The Fifth San Francisco World Music Festival 2004
The fifth annual San Francisco World Music Festival, which ran September 17-October 3, 2004, continued the high standards set by our previous festivals - that of high quality world music performances by master artists both locally and overseas, and the building and strengthening of a diversified audience base for this type of world music. Given the current global tensions surrounding different cultures and peoples, there is a growing importance in showcasing world music artists who rarely appear in other music festivals. For 2004, we focused on showcasing musicians from Azerbaijan, China, Eastern Europe, India, Macedonia and several others.
Performances at Herbst Theatre:
The centerpiece of the 2004 festival featured three new Door Dog commissioned works performed
by Grammy-winning Kronos Quartet with Rahman Asodollahi
(Azerbaijani garmon), Zhang Hai Yue (Chinese leaf), and members of the Beijing
Peking Opera Company, including Ms. Guan Yi (Actress), Mr. Zhang Ying
Chao (Actor), Mr. Zhao Chun Qi (lead percussion), Mr. Qien Qi
Ming (lead bowed instrument, jinghu), and Mr. Yu Zhang (double reed,
suona). These commissions not only require the composers to write new works in collaboration
with the musicians, but augment the process with challenges such as the trans-Pacific divide;
cultural assimilation; the transcriptions of scores from several cultural music systems into
Western, Chinese, and Azerbaijani written notations; the translations of several languages
throughout the process; and the synthesis of Western, Chinese, and Azerbaijani scales,
intervals, timbres of sound, and musical forms.
Performances at Grace Cathedral:
Opening the 2004 Festival were world-renowned tabla master Zakir Hussain with bansuri maestro
G.S. Sachdev at Grace Cathedral.
Performances and Master Classes at ODC Theater:
Featuring a mélange of local world music groups, from the Romani-Bulgarian Rumen Shopov
Ensemble, the African/ Latin/ Asian Jazz Fusion ensemble Avotjz Modupue to Davka, new Jewish
music. The festival culminated with Esma Redzepova and Ensemble Teodosievski from Macedonia,
also known as "Queen of the Gypsies"; plus the legendary Ross Daly* Ensemble of Crete, making
its American debut; and a master class entitled "The Music of Crete", led by Ross Daly. *Due
to an unforeseen illness, Ross Daly had to cancel last minute in September.
Performances and Master Classes at the Asian Art Museum:
To deepen our roots in local youth communities, the 2004 Festival presented the second annual
Youth World Music Showcase at the Asian Art Museum, featuring elementary and high school
students of some of the many world music masters in the Bay Area. Youth ensembles scheduled
to take part in the showcase this year include the Alice Fong Yu Chinese Youth Orchestra &
Percussion Troupe, The Iranian Nejad Persian Youth Ensemble, the Chinese Arts & Music Center
Youth Orchestra, Indian vocalist Gaayatri Kaundinya; and a master class by Rahman Asadollahi
on the commissioned world premiere work being performed by the Kronos Quartet will also give
a lecture-demonstration about their cultural and musical perspectives.
Residency and Performance at Alice Fong Yu Alternative School:
We conducted a school assembly/artist residency program at Alice Fong Yu Elementary School,
featuring members of the Georges Lammam Ensemble (premiere Arabic ensemble), where the group
will performed an assembly program in the afternoon for the school, worked with the school
percussion troupe, and performed an evening concert for parents and the community.
Outreach to UCSF Pediatrics Hospital:
The 2004 Festival featured a special free performance by Bay Area world musicians at UCSF
hospital in the pediatrics ward.
