American Folklife Center

Vrï: Chamber Folk from Wales

Ánnámáret: Sámi Yoiks and Songs from Finland

Kardemimmit: Songs and Kantele from Finland

Ranina Quartet: Men’s Vocal Polyphony from the Republic of Georgia

Ialoni: Women’s Vocal Polyphony from the Republic of Georgia

É.T.É. : Traditional and Contemporary Francophone Music from Québec

PIQSIQ: Inuit Style Throat Singing

Changüí Majadero: Cuban Roots Music from California

Founded by tres guitarist and vocalist Gabriel García, Changüí Majadero was the result of García’s pivotal pilgrimage to the Guantanamo region of Cuba, where he learned the changüí from the living masters of the style and was inspired to spread the spirit of Cuban folkloric music mixed with a dash of East Los Angeles grit. Changüí is the predecessor of son cubano and salsa, a style of music specifically from the region of Guantanamo, Cuba. Its origins can be traced back to the 1800s, during the days of slavery in Cuba. Changüí is to Cuba & Latin America what the blues & early jazz is to American music. Changüí Majadero has played their modern take on changüí in such disparate settings such as Lincoln Center, SF Jazz, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and even Dodger Stadium. They performed in the AFC’s Archive Challenge Showcase at Folk Alliance International in 2020.

Chum Ngek: Traditional Cambodian Music from Maryland

Chum Ngek was awarded a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2004. He is both an artist and a teacher known for his performing ability on the roneat, a 21-keyed xylophone. Born in Battambang Province, Master Chum came to this country in the early 1980s with a wave of Cambodian refugees and has served as a musical and educational leader of his community ever since. At the age of ten he began learning the repertoire of the major Khmer musical genres, spanning classical and folk traditions. In addition, he learned the music of the kong (gongs), khimm (hammered dulcimer), sampho (two-faced drum), and tror (bowed fiddle). Soon his repertoire was so vast that many people were asking him to teach and at age eighteen he was recognized as a Krou (master teacher). National Heritage Fellow Sam Ang Sam points out that because he is acknowledged as the source for Cambodian music, Master Chum is frequently called on to conduct music workshops across the continent. Still, he continues to serve his more immediate community, as he single-handedly provides musical instruction in the Washington, DC, area, teaching for the Cambodian Buddhist Society and the Cambodian American Heritage organization. Chum Ngek performed in the Homegrown concert series in 2017.

Phil Wiggins: Blues and More from Maryland

Harmonica master Phil Wiggins, who was awarded a National Heritage Fellowship by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) in 2017, has appeared in AFC’s Homegrown Concert Series, Summer Music Jam series, and Archive Challenge. According to the National Council for Traditional Arts, "Phil Wiggins is arguably America’s foremost blues harmonica virtuoso. While rooted in the melodic Piedmont or ‘Tidewater’ blues of the Chesapeake region, his mastery of the instrument now transcends stylistic boundaries. Born in Washington D.C. in 1954, Phil Wiggins achieved worldwide acclaim over three decades as one half of the premier Piedmont blues duo of Cephas & Wiggins. Since the death of guitarist and singer John Cephas in 2009, Phil has brought his harmonica wizardry to bear in a variety of musical collaborations." In this concert, Phil will play traditional music, including a piece from the AFC Archive.

Dom Flemons: Black Cowboy Songs and More from the American Songster

Dom Flemons, a GRAMMY Award winner, two-time EMMY nominee, and 2019 WAMMIE Award winner, is originally from Phoenix, Arizona and currently lives in the Washington, DC, area. In 2005, Flemons co-founded the GRAMMY award-winning group, the Carolina Chocolate Drops. He left the group to pursue his solo career in 2014. Today he is known as "The American Songster," since his repertoire of music covers over 100 years of American folklore, ballads, and tunes. Flemons is a music scholar, historian, and record collector, as well as a multi-instrumentalist who plays banjo, guitar, harmonica, jug, percussion, quills, and rhythm bones. In 2018, Flemons released an album titled Dom Flemons Presents Black Cowboys on Smithsonian Folkways and received a GRAMMY Nomination for Best Folk Album at the 61st GRAMMY Awards. This recording is part of the African American Legacy Recordings series, co-produced with the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC. For over a decade Dom has been doing research on American Folklife Center collections. He was the first artist featured in AFC’s first Archive Challenge back in 2015 (then called the Lomax Challenge), and his repertoire includes many songs and tunes he learned from recordings of master musicians in the AFC archive.

