SOUND IS DIVINE Comes to The Rubin Museum 6/23

On June 23, The Rubin Museum will present a night of music that gives new voice to ancient songs and scores the anthems for future empires. For tonight's series of duet performances, internationally acclaimed Indian-born percussionist Ravish Momin has gathered an impressive array of artists who all share the common goal of creating resonance in keeping with the Buddhist philosophy of finding spirituality through sound.

Featured artists Muyassar Kurdi, Orakel, Christine Southworth and Evan Ziporyn will combine on the Indian tabla, African kora, ritual chants, haunting cello, Galician gaita, clarinet and electronics. Prior to the show, in the Rubin's K2Lounge, Momin will join DJ Ripley for a special electronic and percussion/duet. Curator/performer Ravish Momin and all the artists playing this event are available to discuss Sound Is Divine on request.

Show Page: http://rubinmuseum.org/events/event/sound-is-divine-06-23-2017

Muyassar Kurdi is a Brooklyn-based interdisciplinary artist whose work encompasses sound, extended vocal technique, performance art, movement, photography, and film. She currently focuses on interweaving homemade electronic instruments and sculpture into her vocal and dance performances, stirring emotions from the audience through ritualistic chants and meditative movements. Kurdi studied voice and dance with the legendary performer Meredith Monk via The House Foundation, and she has toured extensively throughout the U.S. and Europe.

Ravish Momin is a versatile percussionist/composer/electronic musician/educator currently residing in New York City. He has received prestigious performance grants from Meet The Composer, The Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, US Artists International and Arts International. His unique approach has led him to also work as a sideman with a diverse range of musicians, ranging from pop-star Shakira to legendary avant-saxophonist Kalaparusha of the AACM (est. Chicago, 1969) He has led the shape-shifting band Tarana on international stages since 2004, and also works as a music teaching artist with inner-city youth in NYC.

Orakel is an electro-acoustic project of kora/oud player Kane Mathis, with tabla player and poet Roshni Samlal, who began their collaboration at Brooklyn Raga Massive. They create a modern context for traditional Indian percussion and kora repertoire by incorporating electronic sound design, field recordings, drones, and poetry in their compositions. All of their compositions are based on shifting "taals" or rhythmic cycles found in Indian classical music that mathematically resolve into other cyclical material. The kora adds its own idiomatic rhythmic statements called "kumbengo." Breaks and arrangements draw alternately from both traditions.
DJ Ripley plays music from cities where immigrants and wanderers bring their sounds from home and mix them with big bass: you'll hear azonto, cumbia, jersey club, kuduro, afrobeats, baile funk, changa tuki, bhangra, dembow, jungle, 3bal guarachero, soca, dancehall, footwork, grime, gqom, balkan beats, uzbek pop, electro chaabi, dub, footwork, kwaito, juke and more rubbing up against each other in her sets. Her dancefloors celebrate people's experiences across race, ethnicity, gender and sexuality. She has been playing her ferociously adventurous blend of global street bass sounds since 1995, across 23 countries on 3 continents.

Christine Southworth presents compositions that reflect her obsession with multiculturalism. Her performance with Evan Ziporyn uses sounds and images from around the world interspersed with sounds they have created. These include global electronic samples, audio recordings from space (courtesy of NASA), projected video from earth and the heavens, and their own playing on bagpipe, Galician gaita, and bass clarinet.

Evan Ziporyn is a clarinetist and composer who takes inspiration from around the globe. He currently performs with Silk Road Ensemble, Steve Reich Ensemble, and Gamelan Galak Tika. Ziporyn's performance at the Rubin features sampled tracks and sounds from Bali and Africa, as well as the composition "Bowl Drones," a conversation between himself, on clarinet, and Tibetan singing bowls, accompanied by Christine Southworth's video based on Morris Louis's 1959 painting "Dalet Kaf.