Teen World Ensemble to perform

BANGOR – At 7:30 p.m. Monday, Aug. 20, the Teen World Music Ensemble Summer Program III, led by Suzannah Park and Marytha Paffrath, will perform traditional music from the Balkans, Appalachian and old time harmonies music from West Africa at St. John’s Episcopal Church at 225 French St.

Paffrath, a singer, percussionist and avid student of world rhythms and techniques, tours nationally and internationally with the proclaimed world music ensemble Libana. She also is the director of the Instrumental Music and Dance Program at the Cambridge Friends School in Cambridge, Mass.

Park, a longtime singer and leader with Village Harmony and Northern Harmony, comes from a family of three generations of traditional musicians and singers, and is well-known throughout New England for her work as a teacher and performer of traditional Appalachian music and dance.

The concert program also includes rousing American shape-note and gospel songs, body percussion, music from the Balkans; Appalachian and old-time harmony songs; powerful west African drumming and more.

The 24 dedicated young singers are drawn from 10 states as well as England and Canada, and they just spent eight days in intensive rehearsal retreat in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom learning music and culture of these songs in preparation for this concert tour.

Each summer Village Harmony repeats this process 10 times, with six different ensembles traveling through New England and three or four groups overseas, this summer in Bulgaria, Caucasus Georgia and South Africa.

Each group develops its own unique sound, but all share some common traits – a powerful, natural, unrestrained, yet unforced vocal sound; a remarkable variety of vocal styles and timbres, as appropriate to the many varieties of ethnic and traditional music; and the vibrant community among the singers which includes the audience in a joyous celebration.

The community is invited to attend this multi-cultural concert. Village Harmony’s many recordings and songbooks will be available for sale at the concert. Admission is $8 for adults, $5 for students.

St. John’s is located at 225 French St., directly behind John Bapst Memorial High School, and is wheelchair-accessible.