Reggie Harris: Spirituals, Freedom Songs, and Other Songs of Hope

Reggie Harris is a singer, songwriter, and storyteller on a mission to educate, entertain, and inspire. For over 40 years, he has captivated audiences to standing ovations in the US, Canada, and across Europe as half of the duo Kim & Reggie Harris. Though Kim has curtailed her performance career, Reggie continues to criss-cross the country, carrying a message of joy, unity, tolerance and peace through the medium of live music. Known for his powerful voice and guitar, the depth and insight of his songwriting, and his deep knowledge of traditional African American spirituals and freedom songs, Reggie remains in high demand as a concert artist. He also performs at festivals and at schools, University residencies and teaches workshops on songwriting, community building, race relations, and performance. A partial list includes the Kennedy Center Summer Education Institute, The Swannanoa Gathering, Boston’s Summer Acoustic Music Week (SAMW), the People’s Music Network, and the Southeastern Unitarian Universalist Summer Institute (SUUSI).

Reggie Harris: Spirituals, Freedom Songs, and Other Songs of Hope

Reggie Harris is a singer, songwriter, and storyteller on a mission to educate, entertain, and inspire. For over 40 years, he has captivated audiences to standing ovations in the US, Canada, and across Europe as half of the duo Kim & Reggie Harris. Though Kim has curtailed her performance career, Reggie continues to criss-cross the country, carrying a message of joy, unity, tolerance and peace through the medium of live music. Known for his powerful voice and guitar, the depth and insight of his songwriting, and his deep knowledge of traditional African American spirituals and freedom songs, Reggie remains in high demand as a concert artist. He also performs at festivals and at schools, creates University residencies and teaches workshops on songwriting, community building, race relations, and performance. A partial list includes the Kennedy Center Summer Education Institute, The Swannanoa Gathering, Boston’s Summer Acoustic Music Week (SAMW), the People’s Music Network, and the Southeastern Unitarian Universalist Summer Institute (SUUSI).

Ann Yao: Chinese Zheng Music from Florida

Ann Yao performs cutting-edge interpretations of traditional material on the zheng, one of China’s most ancient instruments. A five-foot long, horizontal, plucked zither that typically has 21 strings, the zheng is first mentioned in Chinese literature in the third century B.C. Born into a musical family in Shanghai, Ann Yao grew up immersed in traditional Chinese music. Her grandfather’s home was an important gathering place for traditional musicians from many regions of China. Ann was learning the zheng from her aunt and uncle by the age of ten; she developed an interest in and later mastered varied regional styles. She was also influenced by the folk and theatrical styles she learned from the musicians who frequented her grandfather’s house. Ann went on to study zheng at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. Upon graduation, she joined Beijing’s Central National Music Ensemble. After moving to the United States in the 1980s, she joined Music from China, an innovative New York City-based ensemble known for contemporary arrangements of traditional material. She now performs in a trio and as a solo artist.

Eva Salina and Peter Stan: Serbian, Roma, and Jewish Songs

California-grown, Brooklyn-based Eva Salina is a groundbreaking interpreter of Balkan songs. Raised in the US Balkan Diaspora, Eva's mentors are some of the greatest living Balkan musicians. Eva's duo partner, Peter “Perica” Stan, is a Serbian/Romanian Roma accordionist known for his playful innovation and soulful, intuitive improvisations. In their collaboration, Eva Salina & Peter Stan pick up and continue an interrupted legacy of empowered female voices in Serbian and Romani (gypsy) music. Amplifying voices of past generations of musicians, Eva & Peter employ tenderness, grace, passion and a commitment to keeping these songs alive and evolving, while inspiring and teaching young people in the Balkans and the Balkan diaspora to participate in their own living traditions. Eva & Peter performed in the 2019 Homegrown series. Their 2020 performance will include some material sourced from AFC’s archival collections.

Iona Fyfe: Traditional Songs from Scotland

Aberdeenshire folksinger Iona Fyfe is recognized as one of Scotland’s finest young ballad singers, rooted deeply in the singing traditions of the North East of Scotland. Winner of Scots Singer of the Year at the MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards 2018, Iona has been described by Global Music Magazine as “one of the best Scotland has to offer.” Iona has performed extensively in the UK, Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, France, Poland, Australia and Canada. Iona was a finalist in the BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year and was nominated for Folk Band of the Year at the MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards in 2019. In 2018, Iona performed at Interceltique Festival De Lorient where she was described by Rolling Stone France as “a Scottish folksinger, magical and charismatic.”

