"Out of Africa - A Marimba and Drumming Performance"

Amy Lynn Barber is a classically trained percussionist and marimbist, who has had an international performing career as a soloist, in chamber music, and in orchestras. Sam Holmstock is a well-known jazz musician and co-founder of the successful fusion group ENTRAIN, who devotes himself to using world drumming for health and healing. This project brings together these two very diverse percussionists in a collaborative performance which showcases the marimba and world drumming both separately and together. The music to be performed ranges from classical, to African and Latin American traditional music, to the American songbook. There will be opportunities for audience participation, and we will share information about the instruments and the different musical styles. We hope to create an intimate atmosphere that will completely engage our audience in an experience they have not had before. We are hoping to attract a diverse audience, including seniors, families, and especially young people and students to this program. The program includes music that will appeal to this range of listeners. The project would create a unique performance event featuring percussion instruments that are not well-known to the general public, and demonstrating the wide range of musical styles they are capable of playing. Since both the marimba and the drums have their origins in Africa, this is a chance to tell this story and to trace the musical connections from Africa to Latin America to the United States. The Cape community in general rarely have opportunities to see and hear - and to experience playing themselves - these instruments in a "close-up" situation. This is an especially excellent chance to bring musical traditions of Africa and Latin America to an audience that has few possibilities for contact with this music. Amy Lynn Barber has had a distinguished career as a performer, teacher, and arts administrator - work which has brought her to 5 continents. She is Professor Emeritus at the DePauw University School of Music, where she was also Dean. She has degrees from Boston University, UMass Amherst, and a doctorate from the Hartt School of Music. She lived in Europe for over 12 years, where she was a professor at the Prague Conservatory, played in the Prague Symphony and the Slovenian Philharmonic, and was a guest artist at events throughout Europe. She has been A Fulbright Scholar, and has received many awards and grants for her work, including the National Award of the Czech Music Council, and the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Boston University School of Music. On the Cape, she has performed as a soloist and with her her ensembles The Percussion Plus Project and the ragtime group XYLOPHONIA. She co-ordinated the musical programs for the Sandwich 375 committee, has served on the music advisory board of the Cotuit Center for the Arts, and was the founder and artistic director for the Sandwich Arts Alliance's Village Concert Series. Sam Holmstock is a co-founder of the very successful world fusion group ENTRAIN, and has performed with them on trombone and percussion for 20 years. He has also performed with many famous musicians including Bo Diddley, Kate and James Taylor, and Olatunji. He has a B.M. degree from the Berklee College of Music, and has done additional studies elsewhere, including in Cuba. He heads Drum Strategies for Healing, and is known throughout the Cape for his work as a facilitator of drumming activities for seniors, people with autism, veterans with PTSD, and the special needs community. He is a faculty member at the Cotuit Center for the Arts, program coordinator for the Youth Arts Program at Brewster Treatment Center, and an active member of the SAA.

Performances

DRUM STRATEGIES FOR HEALING

Studies of Drumming and Health

"Out of Africa - A Marimba and Drumming Performance"

The Instruments