(Sample) BU Global Music Festival at Boston University Oct. 5 & 6, 2018

(Sample Post) FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 7, 2018
CONTACT: Ty A. Furman, Managing Director, BU Arts Initiative – 617.358.0489, tyf@bu.edu

BU GLOBAL MUSIC FESTIVAL AT BOSTON UNIVERSITY OCTOBER 5 & 6, 2018

(Boston, MA) – Boston University is pleased to announce the BU Global Music Festival to be held October 5th and 6th on the Boston University Charles River Campus. The festival will be free and open to the public and all ages, and will feature international musicians and as well as local world musicians along with educational programs and a global bazaar. In total, the festival will feature more than a dozen acts representing musical traditions from around the world and local communities. At the time of this release, the following acts are confirmed: LADAMA (Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia), Zhou Family Band (China), Jupiter & Okwess (Democratic Republic of Congo), Orquesta El Macabeo (Puerto Rico), and Kaumakaiwa Kanaka’ole (Hawaii).

The festival is produced by the BU Arts Initiative – Office of the Provost and the College of Fine Arts Department of Musicology and Ethnomusicology through the Karbank Fund for Global Music. Musician and ethnomusicologist Marié Abe will serve as artistic director, in collaboration with independent producer Brian Keigher, who previously organized the World Music Festival for the city of Chicago. Additional support comes from BU Global Programs, BU’s Pardee School of Global Studies, BU’s College of Fine Arts, and BU’s Center for Humanities. WBUR will serve as a media sponsor.

The festival’s mission is to celebrate musical cultures around the world by featuring high-caliber, international artists and vibrant local musical communities, bringing the wider musical world to the doorstep of thousands of students, adults, young people, and families throughout the Boston area. The BU Global Music Festival showcases musicians and performing artists steeped in folkloric, vernacular, popular, and traditional music around the world, providing the BU community and the public access to diverse musical practices. Accompanied by workshops, panel discussions, lectures, and other educational offerings, this festival will offer the audience intellectual insights and hands-on experiences in selected performing arts from various parts of the globe. Through exploration of diverse musical cultures, BU Global Music Festival offers a chance for the audience to experience and understand human sameness and differences across cultures, and aspires to develop interest, respect, and engagement with our neighbors, near and far, through musical performance and education.

“‘Global music’ doesn’t just mean ‘international’ or ‘foreign’ music,” explains Abe: “It also includes musical cultures of indigenous and immigrant communities in the U.S. I’m very excited that our lineup has amazing musicians from both abroad and the vibrant and dynamic diasporic communities in the U.S. and right here in Boston. I hope that the audience enjoys learning about the places and histories that the artists bring into their music.”

Abe and the BU Arts Initiative previously collaborated in 2015 to bring the Nile Project to Boston University for a week-long residency in collaboration with World Music/CRASHarts. The success of that residency and other global music programs at BU and the truly global character of the University led to the creation of the BU Global Music Festival as an annual opportunity to share music, culture, and our campus with the greater Boston community. “The BU Global Music Festival will be an important addition to Boston’s arts and culture ecosystem,” said Julie Burros, Chief of Arts and Culture. “We are so pleased to see that it embodies the goals of the Boston Creates cultural plan to cultivate a city where all cultural traditions and expressions are respected, promoted, and equitably resourced, and where opportunities to engage with arts and culture are accessible to all. I look forward to seeing the diversity of our city reflected and celebrated in this exciting new way.”

Vice President and Associate Provost for Global Programs Willis Wang notes that “Music has the power to bring people of different backgrounds, cultures, and points of view together through a shared experience. The BU Global Music Festival is an exciting initiative that will help do that for our community, which is what Global Programs endeavors to do through all our efforts, and we are very excited to support this wonderful event.”

Founded in 1839, Boston University is an internationally recognized institution of higher education and research. With more than 33,000 students, it is the fourth-largest independent university in the United States. BU consists of 17 schools and colleges, along with a number of multi-disciplinary centers and institutes integral to the University’s research and teaching mission. In 2012, BU joined the Association of American Universities (AAU), a consortium of 62 leading research universities in the United States and Canada.

The Boston University Arts Initiative in the Office of the Provost was created in the fall of 2012 with a mission to ensure that the arts are a vital component of the student experience at Boston University, and to build community awareness of and engagement in the arts at BU. Our programming reflects the interdisciplinary, global, and urban nature of Boston University.

Full schedule, artist biographies, and reservation information can be found at www.bu.edu/GMF. Press photos are available by request.