The West Virginia University World Music Performance Center will present its spring World Music Showcase Concert at the Creative Arts Center. The show will feature the WVU African Music and Dance Ensemble, the WVU Steel Band and the WVU Taiko Ensemble.

The concert begins at 7:30 p.m., Friday, April 11, in the Lyell B. Clay Theatre.

Directed by Michael Vercelli and graduate student Jamie Sunshine, the concert will feature special guests Tadashi Kato, of Fairmont State University, and student John Posey of the WVU Jazz Studies program.

“This semester’s concert focuses on contemporary arrangements for traditional ensembles including music from Trinidad, Ghana, Guinea, Cuba and Japan,” said Vercelli, who directs the World Music Performance Center.

“Highlighting the concert will be a presentation of the Japanese ‘Sword Dance’ performed and choreographed by professor Tadashi Kato. The ‘Sword Dance’ combines traditional Japanese martial art forms, modern dance, and original music composed by the WVU Taiko Ensemble,” he said.

Vercelli holds a doctorate of musical arts in ethnomusicology from the University of Arizona. He has studied the traditional music of other countries and done fieldwork in Bali, Cuba, Brazil and primarily in Ghana.

Tadashi Kato, instructor of Tai Chi and Qigong, is a native of Japan and has more than 20 years of training in various forms of martial arts. He received his Master of Arts in Exercise Physiology and Biomechanics from the University of Tokyo in 1989 and received a Ph.D. in Clinical Health Psychology from Ohio University in 2000.

Tickets are $10 for the general public and $5 for students. For tickets and information, contact the Mountainlair and CAC Box Office at (304) 293-SHOW.

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cl/4/9/14

CONTACT: Charlene Lattea, College of Creative Arts
304-293-4359, Charlene.Lattea@mail.wvu.edu

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