Master: Cheick Hamala Diabate Apprentice: Greg Adams Prince Georges/Montgomery County Master-Apprentice Grant Recipients 2009
Part of a centuries-old lineage of griots-- community musicians, historians, storytellers and intermediaries-- Cheick Hamala Diabate (Adelphi) came to Maryland as a touring musician from a small village in the West African country of Mali. The folklore of the griot and his musical toolds-- the ngoni (a four-stringed lute), the cora (a harp-like gourd), and the bala (a xylophone-like instrument)-- were in demand in Maryland's West African community, prompting Diabate to remain here. A mutual interest in historical connections between the banjo, the ngoni and the cora led Diabate to take on banjoist Greg Adams (Germantown) as an apprentice.
SOUTH INDIAN KARNATIC MUSIC
Masters: P.K. and Lalitha Swaminathan Apprentices: Anjna Swaminathan and Ajay Ravichandran Montgomery County Master-Apprentice Grant Recipients 2009
P.K. "Swami" Swaminathan (Burtonsville) and his wife Lalitha were the first of their musical families to immigrate to Maryland from South India. Arriving here three decades ago, the talented mrudangam players and vocalists were at the rhythmic and melodic center of a growing Indian community in the Capital region. Now, first and second generation Indian-Americans like Ajay Ravichandran (North Potomac) and Anjna Swaminathan (Swami and Lalitha's youngest daughter) are turning to the Swaminathans and their extended family to maintain South Indian traditions in Maryland.
HOUSE DANCE
Master: Junious "House" Brickhouse Apprentice: Desmond Howard Montgomery County Master-Apprentice Grant Recipients 2009
With roots