CCHAP Director Transition Party
SubjectPortrait of
Lakedhen Shingsur
(Tibetan, born 1962)
SubjectPortrait of
Dan Foster
(English)
SubjectPortrait of
Kevin Doyle
SubjectPortrait of
Tenzin Choekyi
(Tibetan)
SubjectPortrait of
Jorge Job
(Cape Verdean, 1928 - 2021)
SubjectPortrait of
Rodbel Virula
(Mexican)
Date2018 September 20
Mediumborn digital images
ClassificationsGraphics
Credit LineConnecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections
CopyrightIn Copyright
Object number2015.196.263.1-.9
DescriptionPhotographs of the celebration of the retirement of Lynne Williamson as Director of CCHAP and the welcoming of Kate Schramm as the new Director of CCHAP held at the Connecticut Historical Society on September 20, 2018.
2015.196.263.1: Photo of musicians Dan Foster with fiddle and Rodbel Virula with guitarron.
2015.196.263.2: Photo of performers at the event (left to right): Celtic fiddle player Dan Foster, Irish stepdancer Kevin Doyle, and Mexican musician Rodbel Virula.
2015.196.263.3-.6: Photos of Nina Sayarath, a young Lao dancer from the Lao Narthasin dance group led by Manola Sidara.
2015.196.263.7: Photo of Tenzin Choekyi handing Lakedhen Shingsur his Tibetan flute. Other CCHAP artists and guests are pictured.
2015.196.263.8: Photo of the Tibetan flute performance by Lakedhen Shingsur.
2015.196.263.9: Photo of Cape Verdean musician Jorge Job, his wife Tima, and a Cape Verdean friend.
NotesSubject Note: On September 20, 2018, the Connecticut Historical Society hosted a celebration of new CCHAP Director Kate Schramm and outgoing CCHAP Director Lynne Williamson. Many artists and community members who had worked with CCHAP over the years attended. Several artists performed, either solo or in impromptu jam sessions, in the spirit of friendship and creativity. The food served at this event reflected cuisines from communities CCHAP has worked closely with - Laotian cuisine of chef and educator Manola Sidara of East West Grille, and the cake which is called a ragoulis – a traditional Lithuanian confection made by the Liudzius family in New Britain.2015.196.263.1: Photo of musicians Dan Foster with fiddle and Rodbel Virula with guitarron.
2015.196.263.2: Photo of performers at the event (left to right): Celtic fiddle player Dan Foster, Irish stepdancer Kevin Doyle, and Mexican musician Rodbel Virula.
2015.196.263.3-.6: Photos of Nina Sayarath, a young Lao dancer from the Lao Narthasin dance group led by Manola Sidara.
2015.196.263.7: Photo of Tenzin Choekyi handing Lakedhen Shingsur his Tibetan flute. Other CCHAP artists and guests are pictured.
2015.196.263.8: Photo of the Tibetan flute performance by Lakedhen Shingsur.
2015.196.263.9: Photo of Cape Verdean musician Jorge Job, his wife Tima, and a Cape Verdean friend.
Biographical Note: Kevin Doyle is a renowned traditional Irish step dancer based in Rhode Island. His dance is devoted to and inspired by steps brought to the United States by his Irish-born mother in the 1930s. He performs old style traditional Irish step dance and American tap dance. A lifelong dancer and performer, Kevin was a U.S. Champion Irish step dancer in his early competitive years, and has been entertaining audiences ever since with his traditional style of "close to the ground" rhythms and intricate foot work as an artist, a choreographer, producer, and teacher. He won a National Heritage Fellowship award from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2014, and served as a teaching artist in CCHAP’s Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program, teaching student Nicole LeBlanc. Kevin performed at one of CCHAP’s outdoor concerts in 2018 and at the Apprenticeship 20th anniversary exhibit opening event at CHS in 2018.
Biographical Note: Dan Foster, a fiddle player originally from York, England, moved to the United States in 2015 and settled in Connecticut and later Massachusetts. Dan began playing violin at age 7, then fell in love with traditional fiddling at 18. He has studied with master fiddlers in Ireland and has developed a career playing fiddle for Irish dance competitions, as well as teaching widely in New England. Dan’s traditional music group Daymark tours regularly and he also plays with Caravan of Thieves. He has taught in CCHAP’s Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program, mentoring students Mark Bodah and Eva Meier, and has performed with musicians at three of CCHAP’s outdoor concerts and at the Apprenticeship 20th anniversary exhibit closing event at CHS in 2018.
