:05.420 have taken place. 14:05.420 --> 14:10.140 Well, our fringe events are actually starting up tomorrow. 14:10.140 --> 14:17.260 But we're already scurrying about getting things ready and the festival itself starts 14:17.260 --> 14:22.660 Thursday with the opening ceremony of the Tibetan monks and their sand painting. 14:22.660 --> 14:27.580 We need to say this kind of thing repeatedly, we'll remind people that it starts on Thursday 14:27.580 --> 14:32.420 at noon and what have you as we go along, because not everybody, this will shock you 14:32.420 --> 14:35.620 I know, not everybody watches the full hour. 14:35.620 --> 14:39.900 This wonderful thing, the remote control, means that some people take five minutes here, 14:39.900 --> 14:41.900 some stay for the full hour. 14:41.900 --> 14:48.420 But don't be afraid to butt in and say, Keith we haven't set Thursday at noon, it starts 14:48.420 --> 14:49.780 in the public museum. 14:49.780 --> 14:54.560 Okay, well I don't want people to miss though that Wednesday night there will be a wonderful 14:54.560 --> 14:59.860 event that the Kalamazoo Shape Note Singers will be doing at First Presbyterian Church. 14:59.860 --> 15:04.500 There's a wonderful documentary called Awake My Soul, which is about the Shape Note singing 15:04.500 --> 15:06.780 tradition, the Sacred Heart tradition. 15:06.780 --> 15:11.060 And they're showing that and doing a workshop in Sacred Heart singing and that's one of 15:11.060 --> 15:12.460 our free events. 15:12.460 --> 15:16.460 We have a lot of free events in the festival. 15:16.460 --> 15:19.700 I remember trying to make the festival start on Thursday and then we just kept getting 15:19.700 --> 15:25.020 more and more fringe stuff and just more and more involvement in the community, so it's 15:25.020 --> 15:26.020 great. 15:26.020 --> 15:27.660 It's good to know we've got a fringe. 15:27.660 --> 15:33.460 But anyway, let's go back again because you shuffled from you. 15:33.460 --> 15:39.100 You studied math, you studied music, your doctorate is? 15:39.100 --> 15:46.700 Music composition from the University of Chicago and I also have performing degrees and cello 15:46.700 --> 15:48.660 math degrees. 15:48.660 --> 15:58.020 I've taught a number of colleges in the Chicago area, DePaul University and Columbia College, 15:58.020 --> 16:01.460 and freelancing as a cellist all the time as well. 16:01.460 --> 16:08.500 And though I'm in Kalamazoo now, I still go back and perform in Chicago and am actually 16:08.500 --> 16:14.500 working with the Chicago Composers' Consortium as well, so keeping busy in all aspects of 16:14.500 --> 16:15.500 music. 16:15.500 --> 16:18.420 You sleep just about four hours a night, I suspect? 16:18.420 --> 16:20.820 If the cats let me, yeah. 16:20.820 --> 16:24.100 Okay, now, when did it all begin? 16:24.100 --> 16:30.860 This is the fourth festival, so it began in 2000 and so? 16:30.860 --> 16:33.100 2001 was the first festival. 16:33.100 --> 16:35.900 They were planning it in 2000. 16:35.900 --> 16:39.860 It does take us a couple of years to get everything in place. 16:39.860 --> 16:46.180 And it was actually the idea of Dr. Wenqiao Chen, who was a professor at Kalamazoo College 16:46.180 --> 16:53.100 retired, and he just thought it would be a good way to involve the community and bring 16:53.100 --> 16:56.180 the community together with music. 16:56.180 --> 17:01.020 And as far as I can see, I went to your website, and we'll flash up the website from time to 17:01.020 --> 17:02.420 time. 17:02.420 --> 17:06.420 That's a very interesting website, all kinds of information on it. 17:06.420 --> 17:07.660 Oh, thank you. 17:07.660 --> 17:15.300 It sounds as if from the very beginning, this idea of ecumenical mingling, we need to bring 17:15.300 --> 17:17.300 in Presbyterians. 17:17.300 --> 17:19.580 I think it started, didn't it, in the Baptist Church? 17:19.580 --> 17:20.580 It did. 17:20.580 --> 17:22.540 That's where the discussions took. 17:22.540 --> 17:27.300 But now we have programs in the Baptist Church, in the Presbyterian Church, the Congregational 17:27.300 --> 17:30.500 Church, the Congregation of Moses. 17:30.500 --> 17:35.500 So we're bringing in these, I was going to say local faiths, I didn't mean that, different 17:35.500 --> 17:36.500 denominations. 17:36.500 --> 17:38.540 But you're reaching out beyond. 17:38.540 --> 17:45.300 Yeah, well I think that the downtown churches especially, look at how they participate in 17:45.300 --> 17:46.300 New Year's Fest. 17:46.300 --> 17:49.220 They're interested in doing things that bring the community together. 17:49.220 --> 17:57.820 And the fact that those are our venues, it makes it seem more Christocentric, as they 17:57.820 --> 17:59.060 used to say in the festival. 17:59.060 --> 18:02.980 But it's just that these are people who are involved, and these are great places, great 18:02.980 --> 18:04.900 venues for our events. 18:04.900 --> 18:09.500 And also if you look at our schedule, things are so close together, that it's just really 18:09.500 --> 18:12.460 nice to be able to walk from one building to the next to the next. 18:12.460 --> 18:17.020 And then you can see everything rather than having to get in your car and drive over to 18:17.020 --> 18:18.020 some other place. 18:18.020 --> 18:27.020 So it's still basically a downtown event, but it's global in its reach. 18:27.020 --> 18:30.020 These are not the days to talk about crusades, are they? 18:30.020 --> 18:34.740 I think Bill Myers and Campbell had something important. 18:34.740 --> 18:42.660 We need a global, a planetary myth, we need something that goes beyond particular faiths. 