Thanks to the Dovetail Ensemble for a great show!
February 13, 2015 • 7:30 p.m.
The Dovetail Ensemble is a flexible company of stellar performers. Each concert is fresh and surprising, inviting audiences into the process of collaboration as well as its thrilling results. A Dovetail Ensemble performance is playful, deep, intricate, and straight to the heart.
Blues harmonica master and songster Phil Wiggins joins Grammy-nominated fiddler Andrea Hoag and cellist Jodi Beder, who has been Princeton Symphony’s principal cellist and played in the rock cabaret band Zen for Primates and as a Jewish liturgical musician. For this show they’re joined by percussive dancer and Hungarian native Agi Kovacs (pronounced AH-ghee KO-vosh) and versatile guitarist Mark Puryear, for an evening that ranges from traditional Swedish music to Latin jazz, from Romanian nigun to Irish jigs, from Purcell to Mississippi John Hurt . . . and does it all with the conviction of artists who have devoted themselves to their traditions over many years, and who LOVE exploring together!
The Dovetail Ensemble arose from the Old Doors/New Worlds project, which from 2009 to 2012 brought together musicians and dancers from different traditions, generations, and parts of the country to create new music. The project was unique among collaborations in its focus on process as well as product: How do we make what we make? What do we learn about our own art, and about communication, when we collaborate? What do traditional arts mean to us in a world of instant information?
The Dovetail Ensemble is a piece of a larger organization called Freydas Hands, whose mission is to provide opportunities for traditional folk musicians and other performing artists to collaborate across genres, and to educate the public about traditional performing folk arts and the collaborative process.
The vision of Freydas Hands is to give young people first-hand knowledge that making music and creating art by hand is an everyday part of life. Experienced artists enjoy opportunities to develop their collaborative skills and to pass on their knowledge, in depth to budding artists, and in breadth to the general public. This exceptional organization values tradition and innovation, intergenerational sharing, open participation, and striving for excellence.