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Tibetan monks to perform "Sacred Music Sacred Dance"
By DAVID WEDEKINDT
Reporter Contributor
Tickets will go on sale at 10 a.m. Tuesday for "Sacred Music Sacred Dance," a performance by Tibetan monks being held in conjunction with the visit in September to UB of His Holiness the Dali Lama.
The performance, sponsored in part by UB, will take place at 3 p.m. Sept. 17 in the Mainstage theater in the Center for the Arts, North Campus.
The famed multiphonic singers of Tibet's Drepung Loseling Monastery, whose sellout performances in Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center received national acclaim, will perform "Sacred Music Sacred Dance for World Healing" as part of their international tour of the Mystical Arts of Tibet.
The Mystical Arts of Tibet tour is co-produced by Richard Gere Productions and Drepung Loseling Institute, the North American seat of the Drepung Loseling Monastery in India. Endorsed by the Dalai Lama, the tour has three basic purposes: to make a contribution to world peace and healing, to generate a greater awareness of the endangered Tibetan civilization and to raise support for the Tibetan refugee community in India.
The performance of "Sacred Music
Sacred Dance" will feature multiphonic singing, traditional instruments,
elaborate costumes and masked dances.
The performance features multiphonic singing, wherein the monks simultaneously intone three notes of a chord. The Drepung Loseling monks are renowned for this unique singing. They also use traditional instruments, such as 10-foot-long dung-chen horns, drums, bells, cymbals and gyaling trumpets. Rich brocade costumes and masked dances, such as the Dance of the Sacred Snow Lion, add to the exotic atmosphere of the concert. The monks of Drepung Loseling have a distinguished modern-day musical history. On past tours they have performed with Kitaro, Paul Simon, Philip Glass, Edie Brickell, Natalie Merchant, Patti Smith, the Beastie Boys and the Grateful Dead's Mickey Hart, to name a few.
In addition, two of their recordings—"Tibetan Sacred Temple Music" (Shining Star Productions) and "Sacred Tibetan Chants" (Music and Arts Program of America Inc.)—achieved top-10 listings on the New Age charts. Their most recent recording, "Compassion" (Milennia Music), pairs them with the Abbey of Gethsemani Schola in an encounter of Gregorian chant with Tibetan multiphonic singing.
Their music was featured on the Golden Globe-nominated soundtrack of the film "Seven Years in Tibet" starring Brad Pitt, and they performed with Philip Glass in Lincoln Center in the live presentation of his award-winning score to the Martin Scorsese film "Kundun."
In response to the Sept. 11 tragedies, the monks created special mandalas and led prayer ceremonies and meditations in New York and Washington. Organized in conjunction with the Smithsonian Institution, these events were dedicated to the healing and protection of America.
The Loseling monks twice have been featured artists at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, and in July 2003 represented Tibet in the Cultural Olympiad of Greece, a pre-Olympic celebration of world sacred music and dance. For this event the monks toured Greece and performed at venues that included the Acropolis and ancient Olympia, the historic site of the original Olympics.
Tickets for "Sacred Music Sacred Dance for World Healing" are $15 for the general public and $10 for students and may be purchased at the CFA box office from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, and at all Ticketmaster locations, including Ticketmaster.com.
For more information, call 645-ARTS.