June 14th Tirgan: Persian Arts Festival
June 2, 2010
June 14th 11-4pm
Main Stage, Queen St Mall
The program will include an audio/visual presentation about Iran and Iranian culture, group dancing and an exclusive performance by music ensemble, Delkash which will perform Iranian classical and folkloric music on traditional instruments.
The festival of Tiragan is observed on July 1st, and it is primarily a rain festival. It is one of the three most widely celebrated feasts (along with Mehregan and Nowruz) amongst Iranian peoples. This event is celebrated on the day Tir and refers to the archangel Tir (arrow) who appeared in the sky to generate thunder and lightning for much needed rain.
Legend says that Arash-e Kamangir (Archer) was a man chosen to settle a land dispute between two leaders, monarchs of Iran and Turan. Arash was to shoot his arrow on the 13th day of Tir and where the arrow landed, there would be the border between the two kingdoms. Turan, which had suffered from the lack of rain, and Iran rejoiced the settlement of the borders, the peace and rain poured onto the two countries.
Today, some Iranians celebrate this occasion with dancing, singing, reciting poetry and serving spinach soup and sholeh zard (saffron rice pudding with almonds). During this celebration children and adults rejoice by swimming in streams and splashing water around on each other. The custom of tying rainbow-colored bands on their wrists, which are worn for ten days and then thrown into a stream.
June 21st – Fete De La Musique
May 28, 2010
Come to the new park above the Kangaroo Point Cliffs to see BEMAC's programmed artists!
Monday 21st June – accross Brisbane (and the world) – free
Get set to let your hair down when the world’s largest international live music event, Fête de la Musique returns to Brisbane for the third year running.
Fête de la Musique is everyone’s festival. Held in 350 cities across the globe on the very same day each year – from Paris and Prague, to Barcelona and our very own Brisbane – Fête is simply about making and celebrating music en masse. There are no tickets, no box seats, no headliners. From soloists to orchestras, jazz to hip hop, choirs to rock bands. Free outdoor performances across the city will showcase the rich talent and diversity of the Brisbane music scene.
Be prepared for some fresh new talent this year. Because Fete falls on a Monday Brisbane schools have the chance to participate like never before. Prepare yourself for a ‘School of Rock’ on the grandest scale!
If you haven’t checked out the new park at the top of the Kangaroo Point cliffs, then make Monday the 21st at 2pm the time to check it out, when BEMAC present a great world music program as part of the world-wide Fete de la Musique, “free music everywhere” event! After you have enjoyed that concert, then head on down the hill to BEMAC for our AGM,
June 12th – Teddy Afro, Ethiopian music sensation
May 28, 2010
Anglican College Hall, corner of Junction & Krupp Roads, Cannon Hill, Brisbane
7pm 12th June, 2010
Teddy Afro (real name Tewodros Kassahun) is one of the most successful singers and song writers from Ethiopia in recent times. Teddy Afro’s success has been credited to the powerful messages in his songs: from compassion to courage and from forgiveness to love. Teddy has been able to break artistic boundaries that were previously untouched. He has been compared to Jamaican reggae legend Bob Marley, in part because of his ability to bring a political, spiritual, and rhythmic presence to his listeners. Teddy is also noted for his work with other young and inspiring artists throughout Ethiopia.
For further details call Abel: 0431 044 533
Anglican College Hall, cnr Junction & Krupp Roads, Cannon Hill
June 5th – Dva and Laique at Brisbane Powerhouse
May 28, 2010
The Planet
BEMAC and Brisbane Powerhouse are proud to present
Sat 5th June @ Brisbane Powerhouse
FREE from 5pm – 7pm @ the Turbine Platform
Laique
5:00 – 5:40pm
Dva
6:00 – 7:00pm
Laique
Vintage 1930′s styled swing… Songs of Lust, Murder, Revenge and Shoes. Steeped in a sizzle of hot swing, there’s a twist of mischievous charm beneath the band’s sharp trouser legs and front-woman Kylie Southwell’s slick heels as the hard-popping bedlam begins. This is wine without the glass and murder without the guilt. This is song writing without the diarising. The swinging twenties without prohibition. The lust without the phone numbers. This is Laique – one frock and four suits. French manouche, street beats and tangos all fall in line behind one stray black cat…
Presenting Laique’s queen of song Kylie Southwell, along with premium music-men Gerard Mapstone on guitar & banjo, Michael Patterson on violin, Samuel Vincent on double bass and Will Eager on drums.
Gentlemen hold on to your Stetsons, ladies clasp your fascinators! For Laique will fill your Martini glass to the brim with their quirky tales and romping hullabaloo of lust, murder, revenge and gin.
Dva
(pronounced D-vah) is simply the Macedonian word for “two” which expresses the great love of playing together as a duo shared by its two members: Tunji Beier and Linsey Pollak.
