Playing For The Planet…Goes Online!

Mark your calendars for a unique and exciting musical event! 

On Saturday, May 9 at 7:00 (Eastern Time), please join us for the first Virtual Benefit Concert in the long-running Playing For The Planet series.

We’ll hear exquisite and heartfelt music from six different artists, representing six different musical traditions:

Durga Krishnan (South Indian Veena),
John Tyson & Miyuki Tsurutani
(European Renaissance music),
DoYeon Kim (Korean Gayegeum),
Ricardo Borsatto (Brazilian Choro),
Sunniva Brynnel (Swedish Folk), &
Ranjani Ramachandran (Hindustani khyal).

These semi-annual environmental benefit concerts started in 2009, and last December we celebrated our twentieth concert.  Now, we’re looking forward to bringing you more such virtual events in the months to come. 

To attend, simply make a donation of any amount ($20 suggested) at this link, and you’ll receive the log-in information you’ll need to join us on Zoom.

We at Playing For The Planet are excited to be bringing you these wonderful musicians, and very happy to be continuing this great tradition:
Great Music For A Great Cause.

Donate Here & Receive The Zoom Invitation

About the Artists:

South Indian veena master Durga Krishnan is a disciple of the legendary virtuoso, the late Dr. Chittibabu, whom she has accompanied in performance and on recordings, and is currently a student of Padmabhushan Sri Lalgudi G. Jayaraman, one of the greatest figures in contemporary Carnatic tradition. She holds the degree “Sangeetha Vidwan” (Scholar of Music) and is a certified teacher of Carnatic Music. A performer, teacher and composer of international repute, she has taught and concertized extensively throughout the world and is a very popular veena and vocal teacher in the Boston area; several of her students have won prizes at the Cleveland Thyagaraja festival.

Miyuki Tsurutani received her Master of Music degree from Osaka College of Music where she studied harpsichord with Hiroko Motooka, recorder with Toru Kamiya, and piano with Toshiko Tamura. She has performed in Japan, Taiwan, Australia, Italy, France, and Germany, Canada and in the United States at the University of Hawaii, the University of California, Tulane University, Bennington College, Capitol Early Music Festival in Washington D.C., the Killington Vermont Shakespeare Festival and the Boston Christmas Revels.  She has been continuo player for the orchestra Boston Baroque’s residency at Boston University, The American Recorder Society and at masterclasses for The Boston Early Music Festival.

John Tyson is a winner of the Bodky International Competition, the Noah Greenberg Award, and a former student of Frans Bruggen. He has appeared as soloist in Italy, France, Germany, Spain, England, Scotland, Chile, Canada, Japan, Taiwan, and Australia and throughout the United States, as well as with major ensembles in Europe and the US. Tyson has recorded for Erato, Harmonia Mundi, Sine Qua Non, Titanic, and Ventadorn Records, and with Boston’s Handel & Haydn Society under Christopher Hogwood. His solo CD, “Something Old, Something New” features Baroque and contemporary music for recorder and strings. A recognized expert in Renaissance music and improvisation, Tyson is director of the Renaissance music and dance ensemble Renaissonics and is a member of the pop/classical/world music band Universal Village.  He is director of the Corso di Flauto Dolce in Tuscany, Italy and has been a director of the Université d’Eté; Vivoin, France and music director of the Historical Dance Foundation of New York. John has premiered concerti for recorder and orchestra written for him: “Ventania” by jazzman Hermeto Pascoal, “Triptych,” by Chilean-born composer and conductor David Serendero for the 30th anniversary of his orchestra Reinisches Collegium Musicum in Wiesbaden, Germany, and a Double Concerto by Giorgio Pacchioni.

Tyson is on the faculty of the New England Conservatory of Music and has taught at the Corso Internazionale di Musica Antica in Urbino, Italy, and was Chair of the Department of Historical Performance at Boston University. He is also an Emerson Instructor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In collaboration with The American Recorder Society and the National Endowment for the Arts, he produced an instructional video for recorder teachers entitled “Recorder Power!” Tyson has been Artist in Residence at Northeastern University, guest soloist at the Montréal International Recorder Festival and has taught at the Berklee College of Music, Boston Conservatory, Brandeis University, University of Connecticut, the National Center of Afro American Artists, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Tanglewood Institute.

Do Yeon Kim plays the gayageum, a Korean silk-stringed zither. Her dream since the age of 12 has been to widely introduce Korean traditional music to the world on an international level. Do Yeon has received numerous awards in her native Korea, She was selected by the Korean Department of Culture to be one of the few gayageum musicians to tour with a youth group to Japan. She is the first player of the instrument to be admitted to study at the New England Conservatory. She comes from a rich background in traditional Korean folk music, yet her current music projects are quite multi-dimensional. Over the past few years she has transcribed pieces from musical idioms such as tango, jazz, and Western classical music with remarkable results. An exceptional improviser, her musical vision and ability to adapt music forms not associated with her instrument is truly extraordinary.

Hailing from a musical family in his native Brazil, Ricardo Borsatta grew up hearing and playing the music of composers like Pixinguinha and Jacob do Bandolim. He studied with master guitarist Alessandro Penezzi, who would become one of his most important musical mentors. Subsequently, he was awarded the Latin American Scholarship at the prestigious Berklee College of Music, earning a Degree in Jazz Composition and Performance. In Boston, he founded the Choro ensemble “Os Bohêmios”, which became the most important Choro group in New England area at that time. With musicians from five different countries, the quintet was an important part of Ricardo’s dream of disseminating his Choro heritage in the United States.

