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The Transformative Power of Music--A Multimedia Talk

Tuesday, February 6th, 2018
4:00pm

Knight Auditorium, Spurlock Museum
600 South Gregory
Urbana   

Event Description

Far more than entertainment, music is a portal for mind-body synchronization; a conduit for engagement in ritual, group catharsis, and entrainment, and a holder of mythology and history.  Often the musician is exalted, but is also seen as liminal, or dangerous to the order of society, which speaks to the power and the Dionysian nature of music. Music pushes boundaries taking people over the edge into ecstasy, trance and possession.  In India, Krishna’s flute intoxicates the women of Braj, who leave everything for him; in Haiti, music invokes the ‘crossroads,’ the vertical axis of the link between the visible world and the invisible immortal realm.  Speaking from personal experience as an ethnomusicologist, world traveler and performing musician, Steve Gorn explores this role of music worldwide.  Supported by images, YouTube excerpts, and Steve’s mastery of the Indian Bansuri flute, the talk invites a wider understanding of the role of music in our lives.

A pioneering artist in cross-cultural collaborative music, Steve Gorn has performed Indian Classical Music and new American Music on the bansuri bamboo flute, soprano saxophone and clarinet in concerts and festivals throughout the world.