PORT TOWNSEND — The Al Andalus Ensemble will perform an evening of music and dance at 7 p.m. Thursday.
“The Bridge” will be at Quimper Unitarian Fellowship Hall, 2333 San Juan Ave.
Tickets are $15. They can be purchased at andalus.brownpapertickets.com or 800-838-3006.
“The Bridge” will explore the theme “of what ‘bridges’ us to one another, as well as what we hold in common across our different religious and cultural backgrounds,” organizers said.
The work of the Al Andalus Ensemble is designed to be a bridge between the world’s music and dance cultures, bridging East and West as well as classical, jazz and world genres.
Al Andalus was a time when Christians, Jews and Muslims lived in peaceful co-existence in Spain between the 8th and 12th centuries.
Al Andalus Ensemble founders Tarik and Julia Banzi (oud, ney, darbuka and flamenco guitar) join with Barcelona-born contemporary flamenco dancer Verónica Medina Cano, multi-lingual vocalist Emily Miles and Classical-Jazz pianist Joe Heinemann.
Audiences can expect a program with unusual instrumentation such as the oud (pre-Renaissance lute), ney (arabic reed flute), flamenco guitar (Spain) kamanja (arabic violin) and darbuka (goblet drum), songs sung in many languages including Arabic, Ladino (Sephardic Jewish) and Spanish, as well as renditions of American spirituals — all punctuated by contemporary flamenco and classical Arabic dance.
“The Al Andalus Ensemble presents an intricately woven tapestry of sound and sight: Audiences enjoy music and dance from around the world performed from a contemporary Andalusian perspective,” organizers said.
The ensemble is internationally known for its mixture of Middle Eastern, North African, European and American traditions, which it represents through world, jazz, flamenco and classical music.
The group’s spectrum of work includes original Nuevo-Andalusian and jazz pieces to stirring renditions of American spirituals to thrilling, improvised percussion solos played on traditional clay drums and much more.
For information about the ensemble, go to www.Andalus.com.
For information about the performance, go to www.quuf.org or call 360-379-0609.
