World Music Shanghai

SHANGHAI: 11 international groups together with contemporary musician Gong Linna and other artists from China will perform during live concerts and gigs across Shanghai as part of The 2011 World Music Shanghai festival, which runs May 21 to 25, 2011.

In its fourth year, this is the first time the festival will be featuring two days of outdoor concerts — seven bands will perform on the open stage at Zhongshan Park, from 2pm to 10 pm on May 21 and 22.

The theme of this year’s  World Music Shanghai is “heritage”. Not only world music of distinctive cultural backgrounds and styles will be presented, but more importantly, the festival will discuss folk music in a contemporary context, and how to make it more accessible to urban audiences.

A highlight of the international line up will be the Gotan Project, made up of three French electronic musicians and three authentic Tango musicians from Argentina.Gotan Project broke into the music scene in 1999 with their innovative mix of electro-tango. The trio of elegant, dark-suited showmen went on to score a huge international success and have now carved out a worldwide reputation as fusion mixmasters.

Also performing at the festival will be the “magic couple from Mali”, Amadou & Mariam, a musical duo composed of Amadou Bagayoko (guitar and vocals) and Mariam Doumbia (vocals). The couple played the Nobel Peace Prize concert in honour of Barack Obama, on June 11th, 2010, Amadou & Mariam appeared on FIFA’s Kick-Off Celebration for 2010′s World Cup, hosted in South Africa. The duo’s early recordings in the 1980s and 1990s feature sparse arrangements of guitar and voice. Since the late 1990s Amadou & Mariam have produced music that mixes traditional Mali sound with rock guitars, Syrian violins, Cuban trumpets, Egyptian ney, Indian tablas and Dogon percussion. All these elements put together have been referred to as “Afro-blues“.

The Whirling Dervishes of Damascus will bring to Shanghai for the first time their spellbinding mystical dance that dates back to the 13th century when Rumi, a towering figure of Sufism, created it as a means of ‘spinning off’ worldly diversion to find oneness with the Divine.

Palestinian musician Reem Kelani has been devoted to introducing the music of migrant communities to the mass audience in the UK. Her decision to sing traditional songs or songs based on the poetry  of well-known Palestinian poets is a simple and yet powerful affirmation of the existence of a Palestinian cultural identity.

World Music Shanghai was founded on the eve of the World Expo 2010 and will carry the legacy of World Expo into the future. Some performing groups, such as National Drummers of Burundi, Ensemble Shanbehzadeh and Huun Huur Tu, have all participated in the festival before, and Baiana System from Brazil performed at the Expo Park last year. These performers have witnessed the history of World Music Shanghai.

Gong Linnan, who became known all over China because of her song “Tan Te”, will give her debut concert inShanghai. Winner of the Chinese National Singing Competition in 2000, Gong Linna has performed as a soloist with all the major Chinese orchestras. With additional studies in classical Qin-songs, field-research on folk-song-techniques and musical experiments and productions in various styles from classical chamber music to pop, Gong Linna consequently expanded her singing techniques. Today she is one of the most outstanding Chinese vocalists, showing an impressive ability to transform traditional vocal sounds into a contemporary art-form.

Also performing is Pipa player Wu Man, who has worked with musicians all over the world in the past 20 years. Wang Li will play Kouxian, the oldest instrument of human being. He’ll collaborate with Yom from France, and present a joint show of wind music from East and West.

The festival will feature a special celebration of Khoomei, a traditional singing style of the Mongolian. Four Khoomei groups will be invited to present the unique art form. While Egschiglen from Mongolia will sing Khoomei in the most authentic way as it was originated; Christian Zehnder from Switzerland will combine Khoomei with jazz music; Hanggai from Beijing regenerates the Inner-Mongolian music into rock. And, of course, don’t forget the real Khoomei legend, Huun Huur Tu from Tuva.

The whole day pass for May 21 and 22 outdoor concerts will be sold at 280 yuan, and a two day pass at 400 yuan. One can visit the official website at: www.worldmusicshanghai.com to learn about the details and book tickets.