CHICAGO, IL. (Top40 Charts/
Genesis at the Crossroads) - Bridging cultures through the arts is at the heart of concerts coming to Washington, D.C., and Casablanca, Morocco. From the finale of the upcoming HAMSA-Fest in
Chicago on August 25 and 26, 2007, an eclectic group of international musicians will travel to perform concerts on the Kennedy Center's
Millennium Stage on Monday, August 27, from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., and in Casablanca, Morocco's Place des Nations Unis (United Nations Plaza), on Saturday,
September 1.
Headlining the concert, Greek-born American Jewish tenor Cantor Alberto Mizrahi, of Chicago, will perform with Moroccan oud virtuoso Haj Youness, who is Moslem. Hay Youness is Dean of the Casablanca Conservatory of Music. They will be accompanied by a special guest artist, world renowned keyboard and diatonic harmonica legend Howard Levy (American), also of Chicago. In its world premiere, the Genesis at the Crossroads World Music Ensemble will include Persian guitarist Shahin Shahida and Ethiopian bass player Moneeb Jewad, both of Washington, D.C., Persian multi-instrumentalist Farshid Soltanshahi of St. Louis, and D.C.-based musicians Afghan vocalist and instrumentalist Humayun Khan, Moroccan Kader Rhanime on saxophone, Moroccan Mohcine Saqi and Moroccan Anis Rhanime on percussion, and Moroccan Hicham El Anmari on keyboard.
The Kennedy Center performance is free. In addition, it will be broadcast via live audio-video webstreaming, at https://www.gatc.org. The September 1st concert in Morocco will be syndicated for broadcast on more than 200 radio stations in the U.S. and 48 European stations as well as on XM satellite radio, with the potential to reach more than 20 million listeners worldwide. Sponsors of the Washington, D.C., concert include Sofitel Lafayette Square, Nuveen Investments, Royal Air Maroc, and 98.7 WFMT and the WFMT Radio Network. The Morocco concert is sponsored by Royal Air Maroc and 98.7 WFMT and the WFMT Radio Network.
The third bi-annual outdoor festival, HAMSA-Fest, will take place at Chicago's Lincoln Park, offering a wide variety of art, music, and food from different cultures. This is the first year that part of the HAMSA-Fest concert line-up will tour outside the U.S. "We are breaking traditional barriers by bringing together artists who would likely never perform on the same stage otherwise and whose music draws audiences across cultural lines," said Dr. Wendy Sternberg, Founder and Executive Director of Genesis at the Crossroads (GATC), a non-profit organization bridging cultural conflicts through the arts. "I am most interested in promoting the creation of new works of art as a product of these collaborations, providing an innovative and inspirational model for others to follow."
Additionally, Casablanca has been chosen as a project site of a new GATC initiative called ARTSLINK. The goal of ARTSLINK is to revitalize conservatories of music around the world that are in disrepair, structurally and infrastructurally, to empower local leadership to provide sustainable arts curricula and performances, creating unprecedented cross-cultural arts exchanges. Through ARTSLINK Casablanca, Morocco's Casablanca Conservatory of Music will receive a transformational renovation by internationally-reputed sound engineers, architects, designers and developers, using green technology. An international jury will select the winning design. The new facility will allow master classes to be offered in music, dance and theater. It will feature a 300 seat indoor concert hall, a recording studio, and a small museum of Andalucian musical history. Groundbreaking is scheduled for 2009, marking GATC's 10th anniversary.
