Experience a night of intrepid songwriting and acoustic innovation, beginning with Aoife O’Donovan at center stage. O’Donovan draws from her catalogue of songs, played as she wrote them: with just her acoustic guitar and voice. The Washington Post describes her singing as “almost too gorgeous for its own good.” Julian Lage & Chris Eldridge follow with a masterly acoustic performance typical of the virtuosic duo, known for pushing the boundaries of folk, bluegrass, and jazz. Showcasing, as the New Yorker writes, a “familiarity with the fretboard . . . so extravagant and capacious that they bring flourishes to this music that it simply hasn’t enjoyed before,” the duo’s performance is sure to astound. The evening concludes with all three on stage together in an aural hootenanny.
Venue: Price Center East Ballroom
Tribu Baharú
Founded in 2009, Tribu Baharú is an Afro-Champeta music crew from Colombia’s Caribbean coast who are influenced by the “picó” (pick-up or sound system) culture present in many Caribbean countries. Champeta (originally a term that refers to a fisherman’s knife) is an infectious dance music influenced by Colombian folk music, Congolese soukous, Haitian kompa, zouk, calypso, mbaqanga, soca, rap, and reggae. The band’s mission is to convey the joy of being Afro-Colombian through exuberant dance, using music as their vehicle, and change negative perceptions of Champeta culture by sharing positive messages through music.
Manual Cinema | Lula del Ray
Employing overhead projectors, shadow puppets, actors in silhouette, and live music, Lula del Ray is the story of a lonely adolescent girl who lives with her mother on the outskirts of a vast satellite array in the middle of the desert. After a chance encounter over the radio, Lula becomes obsessed with a soulful country duo. Encouraged by their music, she runs away from home and into a world of danger, deception, and disappointment. Set in the mid-century American Southwest and inspired by the music of Hank Williams, Roy Orbison, and Patsy Cline, Lula del Ray is a mythic reinvention of the classic coming-of-age story. Audience members are invited on stage post-performance to interact with the artists.