For Immediate Release
Contact: Cohn Dutcher Associates
Lois Cohn, 917.339.7187, lcohn@cohndutcher.com
Dan Dutcher, 917.339.7157, ddutcher@cohndutcher.com
Laura Malick, 917.339.7183, lmalick@cohndutcher.com
David Mayhew, 203.533.5621, david@davidmayhew.net

Caramoor International Music Festival
presents
 

BÉLA FLECK / THE AFRICA PROJECT
FEATURING OUMOU SANGARÉ AND HER BAND
Friday, July 3rd, 8:00pm

Katonah, New York  - The world's leading banjo virtuoso, Béla Fleck, brings his Africa Project to the 2009 Caramoor International Music Festival in an extraordinary banjo and vocal summit also starring internationally acclaimed vocalist Oumou Sangaré, popularly known as "The Songbird of the Wassoulou" after her ancestral homeland in Mali.  Béla Fleck/The Africa Project featuring Oumou Sangare and Her Band will take place in Caramoor's Venetian Theater on Friday, July 3rd at 8:00pm.

Béla Fleck is often considered the premier banjo player in the world.  A New York City native, he picked up the banjo at age 15 after being awed by the bluegrass music of Flatt & Scruggs.  While still in high school he began experimenting with playing bebop jazz on his banjo, mentored by fellow banjo renegade Tony Trischka.  In 1980, he released his first solo album, Crossing the Tracks, with material that ranged from straight ahead bluegrass to Chick Corea's "Spain."  In 1982, Mr. Fleck joined the progressive bluegrass band New Grass Revival, making a name for himself on countless solo and ensemble projects ever since as a virtuoso instrumentalist.  In 1989, he formed the genre-busting Flecktones, with members equally talented and adventurous as himself. 

For The Africa Project, Béla Fleck traveled to Uganda, Tanzania, Senegal, Mali, South Africa, and Madagascar for collaborations with local musicians to explore the African origins of the banjo, the prototype of which was brought to American shores by African slaves.  Transcending barriers of language and culture, Fleck found common ground with musicians ranging from villagers to international superstars, including the Malian diva Oumou Sangaré, to create some of the most meaningful music of his career.  The journey resulted in Fleck's most ambitious recording, Throw Down Your Heart, the third volume in his renowned Tales From the Acoustic Planet series.  A companion documentary to the recording, also titled Throw Down Your Heart, had its New York City premiere in April at the IFC Center.

Oumou Sangaré was born in 1968 in Bamako, the capital of Mali.  Her family, though, was from Wassoulou, in the southwestern region of Mali.  Sangaré is the leading female star of the Wassoulou sound which is based on an ancient tradition of hunting rituals mixed with songs about devotion, praise, and harvest played with pentatonic (five-note) melodies.  Wassoulou is typified by a strong Arabic feel along with the sound of the scraping karinyang and fle, a calabash (gourd) strung with shells, spun and thrown into the air in time to the music.  Sangaré most often sings about about love and the importance of freedom of choice in marriage, an issue she feels strongly about because her father had two wives.  In 1986, the 18-year-old Sangaré toured Europe and the Caribbean with a 27-piece folkloric troupe, and at 21 she already had a huge hit in the album, Moussoulou (meaning "women").  In 1995 she toured around the world on the Africa Fete tour along with Baaba Maal, Boukman Eksperyans, and Femi Kuti.

Tickets
Tickets for Béla Fleck/The Africa Project featuring Oumou Sangare and Her Band are $15.00, $30.00, $40.00, and $55.00 and may be purchased at the Caramoor Box Office, 914.232.1252 or ordered online at www.caramoor.org.

Groups of 16 or more may purchase discounted tickets by contacting Matthew Scarella at 914.232.5035 ext. 266 or matthew@caramoor.org.

Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts is located at 149 Girdle Ridge Road in Katonah, New York.

About Caramoor
Caramoor is the legacy of Walter and Lucie Rosen, who built their summer home - now known as the historic Rosen House at Caramoor - and filled it with their treasures.  Walter Rosen was the master planner for the Caramoor estate, bringing to reality his dream of creating a place to entertain friends from around the world.  Their musical evenings were the seeds of today's Caramoor International Music Festival.  Realizing the pleasure their friends took in the beauty of Caramoor - the house with artworks spanning the centuries from B.C.E. to the 20th-century, the gardens, and the musical programs on summer evenings - in 1946 the Rosens established a public charity to open Caramoor to the community.

