Black Violin to open 2010-11 Issues & Artists Series

Wilmington College’s 2010-11 Issues & Artists Series will delve into the conflict with Iran, the sounds of Mexico, and the health crisis in Haiti after opening with Black Violin on Sept. 23, 2010.

To most people, jazz, hip-hop, funk, and classical are musical genres.  But to revolutionary music group Black Violin, they're nothing but ingredients.  Combining a daunting array of musical styles and influences to produce a signature sound that is not quite maestro, not quite emcee, this group of two classically trained violinists and their DJ is redefining the music world-one string at a time.  With influences ranging from Shostakovich and Bach to Nas and Jay-Z, Black Violin breaks all the rules, blending the classical with the modern to create something rare - a sound that nobody has ever heard, but that everybody wants to feel. 

The rest of the series will be as follows:

Oct. 12, 2010: The Iran Question: Understanding Iran, and What We Should Do About It with Hooman Majd  

What should America do about Iran?  And what shouldn't it do?  Though Iran is the top concern for US foreign policy, most of us know dangerously little - or flat out misunderstand - its political motives.  In this talk, Hooman Majd reveals the true motivations of Iran’s political and religious leaders, a group fiercely protective of their rights.  He shows us where the true power in Iran is found; previews Iran’s important upcoming Presidential elections; dismantles, so to speak, its nuclear program; and looks at its complex relationship to Iraq, the Middle East, and of course, America.  The two countries, he reminds us, are not that different: both want Iran to join the mainstream international community.  Whether it does - or whether we go to war with Iran - is the loaded question that Hooman Majd helps us more clearly understand.  

Copies of The Ayatollah Begs To Differ will be available for sale after the show, courtesy of Books ‘N’ More.  

Jan. 25, 2011: Sones de México Ensemble   

Sones de México is a unique ensemble of seasoned Mexican folk musicians and educators that hails from Chicago, a city that boasts a Mexican community that is quickly nearing one million people. The group formed in 1994 to keep the tradi­tion of Mexican son (a term used to define a large family of re­gional music and dance styles) alive in its many regional forms, true to its roots and old masters, and current and fresh at the same time.  

Fourth program TBA.