Crossing Borders Music

Description

Founded in 2011, Crossing Borders Music has become a leading, critically acclaimed interpreter of chamber music by composers from under-represented cultures. Crossing Borders Music was a Headline Artist at the African Festival of the Arts, a Resident Arts Organization at the Chicago Cultural Center, and has been presented by the Old Town School of Folk, Montréal’s Society for the Research and Promotion of Haitian Music (SRDMH), United World College of South East Asia, and at Chicago’s Symphony Center through the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s African American Network. Crossing Borders Music has been featured on NBC-5 and ABC-7 Chicago News, on WFMT, on WBEZ, in the Chicago Tribune, and as a Critic’s Pick in TimeOut Chicago.

The mission of Crossing Borders Music is to use music to promote the dignity of people from all cultures.

To this end, Crossing Borders Music shares moving music and compelling stories of people from under-represented cultures in a way that affirms and uplifts. Crossing Borders Music also presents educational programs to foster young people’s awareness of the diversity and richness of cultures and their music.
Crossing Borders Music offers performances, student programming, and professional development for inclusive music curricula.

Work Sample

In 1965, the famous artist Sin Sisamouth (1933-1976) wrote “Champa Battambang" ("The Flower of Battambang"), which was the first content played on the Khmer Republic Television. It is a love song about a man who misses his hometown and the woman he had to leave behind. Both the song and its singer are deeply embedded in Cambodian culture. This romantic ballad reminds us that true love and family ties live forever in our hearts.
In the 1970s, the regime called the Khmer Rouge destroyed so many artists and musicians, including Sisamouth, as part of the Cambodian Genocide which killed over 2 million people and resulted in refugee families fleeing Cambodia. This beautiful song is a legacy that Cambodians will never leave behind.
     - from comments by Savi Chhorm

Featuring Punisa Pov, roneat ak; Rasa Mahmoudian and Jennifer Leckie, violins; Seth Pae, viola; Tom Clowes, cello; Aidan Kranz, videography; and Miyu Morita, sound. Arranged by Rasa Mahmoudian.

Filmed at the National Cambodian Heritage Museum and Killing Fields Memorial

This video is from the project “Cambodian Day of Remembrance: Stories and Music for Healing,” which commemorates those who lost their lives in the Cambodian Genocide while celebrating the resilience of Cambodian people

Multi-faceted Palestinian/American musician Issa Boulos (born 1968) is an international award-winning composer, as well as an ‘ūd performer, ethnomusicologist, and teacher. His works have been performed by various groups and orchestras around the world. He studied piano, ‘ūd and voice at an early age and later pursued music composition with Gustavo Leone, Athanasios Zervas, and William Russo at Columbia College Chicago and with Robert Lombardo and Ilya Levinson at Roosevelt University.

Issa explains that Samaʿī Nahawand, for string quartet and ‘ūd, “was one of four orchestral pieces commissioned by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and premiered in 2006 at the opening of Millennium Park. The music is in the 10/8 rhythm, divided as 123/12/12/123. The melody is in the Nahawand maqām on D, and Ṣaba maqām on A. The term samaʿī refers to the form ARBRCRDR. The D section always falls on a different rhythm, 3/8 in this case. The piece explores the melodic contours of the Nahawand maqām and paints conversational dynamics through melody. The harmony relies on modal textures and suspensions.”

Issa Boulos, 'ūd
Rasa Mahmoudian and Jennifer Leckie, violins
Seth Van Embden, viola
Tom Clowes, cello
Miyu Morita, sound engineer
Max Williams, videographer

Originally from Little Rock, Arkansas, Florence Price moved to Chicago, where she became an important contributor in Chicago's Black Renaissance, and the first African-American woman to have a work performed by a major orchestra.
Learn more about her amazing story and music at https://www.whatshernamepodcast.com/f...

Featuring:
Marianne Parker, piano
Jennifer Leckie and Rasa Mahmoudian, violins
Seth Pae, viola
Tom Clowes, cello
Aidan Kranz, videography
Miyu Morita, sound

This performance was a part of Crossing Borders Music's 2021 Mother's Day program, featuring women and mother composers from around the globe.

The three work samples come from three recent programs:

- a collaboration with the National Cambodian Heritage Museum and Killing Fields Memorial to mark Cambodian Day of Remembrance with guest artist Punisa Pov, the museum's resident artist.
-  a program "Reflections of the Arab World" featuring composers from the Levant with guest artist Issa Boulos, who arranged his piece for Crossing Borders Music.
- a program for Mother's Day featuring women and mother composers.

These programs highlight our efforts to share music from under-represented cultures in a way that affirms and uplifts.

History

Founded in 2011, Crossing Borders Music has become a leading, critically acclaimed interpreter of chamber music by composers from under-represented cultures including Cambodia, the Chickasaw Nation, Colombia, Egypt, Haiti, India, Syria, Uganda, and Bahá’ís from Iran. Crossing Borders Music was a Headline Artist at the African Festival of the Arts, a Resident Arts Organization at the Chicago Cultural Center, and has been presented by the Old Town School of Folk, Montréal’s Society for the Research and Promotion of Haitian Music (SRDMH), United World College of South East Asia, and at Chicago’s Symphony Center through the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s African American Network. Crossing Borders Music has been featured on NBC-5 and ABC-7 Chicago News, on WFMT, on WBEZ, in the Chicago Tribune, and as a Critic’s Pick in TimeOut Chicago. Through a grant from The Chicago Community Trust, in August, 2016, Crossing Borders Music released a world premiere album of newly commissioned string quartet music by Haitian composers Jean “Rudy” Perrault and Sabrina C. D. Jean Louis. Through a grant from the Sparkplug Foundation, Crossing Borders Music recorded a world premiere album of original chamber music with the composer, Grammy-nominated sitarist Gaurav Mazumdar, and is now planning its release.

Artistic Vision

The mission of Crossing Borders Music is to use music to promote the dignity of people from all cultures.

We envision a more harmonious world in which people experience musical and artistic dimensions of cultures in such a way that influences how they shop, invest, travel, volunteer, do business, and live their day-to-day lives.

To this end, Crossing Borders Music shares moving music and compelling stories of people from under-represented cultures in a way that affirms and uplifts. Crossing Borders Music also presents educational programs to foster young people’s awareness of the diversity and richness of cultures and their music.

Programs for Specific Audience(s) Expertise

We have several long-standing programs for K-12 audiences:
- "Stories and Music of Resilience" for grades K-8
- "What Gives Music Meaning?" for grades 6-12

We also offer:
- professional development for creating inclusive music curricula
- residencies, lecture/demonstrations, and faculty workshops