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Inspired
with the idea to spread cultural understanding and unity, the Monterey
World Music Festival, now in its sixth year, is a musical celebration
of world culture. David Cloutier, founder and director of the festival
explains that he first envisioned the Festival in 1991 when rioting had
broken out in Los Angeles. Watching the United States Army troops departing
on transport planes from Fort Ord [Monterey military base] to restore
the peace in Southern California, he wondered, "what can we do in
the arts to alleviate the darkness, the shadow parts of the tribal, to
celebrate the uniqueness of everyone's culture." Cloutier expresses,
"It occurred to me that music is something that readily penetrates
boundaries, and creates an immediate sense of cultural respect and understanding."
The Cultural Council for Monterey County and Cloutier answered the challenge
of cultural violence by bringing forward the Festival message of cultural
understanding and unity as ONE people.
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Festival headliners have included: Ali Khan Band (Contemporary Sufi),
Conjunto Céspedes (Afro-Cuban), Correo Aereo (Latin American),
Fantcha (Cape Verdean), Ghazal Ensemble (Indian/Persian) Hedningarna
(Scandinavian), Irene Farrera (Venezuelan), Khac-Chi (Vietnamese),
Klezmatics (Jewish), Los Lobos (Latino), Mari Boine Band (Saami/Norwegian),
Natalie McMaster (Cape Breton), Queen Ida and her Zydeco Band (Cajun),
Ricardo Lemvo & Macina Loca (Congolese), San Francisco Taiko Dojo
(Japanese), Sharon Shannon (Irish), Stellamara (Balkan/Arabic/Turkish),
Tarika (Madagascar), West African Highlife Band (Afro-pop), and Yungchen
Lhamo (Tibetan).
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Magic and Memory in Monterey....
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In a world marred by disharmony between cultures, the Cultural
Council for Monterey County seeks to promote understanding and appreciation
of global culture. In its 6th season of presenting over a hundred of the
highest-caliber World musicians, the Festival endeavors to promote cultural
understanding and awareness, celebrate humankind's differences,
and transcend cultural boundaries through the universal language of music.
Remembering Sept. 11, the 2002 Festival commemorates the global tragedy
by demonstrating the unity of all humankind.
The Festival Educational Outreach Program presents global artists through
the Professional Artists in the Schools Program in Monterey County public
schools, K-12. The Festival strives to offer the communities of Monterey
County, adults and children as well as visitors from around the nation
the opportunity to see, hear and experience music from a diversity of
traditions, cultures, styles and nations. No matter what your tradition
or background, music lifts the spirit and expresses with beauty, feeling
and dignity the yearning of every people. |
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The
2002 Monterey World Music Festival's theme, "Global Consonances",
suggests the sympathetic vibrations across space and time of the world's
expressions through music. "Global Consonances" resonates through
the deeply moving or lively, the sublime or ecstatic, the simple or highly
ornamental; as the philosopher George Steiner declares: "The energy
that is music puts us in felt relation to the energy that is life."
The Festival Day Events: Upper Lawn Seating at Global Consonances I on
Saturday, Sept. 14 and Global Consonances II on Sunday, Sept. 15 are being
offered FREE to the community as a multi-cultural arts, music and educational
celebration of the Cultural Council for Monterey County.
Every year, artists from around the world arrive to the Central Coast
for a weekend, musical celebration of unity and cultural awareness with
innovative blends of contemporary and traditional sounds as well as a
global emporium of rare and unusual ethnic items and foods. |
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The Cultural Council
for Monterey County (CCMC) sponsors the Monterey World Music Festival,
as an innovative and progressive program for multiculturalism in the local,
national and international community. The Cultural Council for Monterey
County is a private, non-profit arts organization and official arts agency
for Monterey County. The mission of the CCMC is "to promote education,
appreciation and excellence in the arts in Monterey County." |
David
Cloutier is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Monterey
World Music Festival, one of the few American festivals
devoted to World Music. Cloutier has
also been the Executive Director for CCMC since 1990. A published
poet, Cloutier has a dozen or more volumes of poetry,
translations and versions.
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