Following on from its successful series last year, Equator’s Women of the World returns with another mix of music from around the world.
The Equator Festival Day Pass for Sat 22 Sep includes the following shows:
Tsungai Tsikirai – Hall Two, 5pm
Windrush – Hall Two, 7pm
Plastikes Karekles – Hall Two, 9pm
Equator Festival launched the Women of the World concert series in 2007, with the simple aim of promoting female performers from all music genres, from all over the world. Each year Equator showcases the best in female performers, musicians and songwriters. Over the last nine years the WOW series has presented music from Africa, Eastern-Europe, Middle East, India, Australia and the UK. The performances have included everything from choirs to solo performers, works you have heard before and new commissions. Previous performers include: Beyounes Quarter, Commander-in-Chief, Hannah Marcinowicz, Ignite Ensemble, London Bulgarian Choir, London Klezmer Quartet, London Tango Trio, Monica Vasconcelos, Oclay Bayir, Shallu Jindal, Carmen Souza, Invicta Voices, Anna Mudeka and Shiva Nova.
Tsungai Tsikirai is an award-winning singer–songwriter and dancer from Zimbabwe, now based in the UK. With her southern African group Flame Lily Arts she brings a vibrant combination of dance and music influenced by the legendary sounds of Miriam Makeba, Brenda Fassie and Angélique Kidjo.
In 2014 she was awarded Best Music Female Artist 2014 at the ZIMMA Awards, and in 2015 Mporiro Festival awarded Tsungai for her contribution to contemporary music.
Tsungai launched her debut album, Rova Ngoma, at The Breaking Boundaries Concert which was aimed at promoting cultural diversity, empowering women through arts and community development.
She has recently featured at The British Museum’s Faiths In Tune Festival, ZimFest Live and Nottinghill Carnival.
An eclectic fusion of international and Greek musicians with roots from traditional Greek folk to classical and jazz, Plastikes Karekles (Plastic Chairs) represent a culture of reinvention as defiant and hopeful as the music itself. These songs are dedicated to the character of the woman as depicted through Greek song – graceful, beautiful, wicked, saintly, the seductress and the temptress.
The group is known for their own arrangements of music by Theodorakis, Hadjidakis and Xarhakos featuring a fusion of classical string instruments with Greek traditional ones. They are also very involved in the Rebetiko scene, having set up the very popular Rebet Asker, Greek Roots Series at the Green Note, London, dedicated to the music of Rebetiko.
They have appeared at performances and festivals in Greece and elsewhere abroad. In the UK they have performed at Purcell Room, Royal Festival Hall, Royal Albert Hall, St David’s Hall as part of the Proms, as well as more intimate venues such as the Green Note, Vortex and the Forge, London.
The group also consider education and outreach an important part of their work. This has taken them to not only mainstream schools, but also special needs homes, hospitals and prisons throughout the UK.
Following on from its successful series last year, Equator’s Women of the World returns with another mix of music from around the world.
The Equator Festival Day Pass for Sat 20 Oct includes the following shows:
Equator Festival launched the Women of the World concert series in 2007, with the simple aim of promoting female performers from all music genres, from all over the world. Each year Equator showcases the best in female performers, musicians and songwriters. Over the last nine years the WOW series has presented music from Africa, Eastern-Europe, Middle East, India, Australia and the UK. The performances have included everything from choirs to solo performers, works you have heard before and new commissions. Previous performers include: Beyounes Quarter, Commander-in-Chief, Hannah Marcinowicz, Ignite Ensemble, London Bulgarian Choir, London Klezmer Quartet, London Tango Trio, Monica Vasconcelos, Oclay Bayir, Shallu Jindal, Carmen Souza, Invicta Voices, Anna Mudeka and Shiva Nova.
Twin composers Litha and Effy Efthymiou return to Kings Place to present a double bill: music from the Old Hispanic Liturgy and an exploration of the relationship between early Western art music and Miles Davis’s album Birth of the Cool‚ with Iain and Mark Gibbs, David Larkin and The Zeitgeist Chamber Orchestra.
Portuguese maverick fadista Claudia Aurora returns to London, with her new album, Mulher do Norte (Woman of the North) – a homage to her city Porto, her heritage and the way of living that made her the woman she is today.
‘Drenched in emotion and drama’ Lucy Duran, BBC Radio 3
‘Haunting Portuguese fado… heartbreakingly poignant’ Time Out
‘Spine–tingling’ Alex Denney, NME
Gundula Gruen, with her ensemble Tatcho Drom and dancer Linda Cremin, presents her latest project, Macedonian Inspirations. Tatcho Drom, one of the UK’s leading exponents of Romany Gypsy music, has a broad repertoire including traditional music from across Eastern Europe and the Balkans as well as band leader’s Gundula’s own compositions.