Linsey and Tunji first performed together at the “Border Crossings Festival” in Germany in 1996 and have played together ever since. Although they have travelled very diverse paths and studied different musical traditions, they find their playing extremely compatible. They create improvisations and compositions that draw on the traditions of Macedonia and South India, their greatest musical influences.
Linsey’s collection of wind instruments is unique with 30 years experience in making & experimenting with wind instruments. He has come up with new single reed designs, such as the various clarinis (narrow bored clarinets) made from bamboo, wood, aluminium and glass as well as various hybrid bagpipes based on the gaida (Macedonian bagpipe) which he studied in Macedonia and also the conical bore Saxillo. These wind instruments are combined with Tunji’s Gangan (a small Yoruba talking drum), Tavil (South Indian temple drum), Kanjira (South Indian tambourine with a lizard skin), Jaw Harps and other percussion instruments that Tunji has mastered while living in Nigeria, India and Europe.
Audiences respond enthusiastically to the intense musical relationship between these two artists, and while their music has its roots in Eastern European, Sth Indian and African traditions, they have developed it along their own very personal lines. Their repertoire of original compositions is constantly changing and although based on a solid structure their performances are not rigidly planned and there is a great deal of improvisation that is both technically and emotionally dazzling.
The Planet is a monthly world music and dance program which has received financial assistance from the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland.
Brisbane Powerhouse, 119 Lamington St, New Farm
June 21st – BEMAC’s Annual General Meeting
May 20, 2010
BEMAC’s Annual General Meeting
Date: Monday, 21st June 2010
Time: 6.30pm for a 7.00pm start
Venue: Centre Room, Yungaba, 120 Main Street, Kangaroo Point.
If you are a BEMAC member you will be able to nominate for the Committee and vote in the AGM. To become a member or to renew your membership please download, fill in and email the appropriate membership form the Become a Member page.
Melting Pot
April 21, 2010
A WORLD OF FREE MUSIC
There’s a world of music bubbling away in Brisbane’s diverse communities. This melting pot of multi-culturalism will be celebrated during the monthly series of free entertainment and activities to be held at QPAC’s Cascade Court and Melbourne Street Green.
Traversing the globe from Asia to Europe, Africa and the Americas, Brisbane’s Melting pot will feature an array of ethnic delicacies from local communities including traditional fare, arts and craft, new world music and dance.
Gather your family and friends and join the global citizens of Brisbane’s new world city as we celebrate diversity, community and culture through the universal languages of food and music.
Where: Cascade Court and Melbourne Street Green, QPAC
When: 11.30am to 5pm
Immerse yourself in the sounds and aromas of mystical Asia with rhythmic Bhangara, bamboo flutes, exotic strings, driving percussion and the phenomenon of contemporary Bollywood.
Folkloric traditions, classical compositions and contemporary pop music come together to mark the European influence on a western culture steeped in delicious diversity.
Saturday 10+Sunday 11 April
Saturday 8+Sunday 9 May
Return to the roots of all music with an exciting world of song and dance beating a trail from tribal Africa to the idyllic rhythms of the South Pacific.
Saturday 5+Sunday 6 June
Saturday 10 + Sunday 11 July
Traverse the globe footloose and carefree with a gypsy gathering drawing from the Mediterranean, the Baltics, the Middle East and Central Asia to create an energetic celebration of a colourful life of travels.
Saturday 7 + Sunday 8 August
Saturday 18+ Sunday 19 September
Party with the sounds of the streets as we shake up the music that has inspired revolutions, celebrated freedom and opened our hearts and minds to the ryhthms of carnivale.
Saturday 16+Sunday 17 October
Saturday 13 + Sunday 14 November
Presented by QPAC with the support of BEMAC
Talking Tapa: Pasifika Bark Cloth in Queensland
January 21, 2010
Works from the Melanesian nations and islands of Papua New Guinea, West Papua a province of Indonesia, The Solomon Islands and New Caledonia, and the Polynesian Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, and Wallis and Futuna are represented. Community loans hang beside museum pieces. Some have be used very recently in Queensland to decorate homes, wedding receptions, meeting halls, birthday parties, for use at funerals and perhaps most commonly for Fijians to wear at their weddings.
National itinerary – tour
2009 Queensland
- USQ (Springfield, Ipswich) 12 Feb –19 March
- Art space Mackay 27 Mar – 10 May
- Gladstone Regional Art Gallery 5 June – 11 July
Museum of Brisbane 24 July – 11 Oct NOW
- Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, 23 Oct – 6 Dec
- Cairns Regional Gallery 11 Dec – 31 Jan 2010
2010 Victoria
- Monash Gallery of Art 10 Feb – 11 April
- Ballarat Fine Art Gallery 17 April – 30 May
2010 NSW
- Mosman Art Gallery 5 June – 18 July
- Manning Regional Gallery 23 July – 5 Sept
- Taree
- Bathurst Regional Gallery 15 Oct – 28 Nov
Further venues may be included in 2011. If you know a venue that may be interested please let BEMAC know.
Catch TALKING TAPA where you can and enjoy this wonderful show.
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