Around the world in 80 days? Try 16.
This year, UCLA is taking Los Angeles on a two-week world tour
with the third World Festival of Sacred Music, held in venues
throughout the city from Sept. 17 through Oct. 2. The festival,
initiated by the Dalai Lama in 1999, is organized and presented by
the UCLA Center for Intercultural Performance.
The festival’s Web site proclaims that the 2005 edition
features 43 events and 1,000 world musicians scattered across Los
Angeles, with venue and ticketing information available on the
site.
“(We) have all these events in various parts of the city,
in different parts of Los Angeles where people wouldn’t go
““ 23 different venues, from up in the San Gabriel Mountains
to Simi Valley,” Cynthia Lee, world arts and cultures
graduate student and festival organizer, said.
Sunday, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra will be celebrating
the 250th birthday of Mozart at Royce Hall, but that’s about
the sum of the Western music involved.
Students, professionals and Los Angeles and world-based
performers alike are all invited to apply to bring their unique
traditions to the festival.
In advance of the festival itself, months of unpaid work and
preparation are accomplished by people such as Lee and
ethnomusicology graduate student Sabrina Rodriguez.
“I got an e-mail from the WAC department and the Center
for Intercultural Performance saying there was a need for
volunteers,” said Rodriguez.
“We all work in disciplines that deal with music or
culture or dance in some way.”
The festival opened Sept. 17 with a benefit concert that
featured a multitude of countries and styles. Throat singers from
Tuva, Siberia; Native Americans from the Tongva Nation; and folk
musicians from the Czech Republic were among those performing.
Several UCLA students participated, including world arts and
cultures graduate student Cindi Alvitre in the Native American
blessing and Iddi Saaka’s group Gonja Dreams. Saaka, who
received a master’s in choreography from the WAC department
last winter, formed his group based on original music he composed
and recorded with an Israeli musician.
“I lived in Israel for two years,” said Saaka.
“I come from Ghana (and) the African style. It was very
interesting to collaborate and to bring two different musical
cultures together.”
Gonja Dreams features a variety of African musicians, as well as
an Israeli bassist and American keyboardist.
Like many performances during this week and last, it reflects
the festival’s ideal of unity through music.
The organizers are hoping to connect different artists and
musical styles, so many of this week’s upcoming concerts
feature performers who will be purposefully taken out of their
element.
“The goal is to encourage unorthodox performers and
pairings, so it’s not just people staying in their zone of
comfort and familiarity,” Lee said.
The greatest expression of this goal will be achieved at the
closing ceremony on Oct. 2. Free and open to the public,
“Honoring The Sea” will be held at Santa Monica Beach
at the end of Ocean Park Boulevard starting at 3 p.m. Both Saaka
and Alvitre will be among the 300 artists involved.
“We have the Italian musicians and African musicians and
Native Americans, (and) people from Hawaii coming together to
create (music),” said Saaka.
As it is a festival of sacred, not secular, music,
“Honoring The Sea” is intended to be a series of
offerings to the ocean to commemorate Venice’s 100th
birthday. Alvitre is an elder in the Ti’at Society, a
maritime society within the Tongva Nation who will bring the
offerings to the ocean in a traditional sacred canoe.
Wherever they hail from, performers of all nations and creeds
hope to impress audiences with the strength of their heritages.
“They’re people who are coming from very deep
cultural traditions and who have been involved and steeped in those
traditions their whole lives,” said Lee.