¡Globalquerque! Celebration Returns to National Hispanic Cultural Center, 9/21-22

¡Globalquerque! - New Mexico's 8th Annual Celebration of World Music and Culture returns to the National Hispanic Cultural Center on September 21 and 22, 2012. This year's event promises to be bigger and better then ever. The line-up is almost complete and it may well be the best mix of artists yet.

Center Stage, a new State Department program designed to bring artists from different countries to small and mid-sized cities around the US, kicked off last month with a debut concert by Arieb Azhar and noori at the Kennedy Center. (Watch it here.) Each artist will perform at the Kennedy Center before heading off on their US tour. Zeb and Haniya's Kennedy Center debut will be on September 12. They will arrive in Albuquerque on September 17 for a variety of community events before performing at ¡Globalquerque! on September 21 and 22.

Saturday at ¡Globalquerque! will feature R&B/soul legend Bettye Lavette. The week after ¡Globalquerque!, she will release her brand new CD "Thankful 'n' Thoughtful" on Anti- Records AND her autobiography "A Woman Like Me", chronicling her 50 years in the music business.

Both nights of the festival feature the world debut of the R. Carlos Nakai Earth Sound Ensemble. The world's premier Native Amercian flutist brings together a new ensemble featuring didgeridoo master Stephen Kent (in his third straight ¡Globalquerque! appearance) and Mongolian khoomei throat-singer Shinetsog Dorjnyam and Mongolian yatag (zither) player Munkh-Erdene. They will all converge at R. Carlos Nakai's Tucson home a week before the festival and start playing together. Then they'll fly to Albuquerque for their first performance.

The festival also welcomes Ozomatli as its Friday night headliner.

The rest of the line-up includes:

Bombino (Niger)
Canteca de Macao (Spain)
Freshlyground (South Africa)
Daniel Kahn & The Painted Bird (Germany)
La Familia Vigil (New Mexico, USA)
Los Gaiteros de San Jacinto (Colombia)
Ali Akbar Moradi Ensemble (Kurdistan, Iran)
Plena Libre (Puerto Rico)

Plus four more groups still to be booked.

You can find out more about all of these groups, as well as other ¡Globalquerque! activities at http://www.globalquerque.org.

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