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CONTENTS
1. This Saturday – Peter Ostroushko 2. Calvary Cafe Menu 3. Upcoming shows (David Jones, Full Frontal Folk) 4. About Crossroads 5. How do we pay for these events?
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Crossroads Music presents:
PETER OSTROUSHKO
Minnesota mandolin master and former Prairie Home Companion music director
A Root and Branch Concert.
Saturday, January 24 at 7:30 pm Calvary United Methodist Church 48th Street and Baltimore Avenue in Philadelphia
Tickets are $15, $10 for kids, students, seniors and others with limited incomes, and $20 for special supporters and are available online at www.crossroads.calvary-center.org, from House of Our Own Books (3925 Spruce Street) and at the event.
On Saturday, January 24, 2004 Crossroads Music presents Peter Ostroushko, one of the finest mandolin and fiddle players around. Peter's music reflects musical styles from around the world, with a special emphasis on his Ukrainian heritage. The former music director of Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion, Peter still makes frequent appearances on that popular show. He’s recorded and performed in an astonishing number of musical genres: pop and country (with Bob Dylan, Emmy Lou Harris, Willie Nelson, and Chet Atkins), bluegrass (with Norman and Nancy Blake), blues (with Taj Mahal), Irish (with Mick Maloney) and as a soloist with chamber music groups and symphony orchestras. For this show, he will be accompanied by pianist Dan Chouinard.
Growing up in the Ukrainian community of northeast Minneapolis, Peter heard mandolin, balalaika, and bandura tunes played by his father and family friends at get-togethers in their home and in church. It's the music that still echoes in his memory and provides the basis for many of his compositions. He was still in high school when his career as a professional musician began. Asked to compose and play the music for a one-man staging of A Christmas Carol, Peter fell in love with theater. Soon he was honing his skills at the Children's Theatre School in Minneapolis.
He began to take up instrument after instrument, finally settling on fiddle and mandolin. During the next three decades, he made his mark as a sideman, session player, headliner and composer. His first recording session was an uncredited mandolin set on Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks. He toured on a regular basis with Robin and Linda Williams, Norman Blake and the Rising Fawn Ensemble, and Chet Atkins. He also worked with the likes of Jethro Burns, Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson, Johnny Gimble, Greg Brown, John Hartford and Taj Mahal, among a host of others.
Peter has spent more than 25 years as a frequent performer (and, for a time, as music director) on the popular public radio show A Prairie Home Companion. You may have caught Peter on TV, too. He's appeared on Austin City Limits, Late Night with David Letterman, even Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood.
Peter's talents extend beyond the realm of folk and jazz. Several years ago, the Minnesota Orchestra hired him to play Mahler's Seventh Symphony. The whole piece only has about 15 minutes of mandolin -- and that's not until the fourth movement. Peter figures that Mahler must have had a brother-in-law who played mandolin and needed work. You can bet if Mahler had known Peter, he would have written the mando a bigger part.
When the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra's season included a mandolin concerto by 18th-century composer Giovanni Paisiello, they called -- who else -- Peter Ostroushko. And they did the same when they presented Vivaldi's mandolin concerto and his concerto for viola d'amore and mandola. Finally, they decided to perform one of Peter's own compositions, the exquisite "Prairie Suite."
As a composer Peter Ostroushko has undeniably come into his own. His works have been performed by the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Minnesota Sinfonia, the Rochester Symphony Orchestra, the Des Moines Symphony and the Kremlin Chamber Orchestra. Twin Cities Public Television commissioned Peter to provide music for their nationally distributed programs, The Dakota Conflict and Grant Wood's America. Ken Burns Peter’s music PBS documentaries on Lewis and Clarke and Mark Twain.
In 2001, Peter was the recipient of a Bush Artist Fellowship for Music Composition. And, along the way, he has picked up a N.A.I.R.D. Indie Award, and a couple of Minnesota Music Awards. His music has made its way around the world. Wherever it's heard, there's another bunch of fans eager for more.
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CALVARY CAFE MENU Saturday, January 24, 2004
Supper and refreshments will be available at the Calvary Café from 6:00 and until after intermission. This week’s menu is not yet available, but it’s always good!
