OLD WEIRD AMERICA AND HARRY SMITH ARCHIVES Comes To New England Conservatory

NEC’s Department of Contemporary Musical Arts brings new life to the legendary Harry Smith Archives. Old Weird America and the Harry Smith Archives features students, faculty and special guests fiddler Suzy Thompson and trumpeter Frank London on Tuesday, April 28 at NEC’s Jordan Hall. Admission to the 7:30 p.m. performance is free. Tickets required. Tickets can be reserved online.

The immersive concert experience reimagines folk, blues, ballads, Jewish music, and eccentric Americana captured in Smith’s archives, including the groundbreaking Anthology of American Folk Music, a collection that shaped generations of musicians and continues to haunt cultural imagination. Following an artist residency of workshops and discussions, special guest Frank London, Grammy-winning trumpeter, composer, and founding member of The Klezmatics, renowned for his genre-crossing virtuosity and fearless imagination, joins CMA students and faculty for an evening of bold reinterpretations, spontaneous improvisation, and unexpected sonic alchemy as tradition collides with modern artistry. Performers will also be joined by West Coast fiddler Suzy Thompson, for a special Cajun collaboration.

Harry Smith was an artist whose activities and interests put him at the center of the mid twentieth-century American avant-garde. Although best known as a filmmaker and musicologist, he frequently described himself as a painter, and his varied projects called on his skills as an anthropologist, linguist, and translator. He had a lifelong interest in the occult and esoteric fields of knowledge, leading him to speak of his art in alchemical and cosmological terms.

About Frank London 

Trumpeter/composer Frank London, a member of the Klezmatics and Hasidic New Wave, has performed with John Zorn, LL Cool J, Mel Torme, Lester Bowieπs Brass Fantasy, LaMonte Young, They Might Be Giants, David Byrne, Jane Siberry, Ben Folds 5, Mark Ribot, Maurice El Medioni and Gal Costa, and is featured on over 100 recordings. He was music director for David Byrne and Robert Wilson’s “The Knee Plays,” collaborated with Palestinian violinist Simon Shaheen, taught Jewish music in Canada, Crimea and the Catskills, and produced recordings for Gypsy Legend Esma Redzepova and Algerian Pianist Maurice el Medioni. He has been featured on HBO’s “Sex and the City,” at the North Sea Jazz Festival and the Lincoln Center Summer Festival, and was a co-founder of Les Miserables Brass Band and the Klezmer Conservatory Band.

About Suzy Thompson

Suzy Thompson has an unusually deep mastery of the whole gamut of Southern old-time music, from prewar acoustic blues to Louisiana Cajun-Creole to old-time fiddle tunes, especially the kind that have a ragtime or blues feel. Over the past three decades, she has been a leading force in many influential roots music groups, including the California Cajun Orchestra (two award-winning CDs on the Arhoolie label), the Blue Flame String Band, Klezmorim, the all-woman Any Old Time String Band (featured on the Grammy-winning Arhoolie box set), and most recently, the Bluegrass Intentions (with banjo ace Bill Evans). She has also worked with Darol Anger, Laurie Lewis, Beausoleil, Peter Rowan, Maria Muldaur, Jody Stecher, Del Rey, Geoff Muldaur, Alice Gerrard, D.L. Menard, Jane Voss, Rinde Eckert, the Savoy-Doucet Cajun Band, Sukay, and Frankie Armstrong, among others.

About New England Conservatory (NEC)

Founded by Eben Tourjée in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1867, New England Conservatory (NEC) represents a new model of music school that combines the best of European tradition with American innovation. The school stands at the center of Boston’s rich cultural history and musical life, presenting concerts at the renowned Jordan Hall. Propelled by profound artistry, bold creativity, and deep compassion, NEC seeks to amplify musicians’ impact on advancing our shared humanity and empowers students to meet today’s changing world head-on, equipped with the tools and confidence to forge multidimensional lives of artistic depth and relevance. The Conservatory’s roster of alumni includes hundreds of music's most influential artists. That list includes Coretta Scott King, Florence Price, Tessa Lark, George Li, Inmo Yang, Yura Lee, Stefan Jackiw, Anthony Leon, Erica Petrocelli, Minsoo Sohn, Cecil Taylor, and Denyce Graves.
 
As an independent, not-for-profit institution that educates and trains musicians of all ages from around the world, NEC is recognized internationally as a leader among music schools. It cultivates a diverse, dynamic community, providing music students of more than 40 countries with performance opportunities and high-caliber training from 225 internationally esteemed artist-teachers and scholars. NEC pushes the boundaries of music-making and teaching through college-level training in classical, jazz, and contemporary musical arts. The newly launched Institute for Concert Artists propels such young artists to the heights of their potential. Through unique interdisciplinary programs such as Entrepreneurial Musicianship and Community Performances & Partnerships, the Conservatory empowers students to create their own musical opportunities. As part of NEC’s mission to make lifelong music education available to everyone, NEC’s Expanded Education programs deliver training and performance opportunities for children, pre-college students, and adults.