TUE NOV 10 2015
Youssou N’Dour CHAN CENTRE FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS
“Music is language and is a power – it’s maybe the first language. If you use music you can catch people faster than other ways – because they enjoy it.”
– Youssou N’Dour (Al Jazeera , 2009)
Youssou N’Dour Presented by the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts
Pre-show talk
7:15pm, Royal Bank Cinema The Music That Made The Man: Youssou N’Dour, Mbalax and Beyond With UBC ethnomusicologist Curtis Andrews
Concert
8:00pm, Chan Shun Concert Hall
Youssou N’Dour vocals Le Super Étoile de Dakar Ibrahima Cisse Keyboards Birame Dieng Backing Vocals El Hadji Faye Percussion Babacar Faye Percussion Moustapha Faye Keyboards Moustapha Gaye Guitar Pascale Kameni-Kamga Backing Vocals Abdoulaye Lo Drums Papa Ngom Guitar Jean-Jacques Obam Edjo’O Bass Alain Oyono Saxophone Moussa Sonko Dancer Assane Thiam Tama
Set list will be announced from the stage. The performance will consist of two 45-minute sets and one 20-minute intermission.
Please remember to turn off your phones, and note that photography and recording are not permitted. Thank you!
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PHOTO: Youri Lanquette
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Youssou N’Dour Born in Dakar in 1959, Youssou N’Dour is a passionate singer, composer, bandleader, and producer whose strikingly expressive voice transformed both the mbalax music of his native Senegal, and Western pop. On this highlyanticipated tour of North America, N’Dour returns with his band, the Super Étoile, who have recorded and toured the world with him for nearly 30 years. With his traditional griot oral history, Wolof lyrics, and praise-singing with Afro-Cuban arrangements, N’Dour was named “African Artist of the Century” by the English publication fRoots and named to the TIME 100— Time Magazine’s annual list of “the hundred men and women whose power, talent, or moral example is transforming the world.” N’Dour was the subject of the documentary film I Bring What I Love, about Senegal’s divided reaction to his GRAMMY award-winning album Egypt, a deeply spiritual album dedicated to a more tolerant view of Islam. N’Dour has had an active political life, entering the race for the presidency of Senegal in 2012 and later serving as Senegal’s Minister of Tourism and Culture under Prime Minister Adboul Mbaye. In 2013, N’Dour was awarded Sweden’s prestigious Polar Music Prize. Youssou N’Dour has traced the roots of his griot (traditional oral historian) heritage, and explored his Muslim faith and its sonic impact by collaborating with Egyptian musicians, winning a GRAMMY for his efforts. For N’Dour, this freedom and directness translates into a stronger medium for the messages that he, too, has dedicated his career to spreading. His voice has launched Senegalese social movements (“Set” became a rallying cry for urban youth activists in 1994). His songs have whipped up international support in the fight against malaria (2009’s “Fight Malaria”) and for women’s rights (1989’s “Shaking the Tree” with Peter Gabriel), to name just a few of the issues N’Dour has addressed. His work as a UNICEF ambassador—and as a global pop star dubbed “perhaps the most famous singer alive” in Senegal and much of Africa by Rolling Stone—has taken him across the planet.
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On his travels, the importance of those who had gone before hit home, musicians like Bob Marley who hailed from long-denigrated places and yet managed to parlay powerful music into global stardom and a new social consciousness. “When I started traveling, I started seeing how Bob Marley had affected the world. I saw how someone from an underdeveloped country can become a star, someone who’s really loved,” N’Dour explains. “He was my example. I knew looking at Bob Marley that I could do my music from Senegal and touch the world.” “Reggae gives you more space than mbalax. You have more room to breathe,” N’Dour reflects. “You know the rhythm and the emotion, exactly what the song is saying to you. It’s very direct at its heart.” In reggae, N’Dour also heard the powerful transits that music from Africa made, as slavery ripped people and sounds from their homelands: “When people were taken from Africa, the music left, too.” Reggae’s African heart had long intrigued N’Dour, whether listening to Marley songs in the market or at home on his uncle’s records. He fantasized about taking his catchy yet moving songs and letting them unfold in a new reggae context.
“ I think people should know more of Africa in terms of its joie de vivre, its feeling for life. In spite of the images that one knows about Africa—the economic poverty, the corruption—there’s a joy to living and a happiness in community living together in community life which may be missing in America. ” - Youssou N’Dour
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Exploring the role of the arts and artists in society. chancentre.com/connects
The Music That Made the Man: Youssou N’Dour, Mbalax and Beyond Pre-show talk with UBC ethnomusicologist Curtis Andrews 7:15pm: Royal Bank Cinema, Chan Centre How the journey of a praise-singing musician from the streets of Dakar has developed from playing in nightclubs into one of Africa’s most popular musicians with international reach, to enterprising businessman, philanthropist, and eventually into a politician who once ran for the presidency of Senegal. Curtis Andrews is a performing scholar. A PhD student in Ethnomusicology at UBC, he performs and studies drumming from Southern India, music and dance from Ghana/Togo/Benin, and Zimbabwean mbira dzavadzimu. He continues to act as a percussionist/producer/composer/sideman/bandleader in a myriad of musical styles and contexts, while balancing active scholarship.
at the Chan Centre
Words
in Motion
Fri Mar 18 & Sat Mar 19 2016 / 7:30pm
Telus Studio Theatre chancentre.com/beyondwords
Writer/choreographer partners Carmen Aguirre & Olivia C. Davies, Aislinn Hunter & Anusha Fernando and Nancy Lee & Paraskevas Terezakis bring three very different visions to the marriage of words and movement.
