Annual Spring World Music Concert coming to Boutell Memorial Concert Hall

By NORTHERN STAR STAFF

The NIU School of Music will host its annual Spring World Music Concert at 3 p.m. Sunday, in Boutell Memorial Concert Hall.

The concert will feature differing music styles including one of which will feature Chicago-based percussionists who specialize in drumming styles of different cultures. The percussionists will include Omar Al Musfi playing the Middle Eastern drums with Javier Saume and Ruben Alvares playing Latin American percussion instruments.

The following act will feature a series of traditional Chinese music with pipa soloist Wang Chen Yung-Hsin, flutist Santina Sheng-Ting Lin and vocalist Vicky Yu-Kuan Wang. Also featured will be soloists Shari Heida on clarinet, Robyn Sutton on flute and vocalist Dennis Dzuekan.

The Chicago Okinawa Kenjinkai performance group will showcase folk music and dance traditions of Okinawa, Japan. NIU percussion majors Maggie Bergren and Clarice Case will perform folk tunes from Spain and Brazil, respectively, on the pandeiro (tambourine). The concert will conclude with NIU percussion faculty member Greg Beyer playing a modern composition incorporating yet another world music element, the Venezuelan maracas.