Festival will celebrate eastern culture

The Bloomington-based Silk Road Ensemble will present its 14th annual Silk Road Bayram, a word meaning "festival" or "celebration" in several Turkic languages, from 2:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. July 30 at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater on Kirkwood Avenue. \nThe event will begin with an exhibit of arts and handicrafts at 2:30 p.m., followed by a concert with the theme of "Musical Stops on the Silk Road." The performances will include guest artists from several regions and a fashion show. The event is open to the public and admission is free.\nEach year this festival focuses on a particular region of the territory known as the historic Silk Road, stretching from China to Anatolia and Eastern Europe. This year, special attention will be given to eastern Turkey. Featured guest artist Ozan Jemali will perform the music of Alavi religious mystics on the saz, a traditional stringed instrument, said Shahyar Daneshgar, director of Silk Road Ensemble and a lecturer in the IU Department of Central Eurasian Studies.\nPerformances will also include music and dances from China, Mongolia, India, Iran and Hungary, as well as the Arab world, the Caucasus, the Balkans and Central Asia. Musicians famous in their own countries will perform alongside local artists; some of whom are IU students of music or ethnomusicology, or simply have an interest in the culture of these regions.\nThis event is held in the summer to coincide with the IU Summer Workshop in Slavic, East European and Central Asian Languages, providing instruction in many languages of the Silk Road region to hundreds of students from around the United States. Language instructors and their families, visiting scholars and students have all been involved in the Silk Road festival since its inception in 1994.\nApproximately 350 to 500 visitors from around the country attend the festival each year. \n"It's good for Americans to experience some of the culture, music and worldview of the region, especially when it's in the news every day," said Daneshgar. "And it's good for people originally from these regions to visit as well. It's a soothing medicine for their nostalgia for their homelands."\nAll events are free and open to the public. Financial support for the event has been provided by IU's Inner Asian and Uralic National Resource Center and other campus programs, community cultural organizations and local businesses.\nFor more information, visit www.silkroadensemble.com.