UBC School of Music Fanfares The fanfare that was performed in the lobby prior to this concert (7:30pm and 7:45pm) was written by UBC’s Nova Pon as part of an ongoing partnership with the UBC School of Music and their composition students and performers. Chinley Hinacay Soprano Saxophone Mo Miao Alto Saxophone
Haley Heinricks Tenor Saxophone Mia Gazley Baritone Saxophone
Waves azure, a sun in splendour, an open book This short piece was commissioned for the 2015 celebrations of the 100th anniversary of the first graduating class of the University of British Columbia. Inspiration was drawn from the UBC coat of arms, which is described as follows, in heraldic language: “Argent three bars wavy Azure issuant from the base a demi-sun in splendour proper, on a chief of the second an open book proper edged, strapped and buckled Or inscribed with the words TUUM EST Sable.” The phrase “TUUM EST” in the coat of arms, which may be translated as “it’s up to you” or “it is yours,” was also part of the work’s inspiration. Nova Pon holds degrees from University of Calgary and University of British Columbia, and continues exploring connections within music, psychology and philosophy. She is a recent winner of the the CMC’s Emerging Composer Competition and nominee in for a Western Canadian Music Award. She is also a passionate music teacher and flutist.
THE DRUMMERS OF JAPAN
“A breathtaking big bang!” – THE TELEGRAPH
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Upcoming Events at the Chan Centre Full details at chancentre.com Nov 13 at 7:30pm: Dialogos Ensemble - Swithun - A Medieval Miracle Play Presented by Early Music Vancouver
Nov 14 at 8pm: FlamenCubana Presented by FlamenCubana Nov 19 at 8pm: UBC Concert Winds Presented by the UBC School of Music Nov 20 at 8pm: Symphonic Wind Ensemble Presented by the UBC School of Music Nov 20 at 7:30pm (Telus Studio Theatre): String Fest: UBC Chamber Strings Presented by the UBC School of Music
Nov 21 at 8pm: Carminho and Sara Tavares Presented by the Chan Centre Nov 21 at 7:30pm (Telus Studio Theatre): String Fest: Mary and Kathleen Tierney Memorial Concert Presented by the UBC School of Music Nov 22 at 3pm: Leif Ove Andsnes, piano Presented by the Vancouver Recital Society Nov 25-27: UBC Fall Convocation Ceremonies Presented by the University of British Columbia
CARMINHO AND SARA TAVARES
Tell us what you think! We want to hear from you. Please visit chancentre.com/feedback and let us know about your experience tonight. 9
The Chan Centre for the Performing Arts at UBC Joyce Hinton Cameron McGill Jazel Argente Carl Armstrong Wendy Atkinson Brad Danyluk Kara Gibbs Christine Han David Humphrey Beng Khoo Flora Lew Glenda Makela Trevor Mangion Claire Mohun George Pereira Andrew Riter Nadia Roberts Lyndsey Roberts
Co-Managing Director Co-Managing Director Administrative & Rentals Assistant Events & Customer Service Manager Programming & Rentals Manager Head Audio Technician Marketing & Communications Manager Acting Artistic Presenting Manager Production Manager Operations Clerk Financial Coordinator Financial & Programming Clerk Ticket Operations Manager Marketing & Communications Coordinator Production Clerk Head Lighting Technician Events & Front of House Coordinator Ticket Office Supervisor
Members of Cupe 2950 Front of House, Stage, and Ticketing Staff Megan Barnabe Valentina Montilla Katherine Neil
Administration Assistant, Work Learn Student Artistic Presentations Assistant, Work Learn Student Marketing & Communications Assistant, Work Learn Student
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The Chan Centre would like to thank our 2015/2016 series sponsors: The Chan Endowment Fund and the UBC Faculty of Arts
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“N’Dour has created a
musical context that’s as large with possibilities as his sinuous, spine tingling singing.”
PHOTO: Youri Lanquette
- Rolling Stone
A SOUND EXPERIENCE Carminho and Sara Tavares • NOV 21 Branford Marsalis • FEB 13 Dee Dee Bridgewater and Irvin Mayfield with the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra • FEB 27 Anoushka Shankar • APR 8 Arlo Guthrie • APR 21 Cécile McLorin Salvant • MAY 1
Tickets and info at: chancentre.com