This semester’s World Music Showcase Concert in the West Virginia University College of Creative Arts will feature the WVU African Music and Dance Ensemble, WVU Steel Band, and the WVU Brazilian Ensemble, along with special guest Chris Wabich of Los Angeles.
The concert begins at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 1, in the Lyell B. Clay Theatre of the Creative Arts Center.
According to director Michael Vercelli, the repertoire will include music from Guinea, Ghana, Trinidad and Brazil. The Brazilian Ensemble will perform a collection of “choros” arranged by graduate student conductor Rafael Langoni Smith, and the concert also will feature a “maracatu” the students learned from the workshop by Brazilian master percussionist, educator and recording artist Jorge Martins held at the CAC in September.
Choros is the name used for music played by an ensemble of Brazilian street musicians and maracatu is a term common to two distinct performance genres found in northeastern Brazil.
Highlighting the concert will be special guest Chris Wabich, appearing with the steel band.
Wabich is a renowned steel pan and drum set artist from Los Angeles. Recently he played Frank Zappa’s “Joe’s Garage,” a stage production of the album, produced by Gail Zappa. He founded the trio “Paris Troika,” based in New York City, which has headlined at the Blue Note, Iridium, Zinc Bar, Scullers, and toured Russia.
Wabich has recorded with Ludacris, Sting, Stanley Jordan, Jimmy Haslip, Sheila E., Larry Koonse, Bad Haggis, Turkish superstar Omar Faruk, and famous poet Leonard Cohen, among others.
His recording credits also include TV shows “Malcolm in the Middle,” “American Idol,” and the films “Wild California,” Sting’s “Dolphins,” and Lalo Shifrin’s “After the Sunset.”
The concert is directed by Dr. Vercelli and graduate student Rafael Langoni Smith, an exchange student from Brazil who is studying at WVU as part of the “Music Alive!” program.
For tickets and information, contact the Mountainlair and CAC Box Office at (304) 293-SHOW.
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CONTACT: Charlene Lattea, College of Creative Arts
304-293-4359, Charlene.Lattea@mail.wvu.edu
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