18:42.660 --> 18:46.980 And so many of these have things in common. 18:46.980 --> 18:52.020 And yet sometimes we fight over just a minute, I think the difference between the Catholic 18:52.020 --> 18:58.500 Church and the Orthodox Church is minute, the philoquic clause or something like that. 18:58.500 --> 19:04.260 And because of this we say you're outside, you're not in our brotherhood circle. 19:04.260 --> 19:06.780 We can't do that these days, can we? 19:06.780 --> 19:15.540 Rohan, I mean, what do the people in India feel about Christocentric? 19:15.540 --> 19:21.460 That's a pretty big question, but I guess I'd speak on behalf of musicians in that I think 19:21.460 --> 19:25.460 for many of us our religion really is the music, the art. 19:25.460 --> 19:32.620 And what, at least for me, allows me to reach out to other faiths and other cultures is 19:32.620 --> 19:38.820 really my music and the ability for the music to bridge these cultural gaps, so to speak. 19:38.820 --> 19:45.180 And I've again had wonderful opportunities to attempt that initiative at a variety of 19:45.180 --> 19:48.220 venues both here in the US and in India. 19:48.220 --> 19:49.220 Yes. 19:49.220 --> 19:55.460 So we're not just going to, I was going to say subject, no, we're not going to subject 19:55.460 --> 19:58.180 our audiences to music. 19:58.180 --> 20:02.340 We're not just going to entertain our audiences. 20:02.340 --> 20:07.300 We're not just going to teach them something about other kinds of sacred music. 20:07.300 --> 20:11.540 Are we going to give them a spiritual experience? 20:11.540 --> 20:13.420 I think so. 20:13.420 --> 20:22.260 The music that we have, it's all very high quality in its genres and in its faith traditions. 20:22.260 --> 20:23.900 It's a wide variety of things. 20:23.900 --> 20:26.820 We have actually a radio music drama. 20:26.820 --> 20:34.420 We have of course Rohan's work with the South Indian Music and Dance, the Tibetan Monks, 20:34.420 --> 20:38.820 Kalamazoo Singers, Kalamazoo Children's Chorus will be giving us a wonderful performance 20:38.820 --> 20:45.580 of wonderful choral music, the Chichester Sounds, as well as some other works. 20:45.580 --> 20:47.540 So it's a wide range. 20:47.540 --> 20:49.140 We have a wonderful organist coming in. 20:49.140 --> 20:56.160 We're working with Miller Auditorium and the NAEA Gospel Fest Choir to present incredible 20:56.160 --> 21:02.460 gospel music, both the choral music and then Take Six, whose a cappella vocal harmonies 21:02.460 --> 21:05.420 are just wonderful, wonderful to hear. 21:05.420 --> 21:11.300 So there's a wide variety of things and also what's really nice is that it does bring the 21:11.300 --> 21:12.300 community together. 21:12.300 --> 21:18.300 If you look at the list of organizations involved, it's just, I couldn't even try and rattle 21:18.300 --> 21:23.940 them all off right now, but we have artwork that brings in Kalamazoo Public School students 21:23.940 --> 21:26.580 and that gives us a whole new perspective. 21:26.580 --> 21:32.700 We're tying into people right now reflecting on the transformational power of the Kalamazoo 21:32.700 --> 21:36.900 Promise for the community and children in the community. 21:36.900 --> 21:42.780 So one thing that I notice is working with all these different people, different faiths. 21:42.780 --> 21:49.740 When we come together to celebrate ourselves in our community, those conflicts that you've 21:49.740 --> 21:54.060 mentioned earlier, they just, they're not important and we just don't run into them 21:54.060 --> 21:55.060 really. 21:55.060 --> 21:59.260 Well we hope not. 21:59.260 --> 22:07.420 But I was almost, maybe I'm getting into too deep water, but when you play that cello, 22:07.420 --> 22:13.860 it isn't just about making music I suspect. 22:13.860 --> 22:15.260 Why did you choose the cello? 22:15.260 --> 22:17.740 Because my father played it. 22:17.740 --> 22:24.380 Well not mundane, I heard it all my life. 22:24.380 --> 22:30.620 And I started on violin and just the cello was what I wanted to play. 22:30.620 --> 22:37.460 But yeah, I think that Rohan would agree, when you're playing, it's almost like a form 22:37.460 --> 22:38.460 of meditation. 22:38.460 --> 22:44.700 It is an experience that takes you somewhere else and when you're playing with other people, 22:44.700 --> 22:50.420 you're doing that with them and that also sort of expands how you relate to people in 22:50.420 --> 22:52.940 the world. 22:52.940 --> 22:57.500 When I haven't played for a while and then I get to sit down and play, no matter what 22:57.500 --> 23:02.420 it is, I feel calmer afterwards, I feel more connected. 23:02.420 --> 23:07.300 You really have got something beyond the music, you've been connected. 23:07.300 --> 23:12.020 I think really what's important to note is that when we practice or when we perform, 23:12.020 --> 23:18.220 we really also need to be cognizant of the tradition that's behind all of these art forms. 23:18.220 --> 23:23.420 For example, the tradition that I'll be presenting on Sunday, November 11th, the music and dance 23:23.420 --> 23:27.480 collaboration, it has a history of nearly 2,000 years. 23:27.480 --> 23:33.180 So for me to just play an instrument or perform this music is not just an event taking place 23:33.180 --> 23:39.420 at a given time, but really it harks back those two millennia and all of the evolution 23:39.420 --> 23:42.420 and revolution that took place during all of those years. 