Kourosh Taghavi

Spotlight: Persian Classical Musician, Kourosh Taghavi

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San Diego Participant Observer, March 12, 2015

Kourosh Taghavi, master of Persian classical music and pillar of the CWM’s World Music in the Schools program, is featured in an article by Amanda Kelly.

Kourosh Taghavi, instrumentalist, vocalist and Persian classical musician boasts a passionate approach to music that has impacted audiences around the world. His collaborative projects with master musicians and local cultural organizations work to fulfill his lifelong dream to promote Persian classical music. . . .  “It is a very holistic approach to music instead of just notation and sounds,” he says. “Your daily life is so attached to your music and your music is so attached to your daily life they are almost inseparable.”

Read the full article here.

The San Diego Participant Observer is published online by the Worldview Project.  It is a great source for keep up-to-date on cultural goings on in San Diego and environs. Thanks to Tom Johnston-O’Neill and the dedicated crew at the Worldview Project for their support of World Music in the Schools and other Center for World Music projects!

Where is Matt?

Where in the World is Matt? An Uplifting Video

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A must-see video if you haven’t seen it; wonderful to watch again from time to time if you have.  Not traditional music, but otherwise embodies very nicely the spirit of the Center for World Music’s mission . . .

See also Matt’s website.

Benefits of Playing Music

Great Ted-Ed Video: How Playing Music Benefits Your Brain

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Here’s an excellent (and cute!) Ted-Ed animated video on the benefits of playing musical instruments.  Well-worth five minutes . . .

When you listen to music, multiple areas of your brain become engaged and active. But when you actually play an instrument, that activity becomes more like a full-body brain workout. What’s going on? Anita Collins explains the fireworks that go off in musicians’ brains when they play, and examines some of the long-term positive effects of this mental workout.

View at Ted-Ed.

Del Mar Heights School

Del Mar Heights Builds Awareness and Ability with World Music

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Del Mar Times, February 8, 2015

A report on a thriving World Music in the Schools sponsored, artists-in-residence program at Del Mar Heights School, north of San Diego, which seeks to help children “become creative, expressive members of their communities.”

Each grade level at Del Mar Heights has multiple instructional sessions with visiting musicians and dancers from various cultures. Students participate in creating and understanding music using a wide range of instruments. These instructional sessions often culminate with student concerts or presentations of learning.

The program features several Center for World Music teaching artists (Koresh Taghvi is pictured above, with students).  The Center’s World Music in the Schools program is funded, in part, by the National Endowment for the Arts and the California Arts Council.

Read the full story at DelMarTimes.net.

Metal and Castanha Agogos

The Agogô: Yoruban “Double Bell”

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This article is one in a series of reports on the fascinating variety of musical instruments that audience members and students encounter through Center for World Music programs.

MORE INSTRUMENTS


The agogô is an instrument used widely in West Africa, Brazil, and throughout the world. The name comes from ágogo (AH-go-go) meaning “double bell” in the tonal Yoruba language and is onomatopoeia for the two sounds it makes. In my classes for the Center for World Music we use the Afro-Brazilian agogô (ah-go-GO).

Metal and Castanha Agogos
Metal and Castanha Agogos
African Agogo
African Agogo
Four Bell Agogos
Four Bell Agogos
Stefanie with Agogos
Stefanie with Agogos

The agogô is a type of handbell similar to our cowbell. It has two or more bells attached to a handle and is played with a wooden stick. The bells can be made of metal, castanhas-do-Pará (Brazil nut shells), coconuts, gourds, wood, or large seeds. The agogô is found in a variety of Afro-Brazilian musical styles including maracatu, maculelê, batucada of the samba schools, afoxé, songs of capoeira, and more. It is used in ceremonies and rituals of the Afro-Brazilian religion Candomblé.

—Stefanie Schmitz, World Music in the Schools Teaching Artist

Agogôs in action on YouTube:  Demo with Stefanie | A Four-Toner in Brazil |  Brazil Nut Shell Agogô

More on Stefanie: StefanieSchmitz.net

Music in School

What Childhood Piano Lessons Did to You

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More news about the developmental benefits of music education for children . . .

The study by the University of Vermont College of Medicine found that even those who never made it past nursery rhyme songs and do-re-mi’s likely received some major developmental benefits just from playing. The study provides even more evidence as to why providing children with high-quality music education may be one of the most effective ways to ensure their success in life.

Read at Mic.com.

Balkan Echoes

Balkan Echoes: Voices, Images, and Recordings from Bulgaria and Macedonia

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Martin Koenig, a good friend of the CWM, has spearheaded an extraordinary project to document disappearing music and dance cultures of the Balkans. His efforts are coming to fruition in the form of recordings (in partnership with Smithsonian Folkways), a book, and exquisite fine-art photographs.  Very much worth the attention of lovers of traditional performing arts . . .

After my first visit, I felt an urgency to preserve the music and dance traditions that were disappearing throughout the country. I was driven by the goal of documenting and recording the traditional music and dance of each place I visited, by permanently memorializing them on 16 mm film stock and audiotape.

Browse to Balkan Echoes.com for a look at the photos and book.

NBC News

California Public Schools Get Creative to Save Arts Programs

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The plight of arts programs in California public schools, and its impact on children, was featured in the NBC Nightly News for December 17. The segment shows how Takio drumming–supported by community-based funding–helps to fill the gap in a San Francisco-area school.

Creative young minds, talented kids, who deserve help, but for them the school money just isn’t there anymore, the way it was for so many of us in things like the arts . . .

View at NBC Nightly News.

Worth a look, and some thought: would you consider taking a minute to support this kind of creative effort in San Diego?

Piano

Active Participation in Music Education Improves Academic Performance

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Another good read on the value of music education, noting that the benefits are dependent on learning to play music, not just appreciate it . . .

In the study, which appears online in the open-access journal Frontiers in Psychology, the team showed that exposure to music lessons physically stimulated the brain and changed it for the better. However, simply being exposed to music education doesn’t seem to be sufficient, you have to also be actively involved.

Read more at MedicalDaily.com.

 

Hema Ramaswamy

How Hema Ramaswamy Found Healing Through Traditional Indian Dance

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In a report that may be of special interest to parents of children in our World Music in the Schools program, National Public Radio recently featured a story of healing through practice of Bharata Natyam, the traditional dance of South India . . .

Ramaswamy, who has Down syndrome, originally began dancing for health reasons. “But then it became part of her, and she really loves and enjoys it, and it took her 13 years with a lot of challenges, midway, to complete this,” explained her father, Ram. “And now today is a perfect day for her — her graduating in this art.”

Listen to, and read, the story on NPR