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UPCOMING EVENTS Sunday, February 1, 2004 at 2:00 pm - Special community event Dickens Birthday Celebration -Victorian popular song with DAVID JONES
West Philadelphia’s Clark Park is home to the world’s only life-sized statue of Charles Dickens, and every February the Friends of Clark Park celebrate his birthday with readings, music, and cake. Since 2000, the Cherry Tree Music Co-op has arranged for performances of music from Dickens’ time, and Crossroads is pleased to carry on this tradition. David Jones has an enormous repertoire of folksong from both sides of the Atlantic. He has performed throughout his native Britain and North America at festivals, clubs, and colleges, singing songs from the great days of sail, Music Hall favorites, traditional ballads, and the works of contemporary writers. He sings both a capella and with guitar or concertina accompaniment and involves his audience in refrains and choruses ranging from boisterous to sentimental. Jones has played feature roles in both Equity and non-Equity theatrical productions. As well as performing solo, he sings with Tom Gibney and Heather Wood in Poor Old Horse.
This free event will take place in Griffith Hall at 43rd Street and Woodland Avenue.
Saturday, February 7, 2004 at 7:30 pm - Root and Branch FULL FRONTAL FOLK - A Philadelphia favorite returns.
After delighting Crossroads audiences as part of a double bill last winter, Full Frontal Folk are back for a headline show. “Awesome!” says WXPN’s Gene Shay. “A union that was long overdue.” Each of the four women who make up the group is an individually accomplished musician and singer in her own right, but together they are combustible, combining a “gen-X” attitude with good solid folk music sensibilities. Add to the mix their fun sense of personal style and off-the-wall sense of humor and you’ll find yourself immersed in a unique remix of the folk music genre. The group shares a love of traditional, old-timey and bluegrass music, as well as contemporary singer-songwriter, pop and punk. Contemporary songs made famous by The Eagles or Bad Religion may quickly follow traditional songs, like Katie Cruel or Blood and Gold. All songs are delivered with beautiful vocal arrangements, which are at times polished, quirky, haunting, or poignant. Their instrumentation, including 6 and 12 string guitars, bass, fiddle, mandolin and percussion, never takes away from their powerful voices.
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ABOUT CROSSROADS MUSIC
Crossroads events fall into three main groups. Philadelphia Crossroads continues the original Crossroads Music Series, which presented contrasting but related music from two different Philadelphia communities on the second Saturday of each month. Beginning in October, Root and Branch concerts continue the former Cherry Tree Music Co-op's series of concerts by nationally-known touring artists. Finally, the Folklife Center's Nada Brahma (Sanskrit for "The World is Sound") events will present locally-based and national and international touring artists from culturally-specific traditions around the world. In addition, we collaborate with other organizations in producing several free community events at other West Philadelphia locations each year.
All concerts take place at 7:30 pm in the historic Calvary United Methodist Church. Oak paneling, red carpets, and a horseshoe balcony make the room feel more like an intimate theater than a church. Calvary Center is located at 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, please visit our website at www.crossroads.calvary-center.org or call us at 215-729-1028. (We have limited office hours – if there is no answer, please leave a message and we’ll call you back.
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HOW DO WE PAY FOR THE EVENTS?
Occasionally, we get asked how we pay for Crossroads concerts. Our largest source of income is ticket sales, but we also receive some funds from program book advertising, Calvary Center, and donations. We inherited what funds the Cherry Tree Music Co-op had left when it closed, and we are actively pursuing grant funding to keep the program going once this runs out.
We gratefully accept individual donations, and even a small amount of money can make a big difference. If each subscriber to our email list contributed only $10 a year, for example, we’d be able to book concerts further in advance, to expand the number of events presented, and to substantially expand our publicity.
Crossroads Music is a program of the Calvary Center for Culture and Community, a non-sectarian nonprofit organization that seeks to restore and increase community use of the historic Calvary Church building. All donations are fully tax-deductible, and 100% of contributions designated for Crossroads Music go directly to that program. Checks should be made payable to CCCC and mailed to Crossroads Music, c/o Calvary United Methodist Church, 801 South 48th Street, Philadelphia PA 19143. We thank you for your support.
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