Thursday, May 2
7:30 pm
First Church
179 Main Street
Northampton, MA
Beloved world music ensemble and Humayun Farzad Khan join forces to raise
funds for the Afghani Orphan Fund. Beloved will perform a set of devotional music
from the Sufi tradition, the mystical aspect of Islam. The concert will feature a set
led by ensemble member Humayun Farzad Khan (an Afghani-American)
performing traditional Afghani music. We will be joined by our friends Yousuf Kerai
on tablas and Todd Roach on frame drums and doumbek. Please come and help
a worthy cause. To reserve a ticket, call LuAnne at 1.802.254.9778.
Tickets are $12 ($10 for students).
Our web site is now accessible from two addresses:
http://www.belovedmusic.com and http://www.superluminal.com/beloved/.
LuAnne Hightower, the daughter of professional musicians, has been studying music since age 5. She began her studies in classical piano at age 13 under the direction of Benning Dexter and Robert Hord at University of Michigan, and worked with vocal master Veronica Diamond. Her studies continued in composition, theory and jazz at Northwestern University and in piano performance with Guy Mombert and Arthur Tollefson. In 1987 she composed the score for a multimedia production entitled "Spaceship Earth," written especially for young audiences around the theme of racial harmony, which toured schools and parks in Phoenix, AZ. In the eary 90’s she encountered Turkish and Iranian classical music, and began composing and performing devotional music and studying with various teachers from these traditions. She has performed with the Eurasia Ensemble, the Mercan Dede Ensemble, Latif Bolat, and most recently opened the Rumi Festival in Chapel Hill, NC with Beloved, the ensemble she founded with David Seidel. She released her first CD "Andalib: Songs of Invocation" in 1997 on her own label.
David Seidel studied classical guitar with guitarist/lutenist Edward Flower and received a B.A. in Music Theory & Composition from Simon's Rock College in 1978. He has participated in many musical genres, ranging from Renaissance and Baroque to rock and jazz/funk to avant-garde to Turkish vernacular and classical music and recorded for New York-based composers Scott Johnson and Lois V Vierk; his solo and ensemble performances of Vierk's music are included on her CDs "Simoom" (XI, 1990) and "River Beneath the River" (Tzadik, 2000). He has performed in a wide variety of venues, ranging from night clubs (CBGB, Mudd Club) to downtown performance spaces (The Kitchen, Dia Art Foundation, Dance Theater Workshop) to concert halls (New York's Alice Tully Hall, Minneapolis' Walker Arts Center) and at several new music festivals (New Music America in Los Angeles, Bang On A Can in New York, and Styrian Autumn in Graz, Austria).
Humayun Farzad Khan is a singer and instrumentalist from the Afghani tradition. He began his studies in voice and Indian setar with Shuba Silver, and continued for several years with Ustad Fateh Ali Khan in Pakistan. His primary training was under Ustad Vilayat Khan of India. He has toured with Fateh Ali Khan, Vilayat Khan and with tabla master Zakir Hussein. He resides in Washington, DC.
Yousuf Kerai has studied music since the age of 8, including several years of vocal work with Shekila Khorasani and tabla study with Ustad Khurshid Khan. He has performed at various venues and festivals in his natvie Pakistan and is currently an architecture major at Bennington College.
Todd Roach is an accomplished frame drum teacher and performer. He studied primarily with Glen Velez. He teaches classes and workshops from his studio, The Loft at Cotton Mill Hill, a popular Brattleboro concert venue.