WorldPlay: Traditional Music of the World at Hill Center - Andrea Hoag, Loretta Kelley & Charlie Pilzer
Hill Center, 921 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE, Washington. D.C., which is 1 block from the Eastern Market Metro station.
What happens when you put together one of the finest American-born Swedish fiddlers with one of the finest American-born Norwegian fiddlers and add a guy who has traveled the northern countries of the world playing, well, yes, Scandinavian music with a multi-national band? You get music that is anything but ordinary. Strings. Vibrating strings. Lots of them. One fiddle, one hardingfele, and one contrabass. Rich deep fundamental notes and ethereal haunting overtones. The scales twist your ears and the rhythm has a life of its own. From the tale of its origin to the names of the players who passed it along, each tune speaks of a land and a tradition. Mary Cliff of WAMU's Traditions will moderate a conversation with the artists about the music, culture and history to kick off the performance.
None of this explains the raw life that fills the room when Andrea, Loretta and Charlie play. Perhaps it is the decades of experience and passion that each musician brings. Or maybe it is that they are playing music that fills their souls to overflowing.
Andrea, Loretta and Charlie?s CD, Hambo in the Snow, was nominated in the Best Traditional World Music Album category for the 49th Annual GRAMMY? Awards. It was an honor to be nominated and they had a lot of fun at the Grammys!
Andrea Hoag, Loretta Kelley, and Charlie Pilzer have performed at concerts and dances across the U.S. and in Europe for over 25 years, including appearances on All Things Considered, Performance Today, and Prairie Home Companion. They can be heard together on the CDs Hambo in the Snow and Hambo in the Barn. Andrea, widely known for her versatile fiddling, is a 1984 graduate of Malungs Folkh?gskola, and studied intensively with elder fiddlers P?kkos Gustaf and Nils Agenmark. Loretta is America's foremost player of the hardingfele (Hardanger fiddle), an ornately-decorated Norwegian folk violin with sympathetic strings and a 300-year-old tradition. She has studied with numerous master fiddlers in Norway and placed highly in Norwegian fiddle competitions. Charlie is an award-winning performer and producer of traditional and acoustic music. He is a long-time member of Sp?limenninir, a folk band based in the Faroe Islands.
Admission to the general public is $15 / $13 for FSGW members. Tickets may be purchased on the Hill Center website at http://hillcenterdc.org/home/programs. For the FSGW discount, enter the code "FSGWM". Tickets can also be obtained by calling the Hill Center at 202-549-4172, or may be purchased at the door, on a space available basis.
For more information: Parker Jayne, 202-549-0744; Theadocia Austen 202-344-7044; or Hill Center, 202-549-4172