23:42.420 --> 23:48.180 I think what's really wonderful about this festival is that it reveals how so many of 23:48.180 --> 23:53.060 these musical traditions have in a sense a spiritual history. 23:53.060 --> 23:58.940 For example, a lot of Western classical music originated in the churches and similarly Indian 23:58.940 --> 24:04.180 classical music essentially originated in the temples, the Hindu temples and even the 24:04.180 --> 24:07.900 dance form that we'll be presenting on Sunday. 24:07.900 --> 24:15.380 November 11th is essentially something that began in the temples, but since it developed 24:15.380 --> 24:21.380 as sort of a unique artistic entity, now we have another means of perhaps a more accessible 24:21.380 --> 24:27.460 means of sharing this spiritual and cultural tradition with the rest of the world and that's 24:27.460 --> 24:32.020 really I think one of the key missions of this festival. 24:32.020 --> 24:38.500 If we're getting close to this, the mission of the festival is not just to entertain, 24:38.500 --> 24:45.660 it is to represent diverse faiths through their music, bringing greater respect and 24:45.660 --> 24:49.980 understanding through sharing the treasured music of these traditions. 24:49.980 --> 24:54.540 So we're not just reaching across the faiths, we're reaching across the centuries and a 24:54.540 --> 25:03.140 sense of continuity with the people who taught this instrument in many, many years, 2,000 25:03.140 --> 25:04.140 years ago. 25:04.140 --> 25:11.060 The drum that you're going to play is not 2,000 years old, but it's been around now. 25:11.060 --> 25:18.740 Going back to the first, the opening, which is at noon on Thursday in the Kalamazoo Museum, 25:18.740 --> 25:30.420 the monks, the Tibetan Buddhist monks, Buddha, I think the first Buddha was born 600 BC, 25:30.420 --> 25:40.240 so we're going to be going back 2,500 years when we have that very first opening ceremony. 25:40.240 --> 25:47.220 So we're covering the world in terms of music, the world including in terms of faiths and 25:47.220 --> 25:58.420 we're covering 2,500 years in this festival that starts on Thursday, at noon, in the free. 25:58.420 --> 26:03.620 We're not allowed on our program on access, we can say anything, this is the home of free 26:03.620 --> 26:04.620 speech. 26:04.620 --> 26:11.340 We're not allowed to say tickets cost, but we can say tickets are available, go to the 26:11.340 --> 26:17.540 website to find them, but not every performance needs a ticket. 26:17.540 --> 26:24.380 The first performance of the monks is free, the film that follows directly from the Fetsun 26:24.380 --> 26:27.740 Institute again is a free occasion. 26:27.740 --> 26:32.340 Any of the events at the Kalamazoo Valley Museum are going to be free events. 26:32.340 --> 26:39.620 So our three documentary films, the Shokuhachi Japanese Bamboo Food Concert and also of course 26:39.620 --> 26:46.120 watching the monks do their sand painting as well as their opening and closing ceremonies. 26:46.120 --> 26:52.660 Those are all free as is the Shape Note Singing Workshop, Rohan's Workshop, the Briner Lecture 26:52.660 --> 27:00.380 where our organist will talk about the northern German Lutheran tradition organist as preacher. 27:00.380 --> 27:06.860 And I'm sure there are more, we have an organ master class, so there's a lot of opportunities 27:06.860 --> 27:09.780 to see our artists in a free situation. 27:09.780 --> 27:15.820 Yes, so there are free things and there's mingling, a good time will be had by all and 27:15.820 --> 27:18.820 a superb time will be had by many. 27:18.820 --> 27:23.780 We might mention the Gazette, Yesterday's Gazette, I thought did a very good job of 27:23.780 --> 27:29.620 talking about this festival and there's a schedule there, I say schedule now that I'm 27:29.620 --> 27:32.500 an American you see, I don't say schedule anymore. 27:32.500 --> 27:37.860 A schedule there and people can look at Yesterday's Gazette or they can go to your website and 27:37.860 --> 27:44.140 they can choose the thing that really, there will sometimes be some duplication, am I right? 27:44.140 --> 27:49.300 It's not possible to see everything because some things take place at the same time. 27:49.300 --> 27:53.300 Our fringe events do conflict a little bit, Wednesday night believe it or not you have 27:53.300 --> 27:59.700 to decide between two fringe events whether to hear Ellen Kushner in an author event at 27:59.700 --> 28:06.020 Kazoo Books or go and participate in the shape note singing workshop and Saturday morning 28:06.020 --> 28:14.220 we do have three free events happening, the organ master class, the documentary film on 28:14.220 --> 28:21.060 Yusuf Islam, the artist formerly known as Kat Stevens and also Rohan's workshop. 28:21.060 --> 28:24.340 So there are three different things going on there but that really is the only time 28:24.340 --> 28:25.820 you have to make a choice. 28:25.820 --> 28:32.300 All the other events, especially our ticketed ones, but everything else works in such a 28:32.300 --> 28:36.140 way that you can go from one to the next. 28:36.140 --> 28:43.900 Let's go back to that first event because we have supposedly first event. 28:43.900 --> 28:51.900 You lent me a DVD and we've taken some still photographs from that showing the mandalas 28:51.900 --> 28:56.540 and there's no sound with it but maybe we could talk a little bit about what we see 28:56.540 --> 29:02.820 on the screen as they flash past, if we could ask Anthony out there or Bill to roll that 29:02.820 --> 29:10.780 first tape showing the monks at work, that's a very brief shot, I believe there's their 29:10.780 --> 29:13.540 beginning work on or a completing work. 29:13.540 --> 29:17.180 Well actually that would be pretty near the completion because what they do first is lay 29:17.180 --> 29:24.500 out lines in which they will be pouring the sand and they actually lay it down almost 29:24.500 --> 29:29.780 grain by grain, what he's holding there is a little metal scoop and by running a stick 29:29.780 --> 29:33.300 up and down it, the sand falls out grain by grain. 