World Music Institute to Present New York Guitar Festival 25th Anniversary

World Music Institute will co-present the 25th anniversary New York GuitarFestival, and spotlight the wealth of international talent and diverse guitar styles that the festival has brought to NYC for over two decades.

The festival is co-presented with New York Guitar Festival and Kaufman Music Center, and will be hosted by WNYC's John Schaefer.

Night One:

Marc Ribot & Leyla McCalla, Yasmin Williams,
Neel Murgai & Kunal Prakash

Friday, June 14, 2024
Kaufman Music Center
129 W 67th Street, Manhattan

Doors: 7:30 PM | Show: 8 PM
$45 | $55 | $65 - WMI Members: $36 | $44 | $52

The New York Guitar Festival's 25th Anniversary begins with a typically eclectic event. The duo of Marc Ribot, the New York guitarist, and Leyla McCalla, the New Orleans cellist and banjo player, may seem unlikely at first. Ribot is known for his work with Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, his own avant-noise trio Ceramic Dog, and much more; McCalla writes songs that draw on the African-American string band tradition, Cajun music, and her own Haitian heritage. But Ribot was also a student of the Haitian classical guitarist/composer Frantz Casseus, and the two musicians share a strong genre-agnostic streak.

Joining them on this first of two nights celebrating a quarter century of the NYGF is Yasmin Williams. She has extended the "tapping" technique into a whole new way of approaching the guitar, and occasionally adds tap shoes and kalimba to the sound, becoming a literal one-woman band. And the NYGF has long presented related instruments from around the world; for this event, it's sitarist Neel Murgai, co-director of the globally-inspired Brooklyn Raga Massive, accompanied by Jeff The Brotherhood guitarist Kunal Prakash.

Night Two:

Medicine Singers ft. Lee Ranaldo & Yonatan Gat
Maalem Hassan BenJafaar & Yonatan Gat
Laraaji & Mamady Kouyate

Saturday, June 15, 2024
Kaufman Music Center
129 W 67th Street, Manhattan
Doors: 7:30 PM | Show: 8 PM
$45 | $55 | $65 - WMI Members: $36 | $44 | $52

Headlining night two are Medicine Singers, a trailblazing collaboration between some of the world's most forward-thinking powwow musicians and rock'n'roll, experimental and electronic music legends. On stage alongside Eastern Medicine Singers, an Eastern Algonquin powwow group from Rhode Island, will be Yonatan Gat, the wildly virtuosic New York-based guitarist, and Sonic Youth guitar legend Lee Ranaldo, with members of the band Swans.

Their self-titled 2022 debut album garnered universal acclaim. Pitchfork hailed it as a "vivid new context for the sound of the powwow drum" and The New Yorker raved "breathes fire, detonating cultural walls". Their live show has become the stuff of legend - the Medicine Singers often set up in-the-round with the audience encircling the band, and go into a trance-inducing set where the walls between band and spectator, as well as between psychedelic rock and traditional powwow are blurred.

Joining Medicine Singers, Lee Ranaldo, and Yonatan Gat are ambient legend Laraaji and Guinean guitarist Mamady Kouyaté of the legendary Bembeya Jazz National band, playing as a duo. The night will also feature premieres of collaborations between Lee Ranaldo & Laraaji, as well as Yonatan Gat & Maalem Hassan BenJaafar from Grammy-nominated Moroccan gnawa group Innov Gnawa of Daptone Records. The evening is curated by the label & collective Stone Tapes, with an overriding mission of manifesting a space for radical experimental and radical traditional musicians to collaborate.

John Schaefer is the host and producer of WNYC's long-running new music show NewSounds ("The #1 radio show for the Global Village" - Billboard), founded in 1982, and its innovative Soundcheck podcast, which has featured live performances and interviews with a variety of guests since 2002. He created the New Sounds Live concert series in 1986, which features new works, commissioned pieces, and a special series devoted to live music for silent films.

About New York Guitar Festival

Exploring virtually every aspect of the guitar's personality, the New York Guitar Festival, since 1999, has presented many of the world's most influential guitarists at Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Sawdust, (Le) Poisson Rouge, 92NY, Brookfield Place Winter Garden and other iconic venues, large and small. From multi Grammy-winners to emerging artists, NYGF performers have included masters of the classical repertoire (Pepe Romero, Christopher Parkening, Ana Vidović, Nigel North) as well as blues & jazz (Taj Mahal, Bucky Pizzarelli, Bill Frisell, Sonny Landreth), pop & indie rock (Vernon Reid, Bruce Springsteen, Bon Iver, Andy Summers, Thurston Moore), and folk & Americana (Levon Helm, Emmylou Harris, Cindy Cashdollar, Leo Kottke) as well as sounds of Central & South America (Badi Assad, Yamandu Costa, Vinicius Cantuária) and genre-defying innovators (Kaki King, David Torn, Daniel Lanois, Bryce Dessner). The NewYork Guitar Festival: music from across the centuries. . . and music yet to be.

About Kaufman Music Center

Established with the mission of providing access without barriers, Kaufman Music Center proudly programs a comprehensive musical experience for students, performers and audiences in New York and beyond. Merkin Hall, the Center's intimate performance venue, provides unparalleled access to today's most compelling artists, workshops and competitions, offering students, artists and audiences alike the chance to share music at the highest level. Its acclaimed Artist-in-Residence program also gives those performers the resources to develop groundbreaking, multidisciplinary projects as well as educational opportunities to mentor and inspire. Kaufman Music Center continuously cultivates and nurtures new generations of artists through Special Music School, New York's only K-12 public school prioritizing an intensive, immersive and musically-focused education without financial barriers, as well as Lucy Moses School, Manhattan's largest community performing arts school for students of all ages.

About World Music Institute:

Founded in 1985 as a not-for-profit, World Music Institute (WMI) has served as one of the leading presenters of world music and dance within the United States. WMI is committed to presenting the best in traditional and contemporary music and dance from around the world with the goal of inspiring wonder for the world's rich cultural traditions, promoting awareness and appreciation and encouraging cross-cultural dialog and exchange. WMI presents at venues throughout the city and depends on both public and private funding to accomplish its mission.

The program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.