Art & Culture Live!: Vetted Performers – Rose Ensemble
The Rose Ensemble, an internationally recognized ensemble from St. Paul, Minnesota, was selected as a Vetted performer and offers three educational programs for library audiences of all ages. The programs are:
- And Glory Shone Around: Early American Ballads, Hymns & Dances: Return to America’s folk roots. In this fun new workshop, The Rose Ensemble presents colonial carols and dances, Appalachian folk songs, Southern shape-note singing, Shaker spiritual songs, and the styles of singing that give birth to bluegrass. The Rose Ensemble musicians also bring a variety of instruments into the mix, with percussion provided by tambourine and stomping feet. Filled with sounds both familiar and fresh, this workshop explores our country’s history through its musical heritage.
- The Last Queen of Hawai’i: Discover the beautiful sounds of Hawai’i’s history! Bring to life the incredibly varied music and dance traditions of the islands: ancient chants, missionary hymns, Victorian parlor songs, and compositions by the kingdom’s last queens and kings. Accompanied by ukulele and gourd drums, the workshop also features exquisite hula danced by soprano Kim Sueoka. This program traces the path of Hawaiian culture through centuries of music, movement and storytelling.
- Music from the Land of Three Faiths: Voices of Ancient Mediterranean Christians, Jews & Muslims: Five hundred years of vibrant music and passionate poetry come alive. The Rose Ensemble’s most popular workshop explores the music and history of medieval Spain, where Christians, Jews and Muslims lived in an intertwined society. Rose Ensemble singers are here joined by a fascinating array of period and Middle Eastern instruments. With a lyrical collection of Spanish villancicos, Sephardic laments, Galician cantigas and Arab-Andalusian and Bedouin instrumental dances, this workshop opens a window onto a multi-cultural, multifaith society not unlike our own.
Four locations in the SELCO region booked the Rose Ensemble programming for FY 2010.
Cannon Falls Library – May 1, 2010
The Last Queen of Hawai’i
Fairview Care Center, Dodge Center – June 13, 2010
The Last Queen of Hawai’i
Prairie Meadows Senior Living, Kasson – June 13, 2010
The Last Queen of Hawai’i
Rochester Public Library/Charter House, Rochester – May 1, 2010
The Last Queen of Hawai’i (two programs)
Program Outputs: Outputs are things you can count such as attendance, number of new participants, and the number of attendees who had never been at a similar event, and so on.
Cannon Falls – 42 attendees
Dodge Center – 70 folks
Kasson – 107 attendees
Rochester – 178 for both programs
Total – 397 patrons attending Rose Ensemble programming
Measurable Outcomes may be collected by survey, anecdotal responses, post-test; End user change in Behavior, Attitude, Skills, Knowledge, Condition and/or Status
Overall, the Rose Ensemble was very well-received in the four participating communities. The multi-generational programming brought in patrons of all ages. The patrons loved learning the meaning of the dance moves and what the songs represented. One of the libraries received suggestions for future programs like Ragtime music and other storytelling programs. Another library reported one woman started crying because she used to live in Hawaii and the program made her miss it so much. One patron said he didn’t think a library would be involved with programs not including books.Surveys were completed and here are is sampling of the comments from the programs:
- My favorite part of the program was learning new words from Hawaii to teach to my friends. (age 10)
- I probably don’t like Hawaiian music that much, but I would still like to learn to play that round drum. Do you have any DVDs or books about it? (age 9)
- A privilege!
- A few patrons interviewed said they were encouraged and now more interested in learning more about non-traditional music styles
- One of the younger attendees wanted to get a DVD on the dance techniques and to see the movie “Hawaii.”