Wednesday Folk Traditions
Markamusic
July 15 at 6:30pm

HADLEY, MA. —The Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum will continue its 28th season of Wednesday Folk Traditions on July 15th with MarKamusic, performing music from the heart of Latin America. The concert will be held in the Museum’s sunken garden beginning at 6:30 p.m., and picnicking on the grounds is welcome beginning at 5 p.m. Admission is $10 for adults and $2 for children 16 and under.

MarKamusic draws from a diverse group of cultural backgrounds (Inca, Maya, Quecha, Taino, West Africa, Aymara, and Iberia), and “appeals to our collective musical memory from the soul of preserving Caribbean sands, supple rainforests, and Andean plateaus.” By sharing the musical feelings and ancient stories of the areas from which their aesthetic derives, MarKamusic sets out to debunk western stereotypes of Latin and South American music and culture at large. In addition to their music, they also share the history and evolution of the music and its people, performing concerts that become enchanting musical journeys, always concluding with the overlying unity that can only be brought through music affecting the energy of body and mind.

The band performs on over 50 traditional instruments including ocarinas, bamboo sax, bird callers, wind makers, pan flute, congas, and the 12-string steel guitar. Their music, once described as “Pan-Andean World Beat Music,” has since evolved into a combination of many themes: Their own interpretation of ancient Andean aboriginal melodies; songs arising from the 20th century Latin American struggle for political peace; the sometimes jarring, sometimes hypnotic “Musica Negroide” of Peru; folk-rock protest music banned in the mid 1970s under pain of death by the military Juntas; and a handful of favorite Caribbean and Latin American torch songs and high-energy pop tunes. MarKamusic is an improbable alliance of Ecuadorian, Peruvian, Guatemalan/Mayan, and Puerto Rican musicians and scholars, trained in musical genres from salsa to classical to pop, and experts in academic fields such as political science and aboriginal communications. The result of this fusion of diverse influences and interests is a uniquely energetic and thoughtful style of music that is sure to get listeners out of their seats and moving to the beat.

Wednesday Folk Traditions continues on July 22nd with the dynamic gospel music of the Kevin Sharpe Group, recipients of the 2006 New England Urban Music Award for Contemporary Gospel. The high-energy ensemble explores varied musical territory from straight-ahead jazz, funk and rock, to esoteric polyrhythmic experiments, all with a nod to their traditional roots in gospel music.

The concerts are funded, in part, with generous support from People’s Bank, Easthampton Savings Bank, Gage-Wiley & Co., MicroCal, LLC, and Western Massachusetts Electric Company, and many other local businesses.

The Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum is located at 130 River Drive (Route 47) in Hadley, two miles north of the junction of Routes 9 and 47. The Museum is open for guided tours Saturday through Wednesday from 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. and by appointment. For further information about the tours and the Wednesday Folk Traditions series, call the Museum at (413) 584-4699.