JAY ANSILL (Poetry and Celtic harp)
MANDALA (Transformational devotional music)
Calvary Center for Culture and Community
48th Street and Baltimore Avenue in Philadelphia
Concert starts at 7:30 pm. (doors open at 7:00, cafe and box office at 6:15)
Tickets are priced on a $10-5-15 sliding scale.
On Saturday, January 29, 2005, Crossroads Music’s Philadelphia Crossroads concert series features two artists with unique approaches to bringing together music and words. JAY ANSILL is a harpist, singer, and composer known for his unique interpretation of American, British, and Irish folk music and his settings of the poems of Robert Graves and William Butler Yeats. MANDALA combines Balkan, Middle Eastern, and western musical influences with devotional texts from traditional and contemporary Christian and Sufi sources.
JAY ANSILL was born and raised in Suburban Philadelphia. He became interested in folk music while at Cheltenham High and before long he was playing mandolin and fiddle at square dances and Irish Ceilis. While still in high school, he formed the Schuylkill Valley Nature Boys, a band that played all kinds of folk music and became well known in Philadelphia in the early 1980s for a station ID they recorded for WXPN-FM. The Folk Harp Journal credits him with "creating a new language for the Celtic harp."
As his range of abilities as a musician widened, Ansill developed an interest in composition and closely studied the work of several composers most notably David Amram, with whom he felt an affinity. His work is firmly rooted in the traditional music of the U.S. and the British Isles and Ireland, but combines elements of classical music, jazz and rock, and, less directly, to the literature of the twentieth century, particularly the work of Laura Riding and James Joyce.
In 1994, Jay released "Mind and Body," a collection of new original music that includes settings of poems by Yeats and Graves, as well as some music written for theater, and some music that expands the boundaries of the harp through the use of compelling rhythms and improvisation. His CD "A Lost World" explores Graves work in even greater depth.
Since 1980, Ansill has toured extensively with folksingers including Saul Broudy and Priscilla Herdman and performed with such diverse musicians as Robin Williamson, Tony Trischka, Maria del Mar Bonet, Rodney Anonymous (of the Dead Milkmen) and many others. He plays on recordings by Anne Hills, Kevin Roth, Barry Mitterhoff, Marah and others.
Jay was nominated twice as Best Folk Instrumentalist by the Philadelphia Music Foundation and in 1990 his album Origami, a collection of original compositions, was voted Best Folk Recording. He was also nominated for two Barrymore Awards in the same year for theatrical scores for productions at the Arden Theatre in Philadelphia. In 2004 Jay was awarded an Independence Foundation grant and spent two months in Mallorca and Barcelona learning traditional music from the region.
For more information, photos, and sound samples http://www.jayansill.com
Drawing on a comprehensive musical education and a diverse background in multiple musical styles, the members of MANDALA join to bring forth a joyous noise that at once is deeply personal and transcendently universal. Their work blends Turkish and Indian Sufi music, Gregorian chant, classical chamber music, Balkan folk music and Klezmer with lyrics from such diverse sources as Rumi, the Episcopal hymnal, the Scriptures and contemporary poetry.
Scott Robinson founded Mandala -- an offshoot of his Balkan folk band Gypsophilia -- as a vehicle for his original Sufi-inspired Christian devotional music. He is a professed member of the Third Order of St. Francis, and teaches at Eastern University near Philadelphia. Though classically trained as a composer, he has spent much of his life in and around folk music of various kinds.
Born in Sweden, Aino Söderhielm plays both clarinet and saxophone. She attended the New School of Jazz in New York City, and has played everything from rap and big band to R&B and Cuban jazz. She has lived in Philadelphia since 1994, and plays with Tintinabulus, the experimental trio Way Blue Bucket, Calvin Watson's Big Tree, and Gypsophilia. Aino also works in music therapy, which she studied at Temple University.
Andi Mcgraw Hunt also studied music therapy at Temple University, and works with people in recovery from addictions. She sings in the choir of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, has played flute since childhood and also plays guitar. At Michigan State University she sang with Sine Nomine, a vocal ensemble specializing in 16th and 17th century English church music.
For more information, photos, and sound samples: http://www.mandalaband.net
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Upcoming events include:
Sunday, Feb. 6 2:00 DICKENS BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION Victorian-style brass with Susan Watts and friends Readings from Dickens' works Griffith Hall, 43rd and Kingsessing collaboration with the Friends of Clark Park
Friday, Feb. 18, Philadelphia Crossroads 7:30 pm An evening of Philly funk and soul CHESTNUT BROTHERS R&B and soul harmonies URBAN GUERRILLA ORCHESTRA 9-piece funk band
Saturday March 19, Root & Branch 7:30 pm THE WIYOS Vaudevillian Ragtime Blues, Hillbilly Swing and Old Time Country LUMINESCENT ORCHESTRII Eastern European music with punk-rock attitude with ERIK PETERSEN
Friday, April 15, Root & Branch 7:30 pm PHIL CUNNINGHAM & ALY BAIN Scottish accordion and fiddle masters
Saturday, April 23, Root & Branch
7:30 pm
FLOOK
Two flutes, guitar, and bodhran carry Irish musical tradition into the 21st century
Saturday, May 7 MAY FAIR, Clark Park
More events to be announced shortly.
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All concerts take place at 7:30 pm in the historic Calvary United Methodist Church at the corner of 48th Street and Baltimore Avenue. The 34 subway-surface trolley stops at the door, and a free, well-lit, and city-maintained parking lot is located on the block. Dinner and refreshments are available at the concerts and at excellent restaurants nearby.
For advance tickets, directions, or other information: http://www.crossroads.calvary-center.org 215-729-1028
Crossroads is in part funded by grants from the Stockton Rush Bartol Foundation, the Philadelphia Cultural Fund, and the 5-County Arts Fund. Some of our publicity costs are paid for by a marketing grant from the Citizens Bank Foundation to our parent organization, the Calvary Center for Culture and Community.
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