Biographical Note: Alejandro “Rodbel” Virula trained as a guitarrón player, and has expanded his skills to become a trumpet player and singer. He moved to Connecticut from Las Vegas in 2016, along with several other musicians, to teach mariachi music in the Wallingford Mexican community, and has stayed in that community ever since. In 2016, Rodbel became director of the performing group Mariachi Mexico Antiguo. They have been invited to play at concerts, festivals, community celebrations, and restaurants throughout the Northeast, and have established a reputation for providing exciting traditional mariachi music that presents a traditional sound and approach. Rodbel and the group recorded ten videos for the Connecticut Historical Society’s YouTube project to connect folk artists to audiences during the COVID-19 pandemic quarantine in 2020. He has also been consistently arranging new repertoire for the group, to keep increasing their musical library. Rodbel taught apprentice Citlalli Hernandez on guitarrón as part of the Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program in 2016-2017, and he gives private lessons to students. Rodbel won a prestigious Connecticut Office of the Arts Fellowship in 2021.
Biographical Note: Born in Gangtok, Sikkim in 1962, Lakedhen Shingsur is a natural musician who taught himself to play flute while at the Indo-Tibet Buddhist Cultural Institute school in West Bengal. He became a versatile musician also able to accompany on damyen. He formed an amateur dance and drama club which still exists to present Tibetan song and dance, learning songs from Tibetan elders living in Sikkim. For ten years he was a member of the Sikkim National Performing Arts Troupe, touring in India, Canada, the Middle East, and visiting the U.S. for the Festival of India in 1982. He has lived in Old Saybrook and Clinton, Connecticut since arriving in 1992.
Lakedhen's primary instrument is the transverse flute. Usually made of bamboo with six finger holes, these are played throughout the Himalayan region. As a working musician Lakedhen's repertoire included modern Indian film scores as well as the folk music of Tibet, Sikkim, and Nepal. He learned many songs from the director and other members of the song and drama troupe, representing a number of ethnic groups from the region. Love songs, traditional welcomes for guests, Buddhist spiritual lessons, historical events, dance songs, and odes to the beauty of Sikkim are some common folk song subjects.
Lakedhen leads a folk music and dance group from the Tibetan community in southeastern Connecticut, teaching students and performing at many community events. He was featured in the CD "Sounds Like Home - Connecticut Traditional Musicians".
"One of our songs is Dhana-Hain Roupaun: Sikkim the valley of rice, its smiling faces, its peace, prosperity and contentment, its imposing grandeur are all a part of its heritage. Another song is called Gha-To-Ki-To: An age old tradition of welcome. Guests are served chang, a millet brew, or soicha, butter tea, as a welcome in all Sikkimese homes."
Biographical Note: Lao Narthasin of Connecticut is a group of young Laotian-Americans who study and perform traditional folk and classical dances from the southeast Asian country of Laos. Most of these dancers were born in the United States to parents who immigrated here from Laos. They study Laotian language and culture in special classes offered by the organization Lao-American Culture of Connecticut in cities such as New Britain and Bridgeport where many Laotians are now living. The Lao Narthasin dance group developed out of the Laotian community's desire to preserve its heritage in America. Members of the company, who reside in cities throughout Connecticut, are trained by experienced instructors from notable Laotian dance families. The founder of the group, Manola Sidara, is a Laotian dance educator and community activist whose life has been devoted to serving her community. Born in 1969, in Vientiane, Laos, Manola joined the National Dance School at the age of five, along with her sister. After her family fled Laos, she continued learning traditional dance with master dancer Sone Norasing in Colorado until moving to Connecticut in 1989. Lao Narthasin now includes a third generation of dancers, and instructors include former students. Dance traditions in Laos are either classical, performed at the royal palace, or based in the rural folk cultures of the over sixty ethnic groups in Laos. Lao Narthasin performs both dance genres. Dances include the Hoyn Phon Yhia Welcome Dance where fresh flowers are offered to guests, and the Pow Lao Dance, featuring dancers from different tribal groups. The graceful movements made by the dancers reflect qualities of beauty, respect, and politeness so valued in Laotian culture. Hand gestures also tell stories in the dances, with subtle movements symbolic of spiritual beings such as deities ascending in the heavens. Many of the dances celebrate community festivals - the rice harvest, water festival, New Year, or the Fireworks Festival bringing prosperity and good fortune. Lao Narthasin wears many different authentic costumes appropriate to each special dance. The group often performs at festivals and ceremonies at temples in Connecticut and Rhode Island.
Additional materials exist in the CCHAP archive for all these artists.
Cataloging Note: This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services MA-245929-OMS-20.
Status
Not on view
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2018 March 10
John Monteiro
2005 June 19
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