World Music & Festival

Sohoyini

Saturday, August 9, 5-8 pm
Camp Burton
Tickets: $12 VAA members, seniors, students/$14 general admission/$5 for ages 12 & under
(Camp Burton is an alcohol-free venue)

VAA hosts World Music & Dance Festival

World music is back! After last summer’s rousing success, VAA will again host an all-ages one-day World Music and Dance Festival at Camp Burton’s outdoor amphitheater, Saturday, August 9, 5 to 8 pm. Featuring four amazing groups, you won’t want to miss one of summer’s hottest musical events.

Hear exuberant African music and dance with Sohoyini, Japanese Taiko drumming by One World Taiko, Brazilian music with Euduardo Mendonca and roots/reggae with the Adrian Xavier Band. VAA’s annual summer music festival is generously co-sponsored by Boeing and Vashon Park District (with additional support from Vashon Thriftway, Arts Fund and Washington Stage Arts Commission). Delicious world-inspired food and beverage will be available by SheFidgets Catering, featuring Island foods!

Sohoyini translates as 'one heart' in the Dagbani language of Northern Ghana. Sohoyini was created with hopes of uniting cultures and celebrating diversity through the beautiful earth and heart-based dance and lively percussive music of Ghana and West Africa. Sohoyini truly commands the stage, with the incredibly contagious energy of lead dancer, Awal Alhassan, and audience participation is a must; no dance experience required!

Awal Alhassan, born and raised by a drumming and dancing family in Tamale, Ghana, has performed with the National Theatre of Ghana and The Center for National Culture Dance Troupe in Ghana, Burkina Faso, Niger, Togo, Benin, and other African countries. He has also performed with the Odaye Dance and Drum Center group in Accra, and at home leads the Zosimili after school dance program for youth. He has been teaching drumming and dancing since the age of seven, including a stint at the University of Legon, Ghana. In addition to leading Sohoyini, since his recent arrival to Seattle, he has performed with Gansango, Soyaya, Maya Soleil, Ocheami, Sarakasi, and Okropong and teaches regularly.

The Adrian Xavier Band brings a sacred groove to the music with thoughtful lyrics that honor mother nature, question ‘war on the earth-war on the poor-what is it all for?’ He takes an optimistic, upbeat turn in Miracle, where he believes anything is possible.
Frequently aired on KEXP radio, Xavier delivers upbeat lyrics in a solid reggae groove. His energetic music and mellow voice, mixed with sax, flute, violin, percussion and soulful guitars serve up a lovely musical brew.
Xavier’s influences tell a lot about him: Stevie Wonder, The Wailers, Mano Chao, Speer Head, Luciano, Michael Jackson, Martin Luther King JR., Pink Floyd, The Beatles, John Lennon, Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Culture, Gandhi, Ravi Shankar, Mad Professor, The Grateful Dead and others. The band plays festivals and colleges throughout the West and Northwest.

Eduardo Mendonça will bring traditional and contemporary (all-original) Brazilian music to the stage with guitar, bass, vocals and Brazilian percussion. Mendonça, born in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, is a renowned recording artist, vocalist, composer, percussionist, guitarist and musical arranger. He traces his lineage to a royal African family bearing the hereditary title of Mama-beka (prophet of the royal court). He will be joined by musicians Caxambu and Birch Pereira.
Mendonça, voting member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (Grammy) won ‘Outstanding Brazilian Male singer based in the U.S.’ International Brazilian Press Award 2007. He has performed as featured musician in many venues in Bahia - Brazil, including command performances for Brazilian President João Baptista Figueiredo and for Pope John Paul II. He also played for former South Africa President Nelson Mandela. In 1991, Mendonça was featured in Paul Simon’s documentary music video, “Born at the Right Time.” He also leads music and dance group, Show Brazil, a group that has performed internationally.

One World Taiko, founded in 1990, in San Francisco by Gary Tsujimoto and Nancy Ozaki, presents a contemporary style of Japanese drumming that captivates audiences with their dynamic and fluid movement and heart pounding percussion. Drawn from Japan's ancient tradition of lively and spirited festival drumming, One World Taiko’s creative rhythms, arrangements and stunning choreography add energetic, spirit to an ancient tradition.
They have performed throughout the U.S. including Benaroya Hall's S. Mark Taper Auditorium for the North American Taiko Conference's major concert, Taiko Jam, a recent performance at the Dalai Lama’s Seeds of Compassion event at Qwest Field and the Jackson Hole Film Festival. From 1993-1997, they were full time resident taiko players at Walt Disney World’s Epcot Center’s Japan Pavilion in Orlando, Florida.
Repertoire includes traditional pieces and their own original compositions infused with rhythms from their love of jazz and world music. They perform on drums ranging in size from a 4-foot odaiko to the snare-sized shimedaiko. Other instruments include the shinobue, a bamboo flute, the shamisen, a 3-stringed banjo and traditional percussive instruments like the atarigane, hyoshigi and hyotan.

Call Now for Tickets!  206.463.5131

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