Washington 2006 community page

Roads to You - Washington DC area
May 8 – 19, 2006

Presented In Washington, DC in partnership with:

The principal performance in DC will be Saturday, May 13 at GW's Lisner Auditorium. 

Be part of this exciting initiative!
Get involved in one or more of the following ways:

· Home Stays - host a musician or two in your home; host families further cultural exchange and increase interaction among orchestra members and the local community. Host families are asked to provide breakfast and dinner for their musician(s) and transportation when needed. For more information please contact: Marianne Scott - Marianne@ourvoicestogether.org or tel: 202-223-0080 

· Educational Workshops - arrange an educational workshop at a local school. Musicians will visit schools in small groups to make presentations about their own countries for non-music students and/or to conduct master classes for music students. There is a sliding-scale fee for these workshops and cultural arts assembly programs to help offset the tour costs. For more information contact info.classacts@verizon.net or 301-588-7525.   

· House and Community Concerts – organize a concert in your home, at your place of worship or local community center. The musicians are forming tango, jazz, Celtic, Klezmer, Middle Eastern, folk, Brazilian and brass trios and quartets, as well as a chamber orchestra and solo performances. There is no charge for these concerts but a donation to the young musicians is requested and fundraisers for the Roads to You Tour or a local music program will be given first priority. Contact Marianne@ourvoicestogether.org, tel: 202-223-0080  

· Sing with the Choir – Class Acts Arts' Carpe Diem community choir will perform with the orchestra at Lisner Auditorium.   Carpe Diem is a cross-generational, cross-cultural project, providing an opportunity to singers ages 8 to 80+, regardless of musical background or experience, to work with world-class musicians and composers, culminating in a public performance. Rehearsals begin April 18, 2006. Contact Deborah Thornton at 301-587-6436, dthorn51@rcn.com.  

· Volunteer – we need more people to help coordinate the home stays, organize transportation, engage in community outreach, contact the media etc. Please contact Marianne@ourvoicestogether.org or tel: 202-223-0080  

· Enjoy the Music! – Attend the concert on Saturday, May 13 at 8:00 pm at GW's Lisner Auditorium, 730 21st Street, NW Washington, DC 20052. Roads to You Tickets on sale via TicketMaster.

ABOUT US
Eric Byrd, Carpe Diem Choir Co-Director
Pianist, guitarist, singer, gospel choir director – these are just a few of the hats that master musician Eric Byrd wears. A jazz ambassador for the Kennedy Center and State Department, Eric's trio was one of seven groups chosen to represent the US to play and explain jazz to overseas audiences. Eric teaches and directs the McDaniel College Gospel Choir and the Carroll County Common Ground Mass Choir which he led on a concert tour to Vienna, Austria in 1996. He is the jazz pianist for the Ron Kearns Quintet and the Howard Burns Quartet, whose releases Emblem and Lucinda's Serenade have won them high accolades. With a Master's degree from Morgan State , Eric sings in the critically acclaimed Morgan State Choir that recently presented their tribute to Marian Anderson at Carnegie Hall. Eric also plays blues guitar with various touring artists. Recent appearances of the Eric Byrd Trio at Blues Alley have born witness to Eric's rising star in the jazz world. His first solo CD, The Fire Within (The Heart), has won high praise, as has his follow up CD, The Eric Byrd Trio. He has won many fans over the past six years through his choral directing and teaching at the popular Swannanoa Gathering near Asheville, North Carolina. For more information about Eric Byrd please visit www.ericbyrd.com.  

Michael Holmes, Carpe Diem Choir Co-Director
Michael Holmes has always been active in a wide spectrum of musical pursuits. While spending much of his early career performing as a professional French hornist, his interests shifted toward conducting and early music. He has performed extensively as a conductor in Europe, leading symphonic, opera, and historical performances in Poland, Czech Republic, Finland, Romania, and Bulgaria. Currently, he serves as music director and principal conductor of the Orchestra of the 17th Century in Washington, D.C., artistic director of the Washington Cornett and Sackbutt Ensemble, director of the University of Maryland Collegium Musicum, and choir director at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Silver Spring. Michael Holmes has also performed on various historic instruments or as a vocalist with ensembles such as Stylus Luxurians, the Washington Bach Consort, the Bach Sinfonia, Musica Antiqua, and the Washington Baroque Trio, and has done extensive research in the area of Nordic music.  He is pursuing a PhD in historical Musicology at the University of Maryland, College Park.  

Washington DC Volunteer Coordinating Team

Busy Graham, founder of Class Acts Arts, a non-profit arts outreach and presenting organization dedicated since 1995 to bringing high quality and culturally diverse performances, workshops and artist residencies to schools and communities throughout Maryland, the District of Columbia and Virginia. Busy is also founder of the Carpe Diem Choral Arts Residency Project that will be a part of the Roads to You D.C. performance at Lisner Auditorium on May 13. www.classactsarts.org 

Marianne Scott & Kimberly Lauer, Our Voices Together a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization founded by 9/11 families and others who have lost loved ones to terrorist acts to build a safer, more just and compassionate world . Our Voices Together seeks to use collective voices and resources to support and encourage worthwhile international projects, foster goodwill and promote understanding and, in so doing, honor loved ones' lives. www.ourvoicestogether.org

Merissa Khurma, director and press attaché, Information Bureau of the Embassy of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Washington, DC. The Information Bureau is the public diplomacy arm of the Embassy of Jordan. Its main objective is to better inform Americans about Jordan's history, politics, culture and people. The Bureau seeks to provide information on current Jordanian policy initiatives, monitors news coverage of events in the Kingdom and encourages media attention on Jordan. JIB also assists in organizing press conferences with visiting Jordanian officials and delegations, panel discussions and cultural and social events. In covering such events, the JIB prepares press releases and written briefs.  

Ramzi Rihani, a patron of the arts in the DC area, co-founder of Platform International, and a music critic, has promoted major concert tours and acts such as Fairouz, Caracalla Dance Troupe, and Munir Bashir at the Kennedy Center and other performing arts centers around the country.  

Lowell Christy, co-founder, Cultural Strategies Institute (CSI), Maryland. CSI is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization founded to create a dialogue among civilizations. CSI is developing the Middle East Heritage Month, training groups like the Tennessee National Guard on understanding Arabic cultures and created BaghdadMuseum.org 72 hours after the sacking of the museum to preserve Iraqi culture.