Originally from Sweden, Sunniva Brynnel is an accordionist, vocalist and composer within jazz, improvised music and folk music, coming from a lineage of seven generations of female musicians. Her mother – a Swedish folk singer – is one of her major influences. Since coming to the Boston area to complete a degree in Contemporary Improvisation at New England Conservatory, she has collaborated and performed with many artists, including Night Tree, Blå Dager, and Druids & Androids.

Ranjani Ramachandran is a prominent Hindustani classical vocalist specializing in the khayal genre and has earned wide acclaim for her performances in India and abroad. Trained in both the Gwalior and Jaipur gharana gayakis, Ranjani is a versatile musician equally at ease rendering other forms such as thumri, dadra and soulful bhajans. She has also carved a unique niche with her active engagement in pedagogy and research in music. Ranjani was initiated into Hindustani music at a young age by her mother, Vijaya. She is a disciple of eminent artistes like Pt. Ulhas Kashalkar, (Late) Smt. Veena Sahasrabuddhe, (Late) Pt. Kashinath Bodas and Vidushi Girija Devi. Ranjani has received numerous prestigious awards and accolades including the Pt. Ramkrishnabua Vaze Yuva Gayak Puraskar; Surmani award from Sur Singar Samsad, Mumbai; Resident Scholarship of ITC Sangeet Research Academy, Kolkata; Fellowship for Young artistes; Junior & Senior Research Fellowship for doctoral studies instituted by the Government of India and Charles Wallace Research Grant (CWIT, UK). Ranjani has a Doctorate in vocal Hindustani music and is currently working as a faculty in the Department of Hindustani Classical Music at Sangit Bhavana, Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan in West Bengal. She has also participated in inter-disciplinary projects with visual arts and has been engaged in collaborative research with ethnomusicologists in India and abroad. Ranjani is a graded artiste of All India Radio and Doordarshan and empanelled as a performing artiste for ICCR (Indian Council for Cultural Relations). Her noteworthy performances include Vishnu Digambar Jayanti Samaroha (New Delhi); ITC Sangeet Sammelan; Kalakshetra Annual Art Festival (Chennai); Pt. Kumar Gandharva Smriti Samaroha (Dewas); Nehru Centre (London); Palace Green Library, Durham University, UK; Basant Bahar, California, USA; “Sangeet Pratibha” of Sangeet Natak Academy; India Habitat Centre (New Delhi) and Goa Kala Academy amongst many others.

About 350MA.org and the Better Future Project

Co-founded by environmentalist and author Bill McKibben, 350.org is the hub of a worldwide network of over two hundred environmental organizations, all with a common target: persuading the world’s countries to unite in an effort to reduce global levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide to 350 parts per million or less. Climatologist Dr. James Hansen says, “If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted, paleoclimate evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that CO2 will need to be reduced from its current 400 ppm to at most 350 ppm.” (Dr. Hansen headed the NASA Institute for Space Studies in New York City, and is best known for his testimony on climate change to congressional committees in the 1980s that helped raise broad awareness of the global warming issue.) Activists involved in the 350 movement include Rajendra Pachauri (Chairman, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), Vandana Shiva (world-renowned environmental leader and thinker), Archbishop Desmond Tutu (1984 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and a global activist on issues pertaining to democracy, freedom and human rights), Van Jones, Bianca Jagger, Barbara Kingsolver and many more.

350MA.org is the Massachusetts Chapter of this worldwide advocacy group, and the hub for the Better Future Project, a Cambridge-based climate organizing nonprofit founded in January 2011. In spring 2012, Better Future Project staff began a series of meetings and conversations with fellow activists about the need for a grassroots climate network in Massachusetts. Those conversations grew out of many years of collaboration on 350.org actions and events, and they led to the creation of 350 Massachusetts for a Better Future as a volunteer-led, campaign-focused network.

Singing The Long Now

Coming up at Tufts University, a free concert: I’ll be joined by the Strings Theory Trio in an afternoon of new compositions and arrangements.

Please join us.  It’ll be great.

SINGING FOR THE PLANET — CANCELLED

The concert scheduled for tonight has had to be cancelled due to the ongoing Boston lockdown.

We may be able to reschedule…stay tuned.

Year 2, Month 12, Day 9: That’s Taghyir Al-manakh in Arabic

The New York Times delivers the ghastly news:

Global emissions of carbon dioxide from fossil-fuel burning jumped by the largest amount on record last year, upending the notion that the brief decline during the recession might persist through the recovery.

Emissions rose 5.9 percent in 2010, according to an analysis released Sunday by the Global Carbon Project, an international collaboration of scientists tracking the numbers. Scientists with the group said the increase, a half-billion extra tons of carbon pumped into the air, was almost certainly the largest absolute jump in any year since the Industrial Revolution, and the largest percentage increase since 2003.

I was only going to write to papers in the developing world while Durban was going on, but I just had to respond to this one. Sent December 5:

The inability of politics-as-usual to address the climate crisis is exemplified by the tired excuses for inaction on offer at the Durban climate conference. As the Global Carbon Project’s report makes clear, business-as-usual is well on the way to triggering a runaway greenhouse effect with consequences ranging from inconvenient to catastrophic.

Just over a decade ago, George Bush blithely disregarded a warning that Osama Bin Laden was planning attacks in the US, and on September eleventh, terrorists killed thousands and destroyed an architectural landmark. But failure to control greenhouse emissions will mean megadeaths; the loss of a building whose name evoked our global economy will pale into insignificance when that economy itself is shattered by the resource wars and political chaos sure to follow those rising temperatures. Even though they’ve been repeatedly warned of a real and terrifying threat, our politicians-as-usual can’t bring themselves to act.

Warren Senders

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