A showcase of MIT's world music ensembles and their non-western cultures, World Music Day, begins with a 4:30pm Concert by MIT Gamelan Galak Tika in Kresge Auditorium followed by 6pm DINNER featuring Indonesian and Senegalese food in Lobdell, MIT Student Center. The dinner, available for purchase, will be followed by a 7:30pm concert by RAMBAX, MIT Senegalese Drumming Ensemble under the direction of Lamine Touré in Lobdell, Stratton Student Center. Admission is free.
Galak Tika's concert features koto/shamisen master Sumie Kaneko in a solo set including new works by Evan Ziporyn and Christine Southworth as well as first-ever a collaboration with the gamelan and solo works from her acclaimed new album, Dead of the Night. The concert will also feature traditional dance, works by Sam Schmetterer and will include sets by the Cambridge Youth Gamelan and participation by members of the MIT Balinese Gamelan class. This concert is part of MIT Sounding, presented by CAST, The MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology and MIT Music and Theater Arts.
About Sumie Kaneko
Japanese Koto & Shamisen player and Jazz singer/songwriter Sumie (Sumi-é) Kaneko creates music that spans a millennium. A master in the traditional repertoire of these ancient instruments, she has also pioneered their use in jazz and experimental music, through solo and group performances worldwide.
Sumie began playing Koto at age 5, by the following year she was appearing on Japanese radio NHK. In 1995, she won the Takasaki International Competition in Koto performance. She studied Japanese traditional music at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, and in 2006, studied Jazz vocal at Berklee College of Music. She has performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Getty Center, Boston Ballet, Silk Road Project and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. She has also given workshops at Harvard University, Princeton University, Wellesley College and Berklee College of Music, among other institutions. In 2014, her group was invited to the Washington, DC Jazz Festival, which is co-sponsored by the Embassy of Japan.
She has collaborated with many world instrumentalists, such as Kenny Endo, Kaoru Watanabe, On Ensemble, Yumiko Tanaka, as well as painters, dancers and calligraphers. She has toured internationally in Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, Jamaica and Bangladesh. In 2015, she performed in Delhi, Islamabad, Karachi and Dhaka. She has just released her second album, Dead of the Night.
