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Venue: Krannert Center for the Performing Arts

Address: 500 S. Goodwin Ave. , Urbana

Cost: Free

posted 3:02 pm Jul 21
modified 3:02 pm Jul 21

Glen Velez and Lori Cotler; Liam Teague and Robert Chappell

Three-time Grammy award-winning percussionist and acclaimed rhythm singer Glen Velez is a master of the frame drum, an omnipresent tool of ancient Mediterranean rituals that he mingles with Middle Eastern and South Indian influences to create an emotionally powerful symphony of textured techniques and rhythmic feats. Velez’s undeniable abilities caught the attention of John Cage, who wrote Composed Improvisation for One-Sided Drum with or without Jingles especially for Velez. A practitioner of the central Asian style of overtone singing, Velez frequently tours and collaborates with Lori Cotler for performances that find the traditional on a collision course with the modern in “music that earns a place between two worlds” (The New York Times). Cotler is a genre-bending artist who captivates with her jazz chanteuse-style expressions of konakkol, a form of South Indian chant. The Jerusalem Post exclaims that the “peerless” Cotler, a New York native, delivers her beautifully complex vocal syncopations “in a seemingly effortless manner.”

Steel drums, marimba, and East Indian tabla drums form the core of the brilliant stylings of Robert Chappell and Liam Teague. Teague, a steel drum prodigy who won his first major competition at 13, has been dubbed a “certified virtuoso” who unleashes a “cascade of sound” (Chicago Sun-Times). His Northern Illinois University colleague Robert Chappell’s impressive chops on piano and an assortment of rhythm instruments cohesively blend with Teague’s calypso roots to create virtuosic classical stylings, driving Latin beats, and fluid jazz improvisations.