 Being part of a Native American tribe and her experiences as a child helped develop Naranjo’s love of music and community involvement. |
The annual Maytum Convocation Lecture Series will continue its 2010-11 “Faces and Phases of Creativity” theme with a lecture and performance by renowned musician Valerie Dee Naranjo on Mon., Feb. 14.
She is currently the percussionist for NBC's Saturday Night Live Band, and has recorded for, and regularly performs with, Broadway's "The Lion King."
Her lecture begins at 6:30 p.m., followed by a performance at 8 p.m. Both events will take place in Rosch Recital Hall, and are free and open to the public.
Naranjo’s motivational lecture will highlight her life, work and creative path. She will also address the creative thought that inspires both her road to success and her verbal and instrumental messages of speech, song and instrumental performance.
Following the lecture, Naranjo will perform both traditional music and her own compositions that reflect her Native American roots as a member of the Ute Nation of Southern Colorado and her extensive research in world music, especially that of Ghana, West Africa.
Valerie Dee Naranjo has risen through the ranks to become a legendary and accomplished percussionist, vocalist, composer and clinician. She is recognized by many through the various hats that she wears, but is respected by most for her pioneering efforts in West African keyboard percussion music.
Being part of a Native American tribe and her experiences as a child helped develop Naranjo’s love of music and community involvement.
"I was fortunate to grow up with the traditions I did," she says on her website. "At weddings and funerals, and for that matter other significant occasions, musicians were called in. These musicians were seen as healers, and this intrigued me."
Naranjo moved to New York City after completing studies in vocal and instrumental music education at the Univeristy of Oklahoma and Percussion Performance at Ithaca College. In 1988, her playing of the traditional gyil repertoire in Ghana's "Kobine Festival of Traditional Music," led to a heightened awareness, allowance and acceptance of public gyil performance by women in the Dagara community.
Her music has been recognized in magazines such as, Modern Drummer, Drum!, Rhythm, Percussive Notes and World Percussion Rhythm. She was named World Music Percussionist of the Year in 2005 and 2008, as winner of DRUM! magazine's readers poll.
In addition to her performance credits, Valerie has recent film score recordings for “Final Fantasy - The Dream Within” and “Frida.” She has also recorded several CDs of traditional gyil music. Her solo Native American CD, "Orenda", is on the Ellipsis Arts Label, and her series of 16 written transcriptions and CDs, "West African Music for the Marimba Soloist," "Traditional World Music for Western Percussion Ensemble," and "Lewaa's Dream (Ancient and Contemporary Music for West African Marimba)" are published by Mandara Music, a group and publication co-lead by Naranjo with instrumentalist Barry Olsen.
Naranjo has researched and studied in Botswana, Burkina Faso, Egypt, Morocco, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa, where, in 1994 with Thuli Dumakude, she opened Johannesburg’s Civic Theatre to its first post-apartheid audiences in the production, “BUYA AFRICA.” She continues to spend summers in Ghana to further her percussion study with maestros Yotere Baere and Kofi Misiso.
Additional credits include, performances with The Philip Glass Ensemble, David Byrne, The Paul Winter Consort, Tori Amos, Airto Moreira, and international percussion ensemble “Megadrums.”
This event is sponsored by the SUNY Fredonia Convocation Committee, Fredonia Percussion Guild, Avedis Zildjian Co. and Vic Firth Co.
For additional information contact Professor Kay Stonefelt at stonefel@fredonia.edu.
