Wesleyan University's Center for the Arts and Music Department present Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn
Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn
Thursday October 20 concert by banjo and vocal duo
to go on sale at 10am this Friday July 15
Middletown, Conn.—The 42nd annual Crowell Concert Series presented by Wesleyan University’s Center for the Arts and Music Department will feature a concert by the banjo and vocal duo of Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn on Thursday, October 20, 2016 at 8pm in Crowell Concert Hall located at 50 Wyllys Avenue on the Wesleyan campus in Middletown. This concert will also be part of the sixth annual Performing Arts Series. The rest of the highlights of the 2016-2017 season at the Center for the Arts will be announced in August.
Described by NPR’s "All Things Considered" as "two monsters of the banjo,” the husband and wife team perform original music as well as Appalachian murder ballads, gospel, chamber music, and blues. The two first collaborated as part of the Sparrow Quartet in 2005. Their self-titled debut album as a duo was released on Rounder Records in October 2014, and won the Grammy Award for “Best Folk Album” in 2016. Mr. Fleck has been nominated in more categories than any other musician in Grammy Award history.
Tickets for the concert are $35 for the general public; $32 for senior citizens, Wesleyan faculty/staff/alumni, and non-Wesleyan students; and $6 for Wesleyan students. Tickets will go on sale online at 10am this Friday, July 15, 2016 at http://www.wesleyan.edu/boxoffice; and at Noon this Friday, July 15, 2016 by phone at (860) 685-3355 or in person at the Wesleyan University Box Office, located in the Usdan University Center, 45 Wyllys Avenue, Middletown. Tickets may also be purchased at the door beginning one hour prior to the performance, subject to availability. The Center for the Arts accepts cash, checks written to “Wesleyan University,” and all major credit cards. No refunds, cancellations, or exchanges. Programs, artists and dates are subject to change without notice.
About the Crowell Concert Series
The Crowell Concert Series at the Center for the Arts features a wide array of world-class musicians. Past artists that have performed as part of the Crowell Concert Series include Afro-Cuban All-Stars, Amelia Piano Trio, American Brass Quintet, AnDa Union, Anonymous 4, Ahmad Jamal, Balfa Toujours, Bang on a Can All-Stars, Bill Frisell Trio, Boston Chamber Music Society, Brooklyn Rider, Bulgarian Bebop, Calefax Reed Quintet, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Charles Lloyd Quartet, Cherish the Ladies, Claude Frank, Crooked Still, David Krakauer & Klezmer Madness, Dither Electric Guitar Quartet, Don Byron: "Jungle Music for Postmoderns," Donald Berman: "Celebrating Chopin’s 200th Birthday," Dünya, Eddie Palmieri, eighth blackbird, Eileen Ivers, Entrequatre, Ernest Dawkins, Eugenia Leon, Fernando Otero Quartet, FleytMuzik, FLUX Quartet, Henry Threadgill, Hugh Masekela, Ignacio Berroa Trio, Joshua Roman, Juice Vocal Ensemble, Kronos Quartet, Le Vent du Nord, Les Percussions de Strasbourg, Lionel Loueke Trio, Lionheart, Margaret Leng Tan, Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill, Maya Beiser and Anthony de Mare, Midori, Minneapolis Guitar Quartet, "Music at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello," Near Eastern Music Ensemble, Nicholas Payton Trio , Omar Sosa, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Otis Taylor, Parthenia, Paul Brady, Pedro Carboné, Peter Serkin, Randy Weston, Regina Carter Quintet, Riffat Sultana and Party, St. Lawrence String Quartet, San Jose Taiko, sfSoundGroup, Shanghai Quartet, Stanley Cowell Quartet, The American Piano, The Assad Brothers, The Baltimore Consort, The Hilliard Ensemble, The Mystical Arts of Tibet: Drepung Loseling Monastery, The Nile Project, Thomas Mapfumo/Blacks Unlimited, Tiempo Libre, Tokyo String Quartet, Toumani Diabaté, Trio Globo, Turtle Island String Quartet with Stefon Harris, Van Cliburn International Piano Competition Gold Medalist Vadym Kholodenko, Vieux Farka Touré, Vijay Iyer Trio, Voices of Afghanistan, Wu Man, and Zakir Hussain and L. Shankar.
About the Music Department
The Wesleyan University Music Department provides a unique and pioneering environment for advanced exploration committed to the study, performance, and composition of music from a perspective that recognizes and engages the breadth and diversity of the world's musics and technologies. As an integral part of one of the nation's leading liberal arts institutions, the department has enjoyed an international reputation for innovation and excellence, attracting students from around the globe since the inception of its visionary program in World Music four decades ago.
Recent annual music festivals in partnership with the Center for the Arts have brought to campus a diverse array of artists, including Max Roach, Pete Seeger, Zakir Hussain (India), Thomas Mapfumo (Zimbabwe), Boukman Eksperyans (Haiti), Boogsie Sharpe (Trinidad), and Hugh Masekela (South Africa).
A recording studio, a computer and experimental music studio, the Center for the Arts media lab and digital video facility, the World Instrument Collection (which includes the David Tudor Collection of electronic musical instruments and instrumentation), and the Scores and Recordings Collection of Olin Library (which includes the World Music Archives) offer many learning opportunities outside of the classroom.
For more information about the Music Department, please visit http://www.wesleyan.edu/music/.