World Music & Dance Concert

Brother(hood) Dance!

A 2020 Bessies Honoree of the NY Dance and Performance Awards, The Bessies for Afro/Solo/Man. They are an interdisciplinary duo that seeks to inform its audiences on the socio-political and environmental injustices from a global perspective, bringing clarity to the same-gender-loving African American experience in the 21st century. Brother(hood) Dance! was formed in April 2014 as a duo that researches, creates, and performs dances of freedom by Orlando Zane Hunter, Jr. and Ricarrdo Valentine. We have performed our works at Five Myles, Center for Performance Research, B.A.A.D! (Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance), VCU-The Grace Street Theater, DraftWork at St. Mark's Church, JACK, Movement Research at Judson Church, Colby College, Denmark Arts Center, Universidad de las Américas Puebla/Performática(MX), Escuela Profesional de Danza de Mazatlán/Viso Festival (MX), Jean-René Del Solins Institute (HT) and other venues. They are both MFA in Dance graduates from The Ohio State University integrating Agriculture and Technology.

Dr. Chan E. Park, Pansori

Dr. Chan E. Park is Professor Emeritus in the Department of East Asian Languages & Literatures. She founded the Korean Performance Research Program at Ohio State University and hosted the Annual Korean Wind and Stream performance event until her retirement in 2021. She researches and performs Korean musical traditions, focusing on pansori within a broader dramatic context. She authored Voices from the Straw Mat: Toward an Ethnography of Korean Story Singing (University of Hawaii Press, 2003), a 5-volume Songs of Thorns and Flowers: Bilingual Performance and Discourse on Modern Korean Poetry Series (Foreign Language Publications, 2010-2015), and Korean Pansori as Voice Theatre: History, Theory, Practice (Methuen Drama, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2023). Park seeks efficient ways to present the ancient literacy of pansori to her English-speaking audience, using bilingual pansori with translation subtitles. She has premiered new pansori either solo or in collaboration, including: Centennial Pansori: In 1903, Pak Hungbo Went to Hawai’i (2003); When Tiger Smoked His Pipe (with Honolulu Theater for Youth, 2003); Shim Chong: A Korean Folktale (with California State University Northridge Theater Department, 2003); Alaskan Pansori: Klanott and the Land Otter People (with Stefan Hakenberg, 2005); Pak Hungbo Went to Almaty (2007); Fox Hunt and the Death of a Queen (with Kathy Foley, 2012); Look & Listen: Asian Art and Music (with the Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, February 18, 2021).

Eric Fountain, Steel Band

Eric Fountain is the music and tech director at Our Savior Lutheran Church and School in St. Petersburg, Florida. His goal is to introduce all types of music to give students many opportunities to learn, produce, and perform different cultures. He also started the first Lutheran steel band at Our Savior Lutheran Church which performed at the Lutheran Music Festival and received Superior Honors. The music department at Our Savior Lutheran School performs several times on and off campus throughout the year.. Fountain graduated from West Virginia University with a Bachelors in Arts and Sciences.

Largemouth Brass Band

Largemouth Brass Band is an 8-piece band from Columbus, Ohio- actively performing, recording, and providing high-energy brass band music to their community. The band members perform and teach in central Ohio public schools, universities, and private institutions- they are working to inspire the next generation of musicians while paying tribute to those who paved the way. Whether it’s old school funk, “Second Line” jazz, hip-hop & pop-rock covers- or their genre-busting original tunes- Largemouth Brass Band is bringing the “Brass Funk” to a stage near you!

Ohio University African Ensemble

The Ohio University African Ensemble (OUAE) offers students immersive experiences in African dance and drumming, creating performance opportunities for students from diverse backgrounds. It also introduces music and dance majors and minors to non-Western art forms. Through courses like African Ensemble I and II (School of Music) and African Dance Levels I-IV, students explore various musical styles, from work-based to ritual dances from East, West, Central, and Southern Africa. Our repertoire includes traditional dances from countries like Ghana, Senegal, Guinea, Togo, Nigeria, Uganda, Benin, Kenya, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe, as well as contemporary dances shaped by the African Diaspora. The ensemble participates in events like the Ohio University Global Arts Festival and World Music and Dance Concerts at the Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium.

Ohio University Steel Band

Johanna Amaya Conejo, Caleb Hansman, Kylee Hendershott, Cassidy Loos, Casey Morarity, Kelly O’Quinn, Rachel Parks, Eric Paton, Allison Rollins, Frances Zengel

The Ohio University Percussion Ensembles

The Ohio University Percussion Ensembles, led by Roger Braun, have a legacy of excellence and innovation. They've performed at many schools, universities, and conferences, including the Percussive Arts Society International Conventions in 1999, 2009, 2016, and 2019. Known for Tan Dun’s Elegy: Snow in June and Lou Harrison’s Concerto for Violin and Percussion Orchestra, they appear on the CD "Sticks and Stones: Music for Percussion and Strings." They started the first jazz percussion ensemble in 1974 and often play world music, especially the Embaire Xylophone music of Uganda.

Tracey Whorton

Tracey Whorton studied percussion with Phil Faini at West Virginia University and now teaches steelpan at Urban Pathways Charter School in Pittsburgh, PA. She previously taught drumline at South Allegheny High School and privately at Drum World. She has performed with Point Park University, the University of Pittsburgh, and Carnegie Mellon University. She continues to explore percussion and plays drums in the rock band Dichro, the Earth Wind and Fire tribute band Let's Groove Tonight, and Yacht Rocket.

University Singers

The University Singers, Ohio University's premier mixed choral group, comprises many of the university's most talented singers. Directed by Dr. Bradley Naylor, this 40-50 voice ensemble excels in performing choral repertoire from all styles and periods.