RESCHEDULED! Zikina September 22nd
PORTER-PHELPS-HUNTINGTON FOUNDATION, INC.
130 RIVER DRIVE HADLEY MA 01035
For Immediate Release
Contact: Susan Lisk (413) 584-4699
WEDNESDAY FOLK TRADITIONS at the
PORTER-PHELPS-HUNTINGTON MUSEUM CONTINUES ITS 43rd SEASON WITH
Zikina
September 22, 2024
HADLEY—The Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum continues the 43rd season of Wednesday Folk Traditions concert series on Wednesday, September 22nd with Zikina, an international rock jazz fusion group that draws on West African musical traditions and instruments to create rhythmic sonic landscapes. Concerts are held Wednesday evenings at 6:30 pm in the Sunken Garden at the Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum, 130 River Drive, Route 47, Hadley MA 01035. Admission is $12, $2 for children 16 and under. Picnickers are welcome on the museum’s grounds starting at 5:00 pm. The museum and its grounds are a smoke-free site. For further information please call (413) 584-4699 or view www.pphmuseum.org.
Zikina features Gideon Ampeire, Mike Cardozo, Roston Kirk and Kade Parkin. They combine Ugandan folk music with contemporary influences, weaving together traditional East African vocals and instruments including enanga, adungu, and kalimba to build a sonic landscape that flows seamlessly from intense grooves to joyous dance beats to dreamy textures. Zikina encourages audiences to approach their music with curiosity and enjoy the interplay of traditional African music and modern sounds. Jody Jenkins, The Amherst Collective, wrote about Zikina “blending those kinds of influences and distilling them down into a unique sound is something of a high wire act if you don’t want to come off sounding derivative. That’s the territory that Zikina inhabits naturally.”
Gideon Ampeire has been performing internationally for almost 20 years as a bandleader, instrumentalist, singer, dancer, educator, and master instrument maker. He is the leader of Echo Uganda, promoting traditional Ugandan folk music. He is Ugandan, and together with Mike Cardozo studied West African drumming at Wesleyan University under Abraham Adzenyah. Roston Kirk and Kade Parkin graduated from the Berklee School of Music. Together, they are always forging ahead, continuing to imaginatively blend Gideon's musical and cultural heritage with the wide palette of sounds and ideas that each member brings to the table.
Wednesday Folk Traditions continues on July 17th with StompBoxTrio, featuring Evelyn Harris, the powerhouse vocalist, former member of Sweet Honey In The Rock, and Grammy nominated composer performing with John Cabán on dobro and stompbox and Paul Kochanski on upright & electric bass and foot-percussion. The group explores the multicultural depths of 20th-century American blues, rock, and soul with some 21st-century mojo.
Wednesday Folk Traditions is funded, in part, by grants from The Adams Foundation, the Amherst and Hadley Cultural Councils, local agencies funded by Massachusetts Cultural Council; Robinson and Cole; Easthampton Savings Bank; Gage-Wiley and Company, and with generous support from many local businesses.
The Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum is located at 130 River Drive, Hadley MA on Route 47 just two miles north of the junction of Routes 9 and 47 North in Hadley. For information concerning tours or special events, phone (413) 584-4699 or check the museum website: www.pphmuseum.org
The Porter-Phelps-Huntington Foundation acknowledges that it occupies the unceded lands of the Nonotuck people. The Porter-Phelps-Huntington House was built in 1752 by Moses and Elizabeth Porter and was central to the 600-acre farmstead known as “Forty Acres.” Today, the property is surrounded by over 350 acres of protected farmland, forest, and river frontage. The Museum portrays the activities of a wealthy and productive 18th-century household including numerous artisans, servants, and enslaved people who made "Forty Acres" an important social and commercial link in local, regional and national cultural and economic networks. Since 1799 there have been no structural changes to the house. In the 19th century the house evolved into a rural retreat for family and in the mid 20th century became an early example of historic preservation. The museum is listed on the National Historic Register and contains a collection of the belongings of seven generations of one extended Hadley family. Open May 18th through October 15th, Saturday through Wednesday. For more information check out our website at: www.pphmuseum.org or call the museum at (413) 584-4699.
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