29:33.300 --> 29:37.220 Grain by grain, two pounds of sand I believe they bring with them. 29:37.220 --> 29:41.100 All I know is that when they dispose of that at the end we will have less than a cup of 29:41.100 --> 29:42.100 sand. 29:42.100 --> 29:43.100 Incredible. 29:43.100 --> 29:47.340 And it's a six foot diameter circle. 29:47.340 --> 29:50.420 Here I think the monks are performing. 29:50.420 --> 29:56.620 Yeah, they're posing with their instruments, that's some of what you would see at Chenree 29:56.620 --> 30:02.980 Auditorium on Saturday night and there's dance involved, there's some incredible costumes 30:02.980 --> 30:08.820 involved with their dance but those instruments will also be used in chanting, will occur 30:08.820 --> 30:13.980 during the opening and closing ceremonies of the sand painting as well. 30:13.980 --> 30:17.540 Do you know what kind of instruments they use? 30:17.540 --> 30:26.380 The name of the horn is dung chen I think and there are some drums, they also are famous 30:26.380 --> 30:31.500 for multi-phonic singing where they're producing two and three pitches at the same time with 30:31.500 --> 30:32.500 their own voices. 30:32.500 --> 30:37.780 I heard them some years ago, they were in Kalamazoo, an amazing ability to use three 30:37.780 --> 30:41.380 of their vocal chords simultaneously. 30:41.380 --> 30:45.940 So they're going to be, I hadn't realized it, at the very beginning when they start 30:45.940 --> 30:51.340 to lay out the mandala there will also be some music as well at that. 30:51.340 --> 30:54.180 Yes, there's chanting and playing of instruments. 30:54.180 --> 30:59.060 The ceremonies at the beginning and the end are between a half an hour and 45 minutes. 30:59.060 --> 31:04.180 And they will be working throughout the festival all building that mandala. 31:04.180 --> 31:15.420 The wheel, the first Buddha was born in northern India I believe, Nepal, what's called Nepal 31:15.420 --> 31:20.900 now, and the wheel, the Buddhist wheel which seems to feature in some of those mandalas, 31:20.900 --> 31:25.380 isn't that in the middle of the Indian flag? 31:25.380 --> 31:26.380 Most likely. 31:26.380 --> 31:32.460 I think, I think it's, there's still this link up, these are Tibetan Buddhist monks 31:32.460 --> 31:38.180 but they're not in Tibet now of course, they're in an Indian monastery. 31:38.180 --> 31:42.260 Right, their monastery is in exile in India. 31:42.260 --> 31:47.700 Yes, I can't pronounce the name of the, I've got it written down here, Drepung Le Seling 31:47.700 --> 31:48.700 Monastery? 31:48.700 --> 31:52.900 Yeah, I've been calling it Drepung Le Seling myself but I don't know if I'm right. 31:52.900 --> 32:00.460 But they're exiled Tibetan monks and they have an American off-hute somewhere down south. 32:00.460 --> 32:03.380 So they have an office that manages their tour. 32:03.380 --> 32:09.180 The monks that will be coming though, they're selected from the monastery in India for their 32:09.180 --> 32:13.820 skills at the sand painting and at chanting and at dance and at the instruments. 32:13.820 --> 32:19.380 So they come in a tour group that is still being led by an elder monk who sees to their 32:19.380 --> 32:22.540 spiritual needs while they're here. 32:22.540 --> 32:28.180 So we're sort of in contact with them through an office in Atlanta but these are monks coming 32:28.180 --> 32:29.180 straight from Tibet. 32:29.180 --> 32:35.100 We've been given a sheet of a few phrases like hello and things like that because probably 32:35.100 --> 32:37.740 one or two maybe will speak English. 32:37.740 --> 32:43.540 So they're really just on this excursion and they'll go back to the monastery. 32:43.540 --> 32:50.820 Well, let's move off, if you're not careful I'm going to have you talking about the Buddhist 32:50.820 --> 32:56.060 faith for the rest of the evening and we have all kinds of other things to cover. 32:56.060 --> 33:04.220 Thursday, that takes place down there at the public museum but then if we move on to the 33:04.220 --> 33:10.660 congregational church at 3.30, a very special person is performing I believe. 33:10.660 --> 33:16.620 Well, many special people are performing in that but I will be playing with them. 33:16.620 --> 33:24.420 Capriccio is a flute and harp duo out of Chicago and they pitched to me the idea of doing a 33:24.420 --> 33:29.900 program based on Hebraic themes and there are a number of pieces on the program that 33:29.900 --> 33:31.540 are based on Hebraic themes. 33:31.540 --> 33:37.060 There's also a work for soprano flute, harp and cello based on the Diarrhea Van Frank 33:37.060 --> 33:43.020 which is a very powerful, wonderful piece and that will be closing the program. 33:43.020 --> 33:48.700 And the singer in that happens to be a singer who does a lot of things with Music of the 33:48.700 --> 33:54.380 Broke and Lyric Opera in Chicago and she lives in Minnesota now but she is featured in the 33:54.380 --> 34:01.060 Fetzer film, The Mystery of Love, a film sponsored by the Fetzer which will be shown at one o'clock 34:01.060 --> 34:02.060 that day. 34:02.060 --> 34:07.700 So you can go and see her in the film and find out what mystery of love was involved 34:07.700 --> 34:12.100 in her life and then hear her sing this piece, The Diarrhea Van Frank. 