Lucie Rosen survived her husband by seventeen years.  During those years, she expanded the Music Festival: the Spanish Courtyard was used as a setting for musical events, as it is today, and, under her direction, the great stage of the Venetian Theater was built.

Caramoor is often described as "a Garden of Great Music" where audiences are invited to come early, explore the beautiful grounds, take a tour of the Rosen House, visit the gift shop, enjoy a pre-concert picnic, and discover beautiful music in the relaxed settings of the Venetian Theater, Spanish Courtyard, Music Room of the Rosen House, and the magnificent gardens.  With its unique heritage, Caramoor remains a place where magical summer days and nights are shared and enjoyed by thousands. "Caramoor is the loveliest Festival of them all." - The New York Times

Concert Venues, Art and Gardens
Concerts take place in two outdoor theaters: the 1,714-seat, acoustically superb Venetian Theater and the more intimate, romantic Spanish Courtyard.  Caramoor is more than just music - there is beauty at every turn.  The Rosens were prolific collectors and the Rosen House contains artworks spanning the centuries from B.C.E. to the 20th-century, including furniture, tapestries, sculpture, paintings, textiles, porcelain, and jade in twenty rooms that are open to the public.  There are entire rooms that were imported from European palaces and villas making the Rosen House one of just five mansions in the country that imported and incorporated entire rooms.  On Thursdays and Fridays, afternoon tea is served in the Summer Dining Room, overlooking the charming Spanish Courtyard.

Caramoor's gardens are also well worth the visit and include nine unique perennial gardens.  Among them are a Sense Circle for the visually handicapped, a Butterfly Garden, Tapestry Hedge, and Iris and Peony Garden, which may be enjoyed on one's own or seen on a guided tour.

Enjoy a Picnic at Caramoor
Extend your Caramoor experience by arriving for concerts early and enjoying a picnic amidst the beautiful gardens.  Bring your own picnic or pre-order from Great Performances® by calling 212.337.6055.

Caramoor Al Fresco
Introduce your family to Caramoor and enjoy the sounds of the concert from the picnic lawns for only $10.00 per ticket on the following Sunday afternoons at 4:30pm:  June 28 (Tiempo Libre), July 5 (Pacifica Quartet with Jeremy Denk), July 12 (Brentano String Quartet), July 19 (Paquito D'Rivera), and July 26 (Vladimir Feltsman).

Rosen House
Guided tours of the historic Rosen House at Caramoor are provided from Wednesday through Sunday, 1:00pm-4:00pm with the last tour at 3:00pm.  On Saturdays, during the Festival, tours are given from 1:00pm-5:00pm, with the last tour at 4:00pm.  Tickets are $10.00 (children 16 and under free).

GETTING TO CARAMOOR
Caramoor is easy to get to by car and mass transportation.  The Caramoor Caravan is available for Bel Canto at Caramoor performances.

By car from the West Side of Manhattan and New Jersey, take the Saw Mill River Parkway north to Katonah.  Exit at Route 35/Cross River.  Turn right and, at the first traffic light, make a right turn onto Route 22 south. Travel 1.9 miles to the junction of Girdle Ridge Road. Follow the signs to Caramoor.  (For detailed directions call 914.232.5035 and press 2, or online at www.caramoor.org).  Parking at Caramoor is free.

By train, take the Harlem Division of the Metro-North Railroad to Katonah, New York. Taxi service from the station to Caramoor (5 minutes away) is available.

Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts is located at 149 Girdle Ridge Road, Katonah, New York.

Caramoor International Music Festival
________________________________________________________________________

BÉLA FLECK / THE AFRICA PROJECT
FEATURING OUMOU SANGARÉ AND HER BAND

July 3                                                                            Béla Fleck, banjo
Friday, 8:00pm                                                        Oumou Sangaré, vocals
Venetian Theater
$15, $30, $40, $55 
________________________________________________________________________

TICKETS
Tickets may be ordered by online at www.caramoor.org or by calling the Caramoor Box Office at 914.232.1252. 

Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts is located at 149 Girdle Ridge Road, Katonah, New York.

ALL PROGRAMS AND ARTISTS ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE

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Performances are made possible, in part, by Arts Westchester, with funds from the Westchester County Government

Performances are made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts a state agency