Carmen Agra Deedy: Family Stories from a Master Storyteller

Carmen Agra Deedy is an internationally known storyteller represented in multiple American Folklife Center collections, and the author of twelve books for children, including The Library Dragon, Martina the Beautiful Cockroach, and the New York Times bestseller 14 Cows for America. She is an accomplished lecturer, having been a guest speaker for both the TED and TEDx Conferences, as well as the Library of Congress, Columbia University, and the Kennedy Center, among other distinguished venues. She has appeared many times at the National Book Festival, and told stories in the 2016 Homegrown series. She is also a collector of oral histories. Her personal stories first appeared on NPR’s All Things Considered. Funny, insightful, and frequently irreverent, Deedy’s narratives are culled from her childhood as a Cuban refugee in Decatur, Georgia. She is host of the four-time Emmy-winning children’s program, Love That Book!

Walter Parks: Haunting Swamp Hollers from Georgia

Walter Parks was raised in Jacksonville, Florida. A consummate guitarist, he formed the duo The Nudes in 1991, and spent much of the 1990s touring with them around the US. The Nudes toured as a supporting act for Woodstock legend Richie Havens, and after the duo’s breakup Parks was enlisted as Havens’s guitarist and right-hand man. With Havens, Walter performed Madison Square Garden, Carnegie Hall and The Cannes Film Festival. With his trio Swamp Cabbage, Walter has performed The Breminale Festival in Germany and toured Spain twice. Through his deep interest in the music of his native region, he has become an expert on the American Folklife Center’s Francis Harper collection of folk music of the Okefenokee Swamp region of Georgia. For the Homegrown 2020 series, he will perform an entire program of material based on field recordings from the AFC’s collections.

Emma Björling and Petrus Johansson, Traditional Songs from Sweden

The engaging duo of Emma Björling and Petrus Johansson present a program of traditional songs from Sweden, with one song from neighboring Norway. Emma Björling (vocals) is one of the foremost singers of Swedish folksongs performing today. She is a member of the bands Lyy and Skye Consort with Emma Björling, as well as vocal groups Kongero and Baravox. She has also toured extensively with the well-known Swedish folk band Ranarim. Emma has been singing in choirs since the age of six, and studied both jazz and classical music before following her heart back to the traditional music she first heard her grandfather play on the fiddle. She holds university degrees in Swedish traditional music (Royal College of Music in Stockholm), voice pedagogy, music theory, and ensemble teaching (Ingesund College of Music). Emma teaches at a folk music college and at The Department of Music and Media in Piteå, conducts workshops in traditional Swedish music, and writes arrangements for choirs and vocal groups. Petrus Johansson (guitar) got his interest in music from his father, who was a professional flute player. Petrus started playing guitar and bass, mostly jazz and rock, when he was quite young. During his University studies he met Emma, and together they started playing Swedish traditional music. This led to a greater interest in the guitar as a folk music instrument, using it to provide bass lines. He is a trained guitar and bass teacher and has worked at Ingesund College of Music and several music schools. He also works as a freelance musician and has played with Mats Berglund, Svante Turesson and others.

Sihasin from the Navajo Nation: Homegrown 2020

Sihasin is the duo of Jeneda and Clayson Benally, award winning musicians from the Diné Navajo Nation in Northern Arizona. The siblings performed in the 2019 Homegrown Concert series as members of the Jones Benally Family Dancers. They have also made their mark (along with brother Klee) as the award-winning "alter-Native" punk band Blackfire. Originally from Black Mesa on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona, the siblings were born into the heart of a political land dispute, in which a fence separated them from traditional homeland and family. They grew up protesting this separation, as well as environmental degradation and the destruction of their traditional way of life. Sihasin is the siblings' latest project. The name Sihasin is a Diné word that means hope and assurance, and the music reflects hope for equality, healthy and respectful communities, and social and environmental justice. Sihasin combines harmony vocals with bass and drums, in a style rooted in Native, rock, punk and world music. They have also conducted research in the AFC’s Navajo collections.

World Hoop Dance Champion, award-winning actor, and Cirque du Soleil star Nakotah LaRance helped AFC celebrate its 40th anniversary yesterday. His dance combines traditional hoop dancing with hip-hop and other forms. We hope you enjoy this brief slideshow! As another part of our celebration, we've reissued 4 of our classic LPs as streaming and downloadable files. Visit the link for "Indian Songs of Today"-- "Today" meaning 1954, when the album was published! https://www.loc.gov/item/2016655240/?loclr=fbafc Visit the second link for the liner note booklet, which is a pdf file of 20 pages, 9.39MB: https://www.loc.gov/folklife/LP/AFSL36_AIToday.pdf?loclr=fbafc The full webcast is now available at: https://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=7561 #NativeAmerican #Hopi