For Immediate Release: June 8, 2011
Contact: Jeff Morgan
Public Relations
515.281.3858
Jeff.Morgan@iowa.gov
Iowa Arts Council adds 11 artists and groups to rosters
Rostered artists and groups are eligible to work in IAC-funded projects
(DES MOINES, Iowa) — The Iowa Arts Council today announced it has added 11 artists and groups to its Teaching, Performing, and Folk & Traditional Artist rosters.
Selected through a juried process, the artists and groups are eligible to work in projects funded by IAC grants and can use the designation to market and promote themselves to prospective clients and sponsors.
“Being added to these rosters is a significant accomplishment for these artists and groups because they have to demonstrate a level of excellence to be selected,” Department of Cultural Affairs Director Mary Tiffany Cownie said. “These rosters are resources for venues, teachers and the public to find and contact high-quality artists in Iowa.”
A list of artists and groups added to IAC’s Teaching, Performing, and Folk & Traditional Artist rosters follows:
(Roster)
(Community)
(Artist or Group)
(Description)
Teaching Artist Roster
Norwalk
Jennifer Pytleski
Cultural, community and education theater teaching artist.
Performing Artist Roster
Ames
Gregory Oakes
Oakes is a clarinetist who offers classic piano-accompanied performances as well as “new dialect” performances that involve unaccompanied clarinet music influenced by non-Western and world folk music.
Iowa City
Working Group Theatre of Iowa City
A professional theatre company that brings contemporary stories to non-traditional audiences.
Omaha
Ballet Nebraska
Presents story ballets and mixed-repertory programs that include dance styles ranging from classical to contemporary.
Vermillion, S.D.
The Dakota Players
Offers week-long master class and performance-based residencies that culminate in full musical productions for the community.
Folk & Traditional Arts Roster
Des Moines
Monica Akuien
Dinka (Sudan) traditional storytelling and Dinka traditional songs. Akuien also speaks about her culture, life in the South Sudan, her school days and her experience as a refugee in the South Sudan culture to provide context for her traditional stories.
Des Moines
Iraqi Peace Band
Iraqi folk & traditional music, dance; Iraqi popular and traditional music (’ud, hand drums, tambourine, tabla). In Iraq, Khodor (’ud & vocals) and Ali Almajidi (tabla [handdrum]) were professional musicians who performed traditional and modern music together at clubs in Baghdad and performed on the Iraqi television program “Iraq Star.” Ali also played in the Symphony in Baghdad, while Khodor Almajidi toured to Lebanon in the early 1990s to perform. Abass Hamid (tabla [hand drum] and vocals) and Mohammed Younis (tamborine and dancing) complete the group.
Des Moines
Ruth Mwangangi
Kamba (Kenya) traditional storytelling and songs. Mwangangi provides the cultural and ethnic context for her folklore and relates traditional Kamba tales and lore. The traditional tales Mwangangi heard as a child transmitted the ethics, knowledge, virtues, values, and lifestyle of her family and ethnic group.
Johnston
Ritu Varma
Indian Classical Sitar. Varma performs classical music songs, known as ragas, on the sitar. Classical sitar music represents the long history of music that has evolved over the centuries with influences from the Islamic cultures of the Middle East.
Sioux City
Miguel Grima
A Mariachi maestro and vihuela player, Grima is founder of Siouxland’s Mariachi Nuevo Guachinango and was a professional musician in Mexico before moving to Iowa in March 2003 to perform and teach music. A third-generation mariachi, Miguel started playing at the age of nine in his home town of Juachinango in the state of Jalisco. He organized his Siouxland Mariachi band in 2006.
Winterset
The Benge Family
Old time family band, folk/traditional dance, square dance calling. Husband and wife Eddie and Daisy (Dell) Benge were featured artists at the Smithsonian Institution’s 1996 Festival of American Folklife and at the Iowa Sesquicentennial Festival of Iowa Folklife.
More information about IAC’s Teaching, Performing, and Folk & Traditional Artist rosters can be found at www.iowartscouncil.org.
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The Iowa Arts Council is a division of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs and works to enrich the quality of life for Iowans through support of the arts. Funding for the Iowa Arts Council and its programs is provided by the state of Iowa and the National Endowment for the Arts. More information at www.iowaartscouncil.org.