News Release
September 2006
Bethlehem, Pa., September 1, 2006—Multicultural music will be the order of the
night when The Afro-Semitic Experience performs at Moravian College’s Foy Concert
Hall on Wednesday, October 4 at 7:30 p.m. The ensemble is dedicated to preserving,
promoting and expanding the rich musical heritage of the Jewish and African traditions,
and performs secular and sacred sounds mixing blues, Gospel, Klexmer, Nigunim, spirituals,
bebop and swing.
Jazz collaborators
since 1997, David Chevan, Jewish-American bassist, and Warren Byrd African-American pianist,
describe the band as an on-going project of six musicians who play pieces with meaning
in their cultures and speak to ideas of universal belief, peace, and brotherhood. An
eclectic mix of instruments such as the slide guitar, violin, piccolo, clarinet, trumpet,
drums, hand-drums and shekeres, communicate the band’s unique sound of spirituality,
partying, praying and jamming. Band members share stories during the performance to emphasize
the cultural importance of musical pieces, and comment on Black-Jewish relations. Performances
have been referred to as “a mind-blowing experience.”
The band is featured
on 2 CDs – their debut album “This is the Afro-Semitic Experience” (a
2002 release) and Chevan’s 2003 solo album “The Days of Awe: Meditations
for Selichot, Rosh Hashanah, and Yom Kippur.
Tickets for the performance are $15 general
admission and $10 for students, seniors, and children under 12. Foy Concert Hall is
located on Moravian College’s Priscilla
Payne Hurd Campus, at the corner of Main and Church Streets in Bethlehem, Pa. For tickets
and information, contact the Music Department at 610-861-1650 or e-mail at music@moravian.edu.
Moravian College is a private, coeducational, selective liberal arts college located
in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Tracing its founding to 1742, it is recognized as America's
sixth-oldest college. Visit the Web site at www.moravian.edu.
