Sunday, October 6, please join  Tufts University’s Distler Performance Hall at the Granoff Music Center for a “Faith in a City” community concert presented by the Somerville Museum! “Faith in a City” is a project exploring religion in Somerville through music, photography, interviews and history as a way of better understanding our community. The focus is how religion is meaningful to people across the City.

Faith in a City: Showcasing Local Religious Music, Sunday, October 6, 2019 7:30 p.m.-9:30 p.m. Distler Performance Hall, Tufts University.20 Talbot Ave, Medford, Massachusetts 02155

The first “Faith in a City” concert will feature:

— Original music by Mina Cho, Contemporary Music Director, Somerville Community Baptist Church, featuring church member and drummer George Lernis, bassist Manos Stratis and the Gugak Jazz Society
— Musicians of Gurdwara Sikh Sangat Boston
— Wylsner Bastien, Lead Pianist, Sion Seventh Day Adventist Church

Admission: $5 (This reduced ticket price is thanks to support from The Boston Foundation. The buyer total is $6.94 with Eventbrite fees.) Tickets for Somerville Museum members are $3/each. Members of participating congregations are free. On Sundays, parking is free at Tufts and street parking is available on Somerville streets without a resident permit.

Religious music and recitation abound in Somerville’s places of worship, but congregation members are often the only people who get to experience them. Over the next several months, the Museum will present community concerts where you will have the opportunity to hear some of the City’s religious music. We give tremendous thanks to the local artists who are sharing their talents, and to their congregations. Thanks also to Tufts University for hosting the concert. We hope you will consider attending! Be sure to see advice on directions, public transportation and parking below.

The concert includes three performances. Wylsner Bastien will present jazz interpretations of traditional gospel songs and hymns. Wylsner is Lead Pianist at Somerville’s Sion Seventh Day Adventist Church and trained at Bunker Hill Community College and the University of Massachusetts, Boston. Sion SDA congregation has been in Somerville for ten years, with services in English and Haitian Creole. Wylsner has been part of the Sion congregation his whole life.

The concert also features a performance by musicians from Gurdwara Sikh Sangat Boston performing Sikh devotional music known as kirtan. (Gurdwara means “door to the guru” and sangat means “community.”) Sikh Sangat Boston was founded in Somerville in 2005, and is currently located in Everett, with many Somerville members. Sikh Sangat Boston provides English and Punjabi translations of the kirtan during its regular Sunday services.

Finally, classically trained jazz pianist and composer Mina Cho will present her original composition “Pasnori Cantata Gilryungjeon.” The piece reflects Cho’s conception of Shamanistic theology situated in cross-cultural jazz. Wondering what to expect? Think a Western Cantata and a jazz orchestra meet the Korean musical storytelling genre Pansori wherein a blind Pansori singer named Gilryung witnesses the Passion of Christ.

As Contemporary Music Director of Somerville Community Baptist Church (SCBC), Mina Cho wanted to share her music with Somerville during the week of her composition’s US premiere. Cho’s performance will feature SCBC member George Lernis on drums as well as visiting Korean artists (Insoo Kim, gosu/percussion; Narae Lee, sori/vocal; Nayeon Lee, piri/taepyungso, Doyeon Kim, gayageum) and bassist Manos Stratis. At the concert, Cho will present some significant movements from her piece in an intimate setting. The entire repertoire will be premiered with a jazz orchestra on October 8, 2019, 8:00 pm at New England Conservatory’s Brown Hall. Mina Cho is a faculty member at Emerson College and trained at Yonsei University, Berklee College of Music, New England Conservatory of Music, and Brandeis University.

The Faith in a City concert will also feature photography by Massachusetts Cultural Council Photography Fellowship Finalist and Somerville Arts Council Board Member Yorgos Efthymiadis with support from Mass Humanities.

Mark your calendars! The second Faith in a City concert will be on Saturday, December 7th at 7:00 pm at the Center for the Arts at the Armory on Highland Avenue, Somerville featuring a new line-up of artists.

This concert is part of programming for the “Faith in a City: Exploring Religion in Somerville, MA” project, curated by Charan Devereaux, at the Somerville Museum. The “Faith in a City” project explores a selection of local religious groups through photography, interviews, history and recordings of religious music. This concert is produced by Mina Cho, Ranbir Kaur, Wylsner Bastien and Charan Devereaux. Many thanks to The Loop Lab and to Q Division Studio. The Faith in a City exhibit will be on display at the Somerville Museum from Sunday, November 17, 2019 through Sunday, January 26, 2020. Special thanks to The Boston Foundation, the Somerville Arts Council, Mass Humanities and the Passim Iguana Fund for their support.

PARKING AND DIRECTIONS
Parking: Tufts concert patrons may park in the Cohen lot, next to the Granoff Music Center and across the street from the football field, after normal business hours (M-F 9 am to 5 pm). More information parking is available here https://as.tufts.edu/music/about/directions

Directions: https://as.tufts.edu/music/about/directions The Granoff Music Center is located at 20 Talbot Avenue on the Tufts Somerville campus. However, because the Tufts mailing address is in Medford, some GPS systems and online map search engines get confused by the Music Center’s physical location in Somerville. If you are having trouble finding the music hall, enter “217 College Avenue, Somerville, MA” as your destination. This will get you to the intersection of College Avenue and Talbot Avenue, and the Granoff Music Center is just up the street from there.

By Public Transportation: Take the Red Line (subway) to the Davis Square station. At Davis Square, cross to the bus terminal at the corner of College Avenue. Follow College Avenue through the traffic circle at Powderhouse Square, and along the athletic fields to your left (the total distance is about 3/4 of a mile). Take a left on Talbot Avenue. The Granoff Music Center is the first building on the left.

There is a free shuttle that runs between Davis Square and Tufts University every half hour during the academic year (September through May). View the shuttle schedule.

You can also take MBTA Bus #94 or #96 from Davis Square to the Tufts campus. Get off the bus at Dearborn Road and cross College Avenue, the Granoff Music Center will be the first building on your left.

For more information: Please call 617-666-9810 or visit the website at www.somervillemuseum.org.

The Somerville Museum is supported in part by generous contributions from its membership.