34:12.100 --> 34:14.260 So cello light and then light. 34:14.260 --> 34:15.260 In person, yeah. 34:15.260 --> 34:20.340 We should have mentioned, I mean funding, some of the funding comes from, I think originally 34:20.340 --> 34:26.740 Gilmour Foundation, Kalamazoo Foundation, Fetzer as well, they're still involved, those 34:26.740 --> 34:27.740 three foundations? 34:27.740 --> 34:33.860 Oh yes, again to rattle off all of them it would take a while, it's a very large list 34:33.860 --> 34:35.900 and we do have them listed on our website. 34:35.900 --> 34:41.740 But this is a good indication of the support in the community for what we're doing here. 34:41.740 --> 34:46.420 This is something important we're involved in, this isn't just, let's entertain ourselves 34:46.420 --> 34:49.660 as the winter creeps in. 34:49.660 --> 34:53.340 Are you going to play something from that capriccio? 34:53.340 --> 35:01.100 Yes, I'm playing as part of the concert, there's a flute and cello duos that we're doing and 35:01.100 --> 35:07.500 they're canons so what I can play for you is pretty much the whole piece except of course 35:07.500 --> 35:10.940 I'd be playing, the flute would be playing the same music at a different time so it'd 35:10.940 --> 35:17.140 be more complicated sounding, there's more counterpoint but the essential melodic elements 35:17.140 --> 35:18.420 I could play for you. 35:18.420 --> 35:24.580 And these are called Hebrew canons and by a composer named, his last name is Lichter, 35:24.580 --> 35:31.220 is known mostly in film writing and television writing but I'll just play you a little bit 35:31.220 --> 35:32.220 of a couple. 35:32.220 --> 35:38.700 If you can leave your, maybe Roger out there can cut that microphone and I'll take care 35:38.700 --> 35:44.060 of it while you slide across to the other microphone in the corner. 35:44.060 --> 35:52.220 Yeah, I'm looking forward to this performance, I've only heard Dr. Starr a couple of times. 35:52.220 --> 36:00.060 Most recently we actually did a performance together of a concerto, a merdangum concerto 36:00.060 --> 36:05.500 for myself and string orchestra so this is something that we performed at Kalamazoo College 36:05.500 --> 36:10.820 just a few months ago but yeah definitely looking forward to hearing her perform today. 36:10.820 --> 36:14.580 Oh my, have you composed anything together, have you done original music? 36:14.580 --> 36:19.980 Some of these pieces are basically first of their kind collaborations for Indian percussion 36:19.980 --> 36:20.980 and string orchestra. 36:20.980 --> 36:21.980 Yes. 36:21.980 --> 36:22.980 Are we all set? 36:22.980 --> 36:23.980 Can we? 36:23.980 --> 36:31.220 I'll just play a little bit of one of these, well two of these different Hebrew canons. 36:31.220 --> 36:50.220 This one is subtitled Once Upon a Time and it's the only one the cello starts, so. 36:50.220 --> 37:13.460 Here we go. 37:43.460 --> 37:49.460 So that's one of them, and if you can imagine the flute doing something similar at the same time, 37:49.460 --> 37:53.460 they're really very, very wonderful kind of polo pieces. 37:53.460 --> 37:58.460 There's a far more lively one that it ends with that's called Plexmer Canon. 37:58.460 --> 38:18.460 Plexmer Canon 38:28.460 --> 38:55.460 Plexmer Canon 38:55.460 --> 39:00.460 Thank you very much indeed. 39:00.460 --> 39:10.460 You said the second one was a Plexmer Canon, and I think I could recognize that rhythm at least. 39:10.460 --> 39:13.460 Thank you very much. 39:13.460 --> 39:17.460 It's really a lot of fun playing with this flutist. 39:17.460 --> 39:21.460 She's done these with a number of other cellists, 39:21.460 --> 39:29.460 and she says she's really enjoying how I'm getting more into the spirit that I like the glissandi. 39:29.460 --> 39:30.460 She's converting you. 39:30.460 --> 39:33.460 Oh, she doesn't need to convert me. I'm enjoying it. 39:33.460 --> 39:36.460 It's fun, some of the things you can do on a string instrument, 39:36.460 --> 39:41.460 and sometimes we're afraid to really go in for those little inflections, but it's a lot of fun. 39:41.460 --> 39:44.460 Something just occurred to me. You're learning another language. 39:44.460 --> 39:51.460 It's like learning French and then switching to Swedish perhaps. I'd never thought about that. 39:51.460 --> 39:58.460 As you move into the music of another faith, you're actually moving into another kind of language. 39:58.460 --> 40:04.460 That's a really interesting point, Keith, because in the performance that I'm coordinating on Sunday, November 11th... 40:04.460 --> 40:05.460 Keep saying the date. 40:05.460 --> 40:16.460 Sure. Sunday, November 11th at 1 o'clock in the St. Luke's Church in downtown. 40:16.460 --> 40:21.460 We will be featuring a violinist, Shruti Iyer, from Philadelphia. 40:21.460 --> 40:27.460 Actually, all three of the other artists are from Philadelphia, including myself, 40:27.460 --> 40:38.460 and they include Cure Noveli, Vidya Shankar, who's the vocalist, Shruti Iyer, who's the violinist, and Shoba Narayanan, who's the dancer. 40:38.460 --> 40:50.460 In this performance, we are going to be featuring a violinist who has learned Indian classical violin in addition to Western classical violin. 40:50.460 --> 40:57.460 It's really interesting. I think our audience will really enjoy seeing how the violin has been adapted to Indian music. 40:57.460 --> 41:03.460 In fact, it's been around in Indian music for almost 150 years. 