Friday June 4 • The Music Gallery presents
ANCIENT TRENDS & NEW TRADITIONS IN INDO-EUROPEAN MUSIC
Concert by Cuni & Durand
Part of the New World series

Amelia Cuni — vocals, mirliton, various resonators, small percussion
Werner Durand — self-made instruments, Persian ney, digital delays, drones

Doors 7pm, concert 8pm
Tickets $20 regular, $15 member & senior, $10 student
Advance tickets at TicketWeb — BUY NOW!

In their Duo format, the Berlin-based musicians Amelia Cuni and Werner Durand are far more than the meeting of two successful solo artists. Amelia Cuni's voice, trained in the classical music of South Asia, and Werner Durand's complex electro-drones and singular use of world instruments, together create a sound which is unprecedented in its multi-cultural complexity and harmonious blending of the old and new. Cuni and Durand have been active since 1993, performing in venues across Europe and North America, as well as Hong Kong and India.

Amelia Cuni is a singer, composer and performer. She has trained her voice and musical skills in India, according to the tradition of dhrupad singing and kathak dance. She started learning Hindustani music in 1976 and lived in India for more than 10 years, studying dhrupad singing from renowned masters such as R. Fahimuddin Dagar, Bidur Mallik and D. C. Vedi. Her present work includes projects with early and contemporary music and collaborations with several artists of international renown, including Terry Riley, David Toop, Maria de Alvear and Sandeep Bhagwati, etc. Various composers have written for her dhrupad-trained voice. Her own multimedia performance Ashtayama — Song Of Hours has been presented in a number of international festivals in Europe and the USA. Her latest work is John Cage's Solo 58 (microtonal ragas from his Song Books), which has been performed in Europe and the USA. The CD of this work is available on the Other Minds label. She teaches Indian singing at the Vicenza Conservatory (Italy) and in Berlin, where she is based.

Werner Durand has been performing his own music for saxophones, Iranian ney, and self-made wind instruments since the late 1970s. He studied with Ariel Kalma in Paris, Indian classical music in India and Berlin (with Kamalesh Maitra) and Iranian ney with Ali Reza Asgharia. He started to build wind instruments out of Plexiglas and PVC in the early 1980s, which led to the foundation of the group The 13th Tribe in 1990. His current projects include the group Armchair Traveler with Sebastian Hilken (cello and percussion), Hella v. Ploetz (glassharp) and Silvia Ocougne (guitars); a duo with Australian guitarist Victor Meertens and providing drones for Amelia Cuni’s realisation of 18 Microtonal Ragas by John Cage and Fatima Miranda’s Cantos Robados. Durand has also collaborated with numerous composers/performers including Arnold Dreyblatt, David Behrman, John Driscoll, Samm Bennett, Fast Forward, David Moss, Muslimgauze, David Toop and Tom Recchion.