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<p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><font color="#000000"><font face="arial, sans-serif"><font size="3"><b>Cambridge
Forum</b></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="arial, sans-serif"><font size="2"><br>3
Church Street ● Cambridge, MA 02138<br>617-495-2727<br>email:
director@cambridgeforum.org<br>cambridgeforum.org<br><br></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="arial, sans-serif"><font size="2"><i><b>Release</b></i></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="arial, sans-serif"><font size="2">
February 1, 2013<br><br><br></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="arial, sans-serif"><font size="4"><b>THE
BANJO PROJECT</b></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="arial, sans-serif"><font size="2"><br><br></font></font></font><font style="font-size: 11pt" size="2">On
</font><font style="font-size: 11pt" size="2"><b>Monday February 11,
2013</b></font><font style="font-size: 11pt" size="2">, Cambridge Forum
hosts THE BANJO PROECT. Television writer-producer </font><strong><font style="font-size: 11pt" size="2">Marc
Fields</font></strong><font style="font-size: 11pt" size="2"> and banjo
virtuoso </font><strong><font style="font-size: 11pt" size="2">Tony
Trischka</font></strong><font style="font-size: 11pt" size="2"> explore
America’s quintessential instrument, assisted by </font><strong><font style="font-size: 11pt" size="2">Darol
Anger</font></strong><font style="font-size: 11pt" size="2"> on fiddle.
Based on Field’s PBS documentary </font><em><font style="font-size: 11pt" size="2">Give
Me the Banjo</font></em><font style="font-size: 11pt" size="2">, “The
Banjo Project” illustrates the instrument’s history and
performance styles from African roots to contemporary jazz with a
lively narrative and masterful performances. </font><font style="font-size: 11pt" size="2"><b>The
forum takes place at 7:00 pm at the First Parish in Cambridge</b></font><font style="font-size: 11pt" size="2">,
3 Church Street in Harvard Square.<br></font><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><font style="font-size: 11pt" size="2"><b>NOTE:</b>
This is a ticketed program: Advance tickets $15 Cambridge Forum
members and students/seniors; $18 general admission. All tickets $20
at the door; reserve your seats early by calling 617-495-2727 or
visit www.cambridgeforum.org<br></font><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><font style="font-size: 11pt" size="2"><span lang="en-US">If
any musical instrument can be said to be quintessentially American,
it is the banjo. Even in its construction, it tells a story of
cultural exchange: the banjo is a drum with strings, a symbolic
blending of African and European musical identities. Brought to the
New World in the memories and traditions of enslaved Africans,
repeatedly re-invented by African- and European-Americans, the banjo
has been a black instrument, a white instrument, a laborer's pastime
and a socialite's diversion, a young person's fad and an old-timer's
friend. And it has shaped American musical forms, from the
19th-century minstrel show through ragtime and early jazz, to the
folk revival, as well as old time music, blues, bluegrass, and
country.</span></font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><font style="font-size: 11pt" size="2"><span lang="en-US">In
its long history, the banjo has symbolized patriotism and protest,
pain and pleasure, low entertainment and sophisticated leisure.
Whether played by Dan Emmett in blackface, or Pete Seeger leading an
anti-war rally, the banjo has been the symbolic prop for stereotypes
about race, class, gender, region and political persuasion right up
to the present day. How has this musical instrument come to
represent so much of America's social history? How does the banjo
and its music speak to so many of the issues at the heart of American
culture today?</span></font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><font style="font-size: 11pt" size="2"><br></font><font style="font-size: 11pt" size="2"><b>Tony
Trischka</b></font><font style="font-size: 11pt" size="2"> is an
American five-string banjo player, who is perhaps the most
influential banjo player in the roots music world. His avant-garde
banjo stylings have inspired a whole generation of progressive
bluegrass musicians; he is not only considered among the very best
pickers, he is also one of the instrument's top teachers, and has
created numerous instructional books, teaching video tapes, and
cassettes. In 2007, he received an International Bluegrass Music
Association award for Banjo Player of the Year. His recording </font><em><font style="font-size: 11pt" size="2">Double
Banjo Bluegrass Spectacular</font></em><font style="font-size: 11pt" size="2">
received awards for Recorded Event of the Year, Instrumental Album of
the Year and a </font><strong><font style="font-size: 11pt" size="2"><span style="font-weight: normal">Grammy
nomination</span></font></strong><font style="font-size: 11pt" size="2"><span style="font-weight: normal">.
</span></font><font style="font-size: 11pt" size="2"> Over the course
of his career, Trischka has performed with a who's who of spectaular
musicians, including Pete Seeger, Mike Seeger, Earl Scruggs, Bill
Evans, Bill Keith, Bruce Molsky, Bela Fleck and Steve Martin. </font>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><font style="font-size: 11pt" size="2"><b>Darol
Anger</b> has made a 30+year career as one of the most influential
and innovative fiddlers in the world. Working with some of the
world's great improvising string musicians, among them Stephane
Grappelli, Mark O'Connor, David Grisman, Tony Rice, Bela Fleck and
Vassar Clements, has contributed to the development of Anger's
signature voice, both as a player and a composer. Known for
versatility and depth, his work includes recordings, videos, and
books of jazz originals and arrangements, and traditional-derived
music in many styles. Today he can be heard on NPR's "Car Talk"
theme every week, along with Earl Scruggs, David Grisman and Tony
Rice. He is a MacDowell and UCross Fellow, and has received numerous
composers' residencies and grants. He regularly teaches at the
Berklee School of Music and at workshops and seminars around the
world.</font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><font style="font-size: 11pt" size="2"><b>Marc
Fields </b></font><font style="font-size: 11pt" size="2">is a
writer/producer/director of arts and cultural documentaries and the
winner of five regional Emmys for his work on PBS. In November 2011,
his 90-minute music history </font><em><font style="font-size: 11pt" size="2">Give
Me the Banjo </font></em><font style="font-size: 11pt" size="2">(narrated by
Steve Martin) had its national PBS premiere. Previously, he wrote the
scripts for two episodes of the Emmy-winning six-part PBS series,
</font><em><font style="font-size: 11pt" size="2">Broadway: The
American Musical and as writer-producer, Willie the Lion, a musical
biography of the forgotten jazz giant Willie the Lion Smith,
featuring Artie Shaw, Dr. Billy Taylor and Dick Hyman.</font></em></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><font style="font-size: 11pt" size="2"><br>Cambridge
Forum is recorded and edited for public radio broadcast. Edited CDs
are available to the public by contacting 617-495-2727. Select forums
can be viewed in their entirety on demand by visiting our website at
cambridgeforum.org and clicking on the Forum Network at WGBH.</font></p>
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Cambridge Forum
3 Church Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Phone: 617-495-2727
email: mailto:director@cambridgeforum.org
website: http://www.cambridgeforum.org
"Bringing People together to talk again . . ."
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