Talk: “The Transformative Power of Music—A Multimedia Talk” by Steve Gorn
- Event Date: Tuesday, February 6, 2018
- Time: 4:00 pm (CST)
- Location: Knight Auditorium, Spurlock Museum, 600 S. Gregory St., Urbana, IL
- Cost: Free Admission
Part of the Center for Advance Study Improvisers Exchange Initiative
Far more than entertainment, music is a portal for mind-body synchronization; a conduit for engagement in ritual, group catharsis, and entrainment, and a holder of mythology and history. Often the musician is exalted, but is also seen as liminal, or dangerous to the order of society, which speaks to the power and the Dionysian nature of music. Music pushes boundaries taking people over the edge into ecstasy, trance and possession. In India, Krishna’s flute intoxicates the women of Braj, who leave everything for him; in Haiti, music invokes the ‘crossroads,’ the vertical axis of the link between the visible world and the invisible immortal realm. Speaking from personal experience as an ethnomusicologist, world traveler and performing musician, Steve Gorn explores this role of music worldwide. Supported by images, YouTube excerpts, and Steve’s mastery of the Indian Bansuri flute, the talk invites a wider understanding of the role of music in our lives.
About Steve Gorn
A pioneering artist in cross-cultural collaborative music, Steve Gorn has performed Indian Classical Music and new American Music on the bansuri bamboo flute, soprano saxophone and clarinet in concerts and festivals throughout the world. Steve Gorn’s gurus are the late bansuri master Sri Gour Goswami, of Kolkata, and Pt. Raghunath Seth of Mumbai, with whom he often accompanied in concert. Gorn also studied with the late Ustad Z. M. Dagar. Gorn’s numerous performances in India include appearing at Bharat Bhavan in Bhopal, Habitat Center and Triveni Hall in New Delhi, Sangeet Research Academy in Kolkata, National Center for the Performing Arts and Nehru Center in Mumbai, and numerous other venues.
Improvisers Exchange
Improvisers Exchange is a two-year initiative deeply investigating the field of music improvisation. This multifaceted program features performance and engagement residencies by leading artists representative of a wide spectrum of the practice, initiates a new performance course on improvisation for students, and promotes scholarly discourse through lectures and panel discussions. This ambitious project will introduce our campus and community to leading artists practicing non-idiomatic approaches to the music, others rooted in jazz and avant-jazz heritages, and master improvisers representing folkloric traditions of the world.
This Center for Advanced Study event and Mr. Gorn's Improvisers Exchange residency is cosponsored by the Center for Advanced Study, Division of Musicology, Krannert Art Museum, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, School of Music, Spurlock Museum, and Unit One/Allen Hall.