41:03.460 --> 41:08.460 The playing style and the techniques are considerably different from the Western classical tradition. 41:08.460 --> 41:15.460 I think it'll really be nice to see how the same instrument is being dealt with by a different musical tradition. 41:15.460 --> 41:19.460 I certainly plan to be at that performance at 1 o'clock. 41:19.460 --> 41:21.460 November 11th. 41:21.460 --> 41:22.460 November 11th. 41:22.460 --> 41:23.460 At St. Luke's. 41:23.460 --> 41:25.460 At St. Luke's Church. 41:25.460 --> 41:33.460 The Baptist Church, we've mentioned that's where it all started, but again on Thursday the 8th, 7.30. 41:33.460 --> 41:42.460 Messiaen, you have that wonderful, deep quartet that he composed in a prison camp. 41:42.460 --> 41:43.460 Yes. 41:43.460 --> 41:45.460 An amazing story in itself. 41:45.460 --> 41:52.460 Yeah, it's a wonderful piece and I've written about ten pages on it, so I won't talk about it too much. 41:52.460 --> 41:55.460 So there will be notes for people to read out? 41:55.460 --> 41:58.460 Yeah, I cut it down to much less. 41:58.460 --> 42:06.460 But there is so much in the piece and it's regarded as one of the masterworks of the 20th century just as a piece of music. 42:06.460 --> 42:15.460 And then when you look at the spiritual significance of the piece, this is all based on this one man's incredible faith. 42:15.460 --> 42:20.460 He based it on the Book of Revelations and there are a lot of elements in it. 42:20.460 --> 42:29.460 The fact that he saw colors in music and actually composed to the colors that he saw in his mind as he heard different notes. 42:29.460 --> 42:38.460 Also using bird song as the symbol of freedom of our striving for higher spiritual planes. 42:38.460 --> 42:40.460 And of course we have incredible people performing it. 42:40.460 --> 42:47.460 We have artists in residence from the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra performing with Raymond Harvey on the piano. 42:47.460 --> 42:50.460 So it's going to be a wonderful performance. 42:50.460 --> 42:58.460 And it's also working as a concert to bring together multi-faith musical reflections from our other artists. 42:58.460 --> 43:03.460 So you actually will get a sampling of some of our other artists that night. 43:03.460 --> 43:06.460 Yale Strom will represent Judaism. 43:06.460 --> 43:09.460 Dawood Warnsby, Islam. 43:09.460 --> 43:15.460 Michael Chikuzin Gould will play the shakuhachi representing Buddhism. 43:15.460 --> 43:20.460 And David Trader who is our Briner Lectureship Collaborative Artist. 43:20.460 --> 43:21.460 He's an organist. 43:21.460 --> 43:23.460 He'll speak on Christianity. 43:23.460 --> 43:30.460 And all of this will be moderated by Ellen Kushner who is a public radio personality. 43:30.460 --> 43:33.460 Her program Sound and Spirit is very popular. 43:33.460 --> 43:39.460 Will the maestro say anything about the story of the prison camp? 43:39.460 --> 43:42.460 I know that someone will speak about that. 43:42.460 --> 43:45.460 But certainly that is somewhat in my program notes. 43:45.460 --> 43:49.460 And there is a wonderful book out by the author. 43:49.460 --> 43:52.460 I think her name is Rishan who speaks about... 43:52.460 --> 43:57.460 She interviewed all the people involved who were still alive about eight years ago. 43:57.460 --> 44:03.460 And it's just an incredible book that lets you know what it was like to be performing it, 44:03.460 --> 44:06.460 what the subsequent performances were like, 44:06.460 --> 44:12.460 the lives of these musicians who happened to be in this POW camp. 44:12.460 --> 44:14.460 It's a really interesting book. 44:14.460 --> 44:24.460 And also the perspective of Messiaen talking to Messiaen's wife and finding out his views on the piece. 44:24.460 --> 44:29.460 So I assume that someone from the group is going to talk a little bit about that. 44:29.460 --> 44:30.460 It's a powerful story. 44:30.460 --> 44:31.460 Yeah. 44:31.460 --> 44:37.460 But we do of course want to make sure it's clear that this is primarily a musical event. 44:37.460 --> 44:47.460 The reflections by Dawoud and David and Michael and Yale are going to be a little bit of speaking, 44:47.460 --> 44:50.460 but then a lot of music in these elements. 44:50.460 --> 44:55.460 And also I should point out that the program starts with a really interesting piece 44:55.460 --> 44:58.460 that's being performed by percussionist Greg Sikor. 44:58.460 --> 45:05.460 And it's actually based on a person's image of a self-immolating Buddhist monk. 45:05.460 --> 45:10.460 The images we saw in the early 1960s in Vietnam. 45:10.460 --> 45:16.460 And that was this monk's way of protesting religious persecution. 45:16.460 --> 45:21.460 And the piece is called A Robe of Orange Flame. 45:21.460 --> 45:25.460 And he speaks of taking on this robe in order to be noticed. 45:25.460 --> 45:27.460 A feast, a feast coming up. 45:27.460 --> 45:30.460 Television sometimes makes me want to weep. 45:30.460 --> 45:34.460 Only once have I cried in front of the television set. 45:34.460 --> 45:37.460 And that was late at night years ago in England. 45:37.460 --> 45:42.460 Pablo Casals has given the United Nations Medal of Freedom. 45:42.460 --> 45:45.460 And he stood there, took the medal, and then said, 45:45.460 --> 45:49.460 I have not performed in public, because against fascism, 45:49.460 --> 45:56.460 I have not performed in public for the past 40 years, but tonight I would like to play. 45:56.460 --> 46:03.460 And he took his cello and he played a little Basque piece about the bird of freedom. 46:03.460 --> 46:06.460 And you were talking about the bird of freedom. 