A large-scale world music concert titled “iMusic X: A World Music Pops Concert” will be co-presented by the University of Delaware Master Players Concert Series and the UD Center for Global and Area Studies (CGAS) at 3 p.m., Saturday, March 4, in Mitchell Hall.

After nine years of successfully creating and producing the iMusic events, creator Xiang Gao and his invited guest artists from many countries and traditions will celebrate this popular series in a concert featuring interdisciplinary music making with a focus on world music promoting unity, diversity, cultural understanding and exchange.

Gao, a world traveling concert performer and producer who serves as the Trustees Distinguished Professor of Music and is the recipient of the 2014 Delaware Governor’s Award for the Arts, will premiere his own compositions and arrangements of world music.

“The word love in mandarin Chinese is pronounced ‘Ai,’ and the idea of the first iMusic concert 10 years ago was to create a new way to make music in live concerts, and to share with the audience why music makes us love and why we love music so much as humans,” says Gao, creator of the series.

The family-friendly concerts feature cutting edge visual and audio technology, leading musicians in rare genres and non-musician artist collaborators, as well as forward-looking ideas in music presentation that transform the way live music is experienced.

In 2007, the world premiere of iMusic at UD not only enhanced the intellectual environment of the community by introducing historically significant music, literature and art under one guise, but also presented a professional showcase for talented students and non-musician collaborators.

Each year, iMusic brings different groups of musicians and non-musician collaborators together.

Concert tickets are $25 for adults; $20 for senior adults, faculty, staff and alumni; $10 for students; and $5 for children ages 5 to 14. Tickets can be purchased online, by phone at 302-831-2204, or in person at the REP Box Office in the Roselle Center for the Arts. Click here for directions and parking information.

Also, $5 student rush tickets will be available in the lobby 20 minutes before the concert, cash only, with student ID. Click here to learn more and to sign up for notifications.

Many Master Players concerts in the 2016-17 season have already sold out. Advance purchase is recommended.

Invited artists

Invited artists and ensembles collaborating with Gao this year include Grammy Award winning singer and sheng master Wu Tong, from Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road project. Tong is visiting UD as a guest artist through the Artist-in-Residence (AiR) Program under the direction of Colin Miller.

Also performing will be Afghan-American dutar (lute) virtuoso E Shawn Qaissaunee; Israeli percussionist and conductor Chen Zimbalista; American percussionist Benjamin Goldman; Syrian artist Emad (Jano) Hemede (concert stage designer); hammered dulcimer virtuoso Erin Flynn; emerging American folk music virtuosi Andrew Vogts and Victor Furtado; China Magpie Ensemble; African-American vocalist Jazmin Salaberrios; American bassist Sam Nobles; and the Dancing Pipa Quartet from Beijing (Shengnan Li, Zongli Li, Pianpian Zhou, and Peiyi Wu).

The concert will feature members of 6ixwire, UD’s ensemble-in-residence, Cathy Yang and Matthew Brower; UD student performers Joel Alarcon, Mary Lyle, Nicole Fassold, Caterina Yetto, Saori (Cherry) Tomatsu, Haley Graham and Steven Dinsmore-George, and one other surprise performer to be announced from the stage.

Original music compositions and new arrangements featured in this concert are inspired by the musical cultures of Afghanistan, Israel, Palestine, Iran, Ireland, Syria, the United States and China, among others.

Phat Le, Rayna DeReus and Dona-Marie Altemus, three UD art and design graduate students from the U.S. and Vietnam, will also design visual elements and logo art for the concert as participants of the Master Players Concert Series art internship program under the direction of Troy Richards, associate dean for the arts, and Gao.

Free ‘Conflict Music’ event

The Master Players and CGAS will co-host a free-of-charge (sign-up required) “Conflict Music” event from 6-8 p.m., Thursday, March 2, in Bayard Sharp Hall.

Many of the guest artists from the iMusic concert, including Tong, will take part in a zero-distance conversation with a small audience about their experience of making music with musicians from a conflicting state or region, and will demonstrate their musical instruments as a special preview of the concert.

Food from the featured regions or countries will be provided throughout the presentation for the audience members to break bread with the artists and fellow attendees. Click here to register for a limited seat.

Program partners

This program is made possible, in part, by a grant from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in the state, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts. 

Other sponsors include Vita Nova restaurant at the University of Delaware and Marriott’s Courtyard Newark-University of Delaware. For a complete list of sponsors, visit the Master Players website.