birthday concert, anyone?

Lars & his family have decided to attend a benefit concert on the night of his birthday, next Thursday, March 8th. Sounds like a good concert for a great cause. Anyone care to join us? Tickets are $10 and need to be reserved by contacting Roger Lussier at rlussier1@berklee.edu or calling 617.747.8677. There are no assigned seats.

Samite: Expanding Possibilities Through Music Therapy – Fundraising Concert

David Friend Recital Hall
Berklee College of Music
921 Boylston St. Boston, MA
Thursday, March 8, 2007 7:30 pm
$10 (Tickets must be reserved in advance)

Samite Mulondo makes truly joyous music, full of complex, swirling melodies and infectious rhythms. A master flute-player and a soulful singer with a beautiful, warm voice, he mesmerizes his listeners with his own brand of modern East African folk music, singing in his mother tongue of Luganda and accompanying himself on kalimba (finger-piano), marimba (wooden xylophone) and litungu (Kenyan lyre), as well as his beloved flutes. He was born and raised in Uganda, but left as a political refugee in 1982 following his brother’s death. He spent some time playing with the popular African Heritage Band and the Bacchus Club Jazz Band. During this period, Samite studied Ugandan traditional musical instruments and rhythms with passion.

In addition to Samite’s musical career, he is the founder of the non-profit organization, Musicians for World Harmony, whose mission is to enable musicians throughout the world to share their music to promote peace, understanding and harmony among peoples, with a special emphasis on the displaced or the distressed who could benefit most from the healing power of music. Samite has visited Liberia, Ivory Coast and Rwanda to see for himself if the dismal picture of these countries painted by the western media was accurate. He found that in spite of staggering losses of human life and devastation, the survivors of Liberia’s civil war, Rwanda’s genocide and decades of civil strife in Uganda were full of hope and caring for themselves and each other with great resourcefulness and dignity. The PBS documentary, “Song of the Refugee” documents his remarkable experience. When he sang his songs of peace for the people, the light of joy returned to children’s eyes and young and old responded with songs, dances and instrumental performances that had an immediate, positive impact on everyone present.

This May 2007, The Music Therapy Department is partnering with Samite and Musicians for World Harmony to support an outreach effort to bring music to children in orphanages in Kenya and Tanzania. 9 music therapy students have been selected through a competitive process to travel and exchange music therapy services and gain knowledge of the importance of music and its uses in other cultures.