46:06.460 --> 46:10.460 Now we're going back 40 years, about two and a half thousand years. 46:10.460 --> 46:13.460 I have to butt in for just a moment. 46:13.460 --> 46:16.460 Because remember, one of the aims of this program, Monday Night Live, 46:16.460 --> 46:20.460 is to say all the good things we have going on in Kalamazoo. 46:20.460 --> 46:25.460 We have a competing festival, the Russian Festival, comes to town. 46:25.460 --> 46:29.460 And I think I should mention the fact that that will be on Friday the 9th. 46:29.460 --> 46:34.460 There will be a gala concert, I believe, in the Dalton Center. 46:34.460 --> 46:40.460 And that ticket would get you into the festival at the Fetzer Center on the Saturday. 46:40.460 --> 46:43.460 So there's another show in town as well. 46:43.460 --> 46:46.460 But I think perhaps different audiences. 46:46.460 --> 46:48.460 Everybody will have. 46:48.460 --> 46:52.460 And I had dinner the other day with some of those folks, 46:52.460 --> 46:58.460 and we were talking about how perhaps they might want to be in nicer weather. 46:58.460 --> 47:01.460 So a little bit earlier on next time. 47:01.460 --> 47:06.460 A group from the Washington, the Russian Culture Center is coming into town. 47:06.460 --> 47:08.460 It's quite an important event. 47:08.460 --> 47:12.460 We have a lot of good things in this community. 47:12.460 --> 47:17.460 I would like to show a little roll-in that you provided of a rehearsal. 47:17.460 --> 47:22.460 I don't know if it was a rehearsal for the performance that will be on the 11th. 47:22.460 --> 47:29.460 Yeah, correct. This is some rehearsal footage for our upcoming performance on Sunday, November 11th, 47:29.460 --> 47:32.460 a performance at 1 o'clock at St. Luke's. 47:32.460 --> 47:38.460 And this was taken a couple of months ago when I went to Philly, Philadelphia, 47:38.460 --> 47:43.460 for a rehearsal for this program with the other musicians and the dancer. 47:43.460 --> 47:46.460 So these are the actual musicians who will be the violinists, 47:46.460 --> 47:51.460 the vocalists, the vocalists, vocalist and dancer. 47:51.460 --> 47:59.460 So I believe this is probably the first piece that we'll be presenting in our performance. 47:59.460 --> 48:07.460 So while if Terrence or Roger or Bill have got the roll-in of the... 48:07.460 --> 48:09.460 Ensemble. 48:09.460 --> 48:13.460 Ensemble, the rehearsal for this performance, while Etta's playing, 48:13.460 --> 48:21.460 you could maybe move over to your... 48:43.460 --> 48:45.460 Ensemble. 49:13.460 --> 49:40.460 Ensemble. 49:40.460 --> 49:48.460 We've finished the extract, the rehearsal in Philadelphia. 49:48.460 --> 49:52.460 And now if we can come right in on you, Rohan, 49:52.460 --> 49:56.460 you might want to tell us just a little bit about the drum itself. 49:56.460 --> 50:00.460 Sir, hopefully one of these mics is picking up my voice. 50:00.460 --> 50:08.460 This is the mazangam, and this is a 2,000-year-old South Indian drum, pitched drum. 50:08.460 --> 50:11.460 It basically has three major parts to it. 50:11.460 --> 50:16.460 We have two playing surfaces that are played with the fingers and wrists of both hands, 50:16.460 --> 50:20.460 and they're fastened to a central wooden shell. 50:20.460 --> 50:24.460 The instrument that we have here is actually something that I sort of re-engineered. 50:24.460 --> 50:30.460 This isn't a traditional design, but this is something that tends to be a lot more 50:30.460 --> 50:38.460 recent-looking and durable than traditional design items for performances throughout the past few years. 50:38.460 --> 50:47.460 So we've played a short improvisational piece in a piece I've known as Bobby Fowler. 50:47.460 --> 50:55.460 I should give you some idea of what this instrument sounds like. 50:55.460 --> 51:00.460 Let's have a listen. 51:25.460 --> 51:30.460 Let's have a listen. 51:55.460 --> 52:00.460 Let's have a listen. 52:25.460 --> 52:37.460 Thank you very much indeed. 52:37.460 --> 52:42.460 If you could come back to the table. 52:42.460 --> 52:49.460 You said something that I think I understood. 52:49.460 --> 52:54.460 You said you re-engineered the drum. 52:54.460 --> 53:00.460 You said it was tunable. Was that the phrase you used? Pitched? 53:00.460 --> 53:07.460 What that basically means is the instrument has this tonal or pitched element to it. 53:07.460 --> 53:11.460 It can produce a pitch, and that's quite unique for a percussion instrument, 53:11.460 --> 53:17.460 because most percussion instruments don't have the ability to produce these distinct pitches. 53:17.460 --> 53:25.460 What allows for this tonal production is a really ingenious fixture on the tonal head of the instrument, 53:25.460 --> 53:30.460 which you probably caught in the video footage of the demonstration. 53:30.460 --> 53:35.460 That is made of an iron oxide and starch mixture. 53:35.460 --> 53:41.460 That black disc is made up of about 40 layers of this material. 53:41.460 --> 53:47.460 It allows for the production of these harmonic overtones, or basically pitches. 53:47.460 --> 53:54.460 With this new design, tuning the instrument is a lot easier, and preparing the instrument is a lot easier. 53:54.460 --> 54:01.460 I've got to be careful, because one of the treasures of this community is Western Michigan University, 54:01.460 --> 54:04.460 as well as Kalamazoo College. 54:04.460 --> 54:10.460 We hear the marching band practicing its drums every evening from our home. 54:10.460 --> 54:17.460 Not quite as subtle as this. It's invigorating, but you can really play this. 54:17.460 --> 54:25.460 You're right. It's not as voluminous as a lot of Western percussion is in that sense. 