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The San Francisco World Music Festival will celebrate its Ninth Anniversary with an exciting gathering of some of the most interesting musicians in the world.  “The San Francisco World Music Festival has a reputation for experimentation as an indirect call for cultures to share peace and understanding.” (The San Francisco Chronicle, 2004).  For the past eight years, the San Francisco World Music Festival has commissioned musicians and artists from different countries to collaborate together to create a new evening-length performance as the centerpiece premiere of the festival. 
 
This Fall, Door Dog Music Productions will present the ninth season of the San Francisco World Music Festival, themed The Reeds Give Way to the Wind, a reference to the poem, Small Song, by A. R. Ammons. In the poem, the wind is revealed as the reeds push and bend, exposing this invisible force of nature. It becomes an appropriate metaphor for the invisible threads that link us together as a global community. In many cultures throughout the world, the reed is significantly symbolic. Although a seemingly delicate plant, it has the ability to withstand and endure the most brutal storms. It is a timely symbol of endurance in the face of the regional and global challenges that our species on this planet are facing.
 
The San Francisco World Music Festival will run from November 9th through November 23rd in venues throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. On November 9th  from 3-5 pm at the Thoreau Center San Francisco (in the Presidio), we will kick off our festival in collaboration with Paintbrush Diplomacy and the Thoreau Center with a gallery opening. The exhibit will feature the work of young artists from many countries around the world over the past 25 years, and will run through the duration of the festival. There will be live youth performers from different traditions, including eleven-year-old Kurdish singer Berfin Oztoprak.
 
On November 16th at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco (2pm), we will present a showcase of young musicians from the Bay Area, including the California Youth Chinese Symphony (60 members), Anuradha Sridhar's Trinity Center for Music and the talented Armenian oud player Phillip Hagopian.
 
On November 17th (7:30pm), we will present a workshop entitled, The Music and Songs of the Laz, taught by visiting master Laz musician, Birol Topaloglu. Check our website for location details.
 
On November 19th (5pm) at the San Francisco Public Main Library, we will present a free event called, The Music of China, lecture/demo by renowned master of musician Zhang Xiao Feng.
 
On November 20th, we will present an artist residency free event featuring the schools choir singing Kurdish songs taught by Duygu Bayar. 
 
On November 21st  (7:00 pm lecture, 8 pm concert) at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, the centerpiece of this year’s festival is a new commissioned work entitled The Reeds Give Way to the Wind. It will feature master reed artists, including Birol Topaloglu (tulum/guda) from the Laz region of northeastern Turkey, Zhang Yu (suona) and Wan Peng Guo (sheng) from China, Azerbaijani master Rahman Asadollahi (garmon), Riccardo Tesi (melodeon) from Italy, Wang Wei (percussion) from China, Duygu Bayar (vocals and percussion), plus Romany musician Rumen Sali Shopov (percussion) from Bulgaria. There will be a pre-concert lecture on the Azerbaijani Mugham music by master Rahman Asadollahi. In addition to the performers Azerbaijani master musician and composer Imamyar Hasanov will be the arranger of the entire evening program.
 
On November 23rd (7pm class; 8pm concert) at Ashkenaz Music and Dance Community Center in Berkeley, Birol Topaloglu will give a Laz Xoroni (Horon) Dance Class and a second concert with percussionist Rumen Sali Shopov, Edessa and festival musicians.

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Balkanfolk Team