November 4, 2004

Concerts deliver world music

Northwestern audiences will feel as though they traveled the globe this November during several world music concerts. One program will feature traditional music from Zimbabwe and two concerts — one for adults and the other for children — will focus on Afro-Cuban jazz. All three events will be held on the Evanston campus.

Cosmas Magaya and Beauler Dyoko will perform as the “Mbira Masters of Zimbabwe” at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 10, at Regenstein Recital Hall.

The “Mbira Masters of Zimbabwe” concert at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 10, at Regenstein Recital Hall, will showcase two masters of the mbira, an ancient African instrument. Cosmas Magaya is an internationally renowned mbira master and teacher. Beauler Dyoko is known as the “Queen of the Mbira” because she broke down gender barriers to become Zimbabwe’s first female professional mbira player and vocalist. Northwestern School of Music faculty member and percussionist Paul Berliner, author of the book “The Soul of Mbira,” will join Magaya and Dyoko for an evening of traditional and religious African music. Single tickets are $8.50 for the general public, $7 for senior citizens and Northwestern faculty members, and $4 for students.

At 8 p.m. Nov. 13, the unique sounds of timba — a high-energy Cuban salsa with elements of jazz, funk and pop — will echo throughout Pick-Staiger Concert Hall, when the Miami-based septet Tiempo Libre takes the stage. Since its inception in 2001, Tiempo Libre, a group of musically gifted Cuban immigrants has been combining Latin jazz with the Cuban and Afro-Cuban music of members’ childhoods to form a modern yet traditional style. As a result, Tiempo Libre — Spanish for “free time” — has become one of the hottest ensembles on the Latin jazz scene.