54:25.460 --> 54:31.460 Since it's played with the hands, obviously it can't be as loud as something that's played with a large stick, 54:31.460 --> 54:38.460 but at the same time there are a lot of nuances and a lot of intricacies that are quite characteristic of this drum. 54:38.460 --> 54:42.460 You've been playing that instrument, or one like it, since you were eight years old. 54:42.460 --> 54:44.460 Yeah, about the past ten years. 54:44.460 --> 54:51.460 How long does it take an ordinary person to master it? 54:51.460 --> 54:58.460 I think everyone has the potential to. They just have to find whatever system works for them. 54:58.460 --> 55:05.460 Obviously, how long it takes for an individual to reach a performance level is the question. 55:05.460 --> 55:11.460 That really depends on the individual and what the individual considers performance level. 55:11.460 --> 55:20.460 This is a gifted person here, the Buddha in each of us, even though this is a Hindu instrument in the temple. 55:20.460 --> 55:24.460 Buddhism itself originated in India. 55:24.460 --> 55:32.460 Thank you very much. All kinds of good things. We have just about five minutes. We have to be selective. 55:32.460 --> 55:38.460 I looked at the other things that were coming along, and David Schroeder came to mind. 55:38.460 --> 55:46.460 I heard him play on the harpsichord at the previous Gilmore Festival, played the Goldberg Variations. Amazing! 55:46.460 --> 55:57.460 He is an amazing musician and plays all keyboards. He plays clavichord, organ, piano, and he plays all types of music. 55:57.460 --> 56:02.460 He is certainly involved with early music groups, but he plays a lot of contemporary music. 56:02.460 --> 56:09.460 As a matter of fact, that's where I first met him, was performing with contemporary chamber players at the University of Chicago, Ralph Shapie's old group. 56:09.460 --> 56:18.460 He was the piano player at the time that was playing with them in ensembles, and I was playing cello with him. 56:18.460 --> 56:26.460 He has been here and been featured on the Gilmore at least once, and I think he did five concerts at that festival. 56:26.460 --> 56:37.460 He will be performing on St. Luke's organ on Friday at 3.30, and he will be also doing the Briner Lecture at First Presbyterian Church. 56:37.460 --> 56:48.460 He will be talking about, as I mentioned earlier, the North German Lutheran tradition, organist as preacher, and playing, of course, examples to go along with that. 56:48.460 --> 56:59.460 He will also be in First Presbyterian's worship service Sunday morning, so there are definitely chances to catch him for free in those two venues, 56:59.460 --> 57:08.460 and also he will be teaching a master class with members of the Southwest Michigan American Guild of Organists at First Methodist Church Saturday morning. 57:08.460 --> 57:22.460 First Methodist Church Saturday morning, let's be clear on this now. You don't just walk in and say, teach me the organ. People, he'll be criticizing, listening to our organists, 57:22.460 --> 57:29.460 but the public is welcome to sit in the pews and listen to these people take it. 57:29.460 --> 57:34.460 Yeah, well, I think he will not be critical. He will be helpful. 57:34.460 --> 57:35.460 Yes, I'm sure. 57:35.460 --> 57:47.460 Yeah, they have prepared pieces for him, and he will hear them and make suggestions as to how to get more out of there. 57:47.460 --> 57:56.460 What I'm amazed with, Don Upshaw did a master class, Yo-Yo Ma did a master class some years ago. 57:56.460 --> 58:08.460 The generosity of these people who have mastered their instrument in teaching and critiquing people who haven't quite reached that level yet. 58:08.460 --> 58:17.460 The generosity, the love for a fellow musician, somebody who cared enough to put in the hours and hours of, 58:17.460 --> 58:22.460 have you ever worked out how many hours of practice you've put in? 58:22.460 --> 58:23.460 No. 58:23.460 --> 58:33.460 I heard that if you look at the music schools in Berlin, there are two, Conservatoire, the and the next one. 58:33.460 --> 58:38.460 And to get into this one, it's a question of hours, but the time you can get into the lower level, 58:38.460 --> 58:46.460 you've done something like 18,000 hours of practice. To get into the next one, it's 50% more than that. 58:46.460 --> 58:55.460 I mean, hours of practicing and ability later on go together. Hard work goes behind all this. 58:55.460 --> 59:05.460 Now, the mechanics of putting together a festival. Sounds as if you know these people. 59:05.460 --> 59:08.460 This is when I first met him, you say, in Chicago. 59:08.460 --> 59:15.460 So are you one of the people who will pick up a phone and say, could you come this week in November to Kalamazoo? 59:15.460 --> 59:22.460 Oh, yeah. For the most part, I am the person who made those calls or emails. 59:22.460 --> 59:27.460 And some of them are indeed people I know, but there are a number of people that I don't know. 59:27.460 --> 59:33.460 Certainly the first thing I lined up, because people were asking about Tibetan monks, were Tibetan monks. 59:33.460 --> 59:41.460 And I had known of a group performing in Elgin, Illinois a few years ago. I saw their information, and so I contacted them. 59:41.460 --> 59:53.460 The shakuhachi performer, Michael Gould, I found him actually initially online, just Googling Michigan shakuhachi and Buddhism. 59:53.460 --> 01:00:12.460 And that's who I found. But he has wonderful credentials. And Rohan, I'm lucky enough to know him.