Performing Artists – 2011 Festival
Australia’s Strange Fruit
Saturday
Australia’s Strange Fruit creates and performs a unique style of performance: part circus acrobatics, part theater, part dance. This performance made possible by IU Auditorium & the IU Dept. of Theatre and Drama. {More …}
Bomba Estéreo
Friday, Saturday
Bomba Estéreo emerged in 2005 from the rich underground electronic scene of Bogota, Colombia. {More …}
The Brock McGuire Band
Friday
Accordionist Paul Brock and fiddler Manus McGuire hail from Ireland’s County Clare, and they’re two of Celtic music’s most celebrated musicians. {More …}
Bulgarika
Friday, Saturday
Bulgarika (“things Bulgarian”) play virtuosic, high-energy folk music from the cultural crossroads nation of Bulgaria. {More …}
Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino
Friday, Saturday
This seven-piece band performs traditional music, song, and dance from the Puglia region on Italy’s Adriatic coast. {More …}
Creole Choir of Cuba
Friday, Saturday
2011 Kat Domingo Memorial Artist – The Creole Choir of Cuba celebrates the history of their Haitian ancestors, who were enslaved to the Caribbean from West Africa. {More}
Joaquin Diaz
Friday, Saturday
Joaquin Diaz plays both traditional and original merenque from his native Dominican Republic. {More …}
Lotus Dickey Song Workshop
Saturday
Bloomington traditional music masters Grey Larsen and Mark Feddersen teach attendees a few songs by the late, great Lotus Dickey (1911-1989). {More …}
Dikanda
Saturday
This Polish band lives and makes music as a family. Founded by accordion player Anna Witczak, Dikanda has woven a unique, original sound from the Gypsy music of Macedonian and Romanian cultures in the Balkans. {More …}
Frigg
Friday, Saturday
Listen to Frigg on CD and you’ll hear exquisite Nordic fiddle-driven music that’s based in tradition and still fresh and modern. See them live, and you’ll be transported by the cool passion, smarts, and humor of this young band. {More …}
Eilen Jewell
Saturday
“My goal as a songwriter is to always improve,” says Eilen [pronounced “EE-lynn”] Jewell. “Every time I make a record, I want it to be even more real, more heartfelt, than the one before it.” {More …}
Kaumakaiwa Kanaka’ole
Friday, Saturday
At only 26, Kaumakaiwa has been an ‘olapa (dancer) of the art of hula for 15 years. {More …}
Lamajamal
Saturday
Chicago’s only “Gypsy surf” band comes to Lotus. {More …}
Luisa Maita
Friday
The music of Luisa Maita embodies the modern spirit of Brazil. {More ,,,}
Masters of Mali: The Sidi Touré Trio
Friday, Saturday
“If I sing about things and there is no change,” says Sidi Touré, “then it will have been a waste.” {More …}
Mike + Ruthy
Friday, Saturday, Sunday
2011 Lotus Dickey Artist ~ Mike Merenda and Ruthy Ungar have been harmonizing for more than a decade, playing lyrically sophisticated Americana music. {More …}
Movits!
Friday, Saturday
The Swedish band Movits! – brothers Johan and Anders Rensfeldt, and Joakim Nilsson – got hooked on swing after hearing Benny Goodman’s “Sing, Sing, Sing” at a festival after-party. {More …}
Nawal
Saturday, Sunday
Nawal now lives in France, but her music comes from her native Comoros Islands, off the southeastern coast of Africa, near Madagascar. {More …}
Orchid Ensemble
Friday, Saturday
The JUNO-nominated Orchid Ensemble is Lan Tung on the erhu (Chinese violin), Yu-Chen Wang on the zheng (Chinese zither), and Jonathan Bernard on percussion. {More …}
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The Quebe Sisters Band
Saturday
The fiddles (and voices) of Grace, Sophia, and Hulda Quebe (pronounced KWAY-bee) are backed by the tireless rhythm guitar of Joey McKenzie and the swinging upright bass of Drew Phelps. {More …}
Mavis Staples
Thursday
Lotus kicks off with a concert by the legendary Mavis Staples, a recent Grammy Award winner for her CD “You Are Not Alone” (produced by Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy). {More …}
Tareq Rantisi and Ali Amr,
with Srinivas Krishnan
Sunday
Ali Amr is a vocalist, composer, and qanun player who grew up in the Palestinian territories; Palestinian percussionist Tareq Rantisi was born in Jerusalem and grew up performing in Ramallah. {More …}
Te Vaka
Friday, Saturday
The members of Te Vaka come from Tokelau, Tuvalu, Samoa, the Cook Islands, and New Zealand. The music is rooted in indigenous music and dance, as well as the band members’ diverse Oceanic cultures. {More …}
Abigail Washburn
Friday
Singer, songwriter, and clawhammer banjo player Abigail Washburn loves Chinese music and culture as well as American old-time music. {More …}
Bernard Woma
Saturday
Bernard Woma’s father believed that his son was born to play the gyil, or xylophone: newborn Bernard’s fists were clenched as if he were holding mallets. {More …}
{ Subject to change / Updated 7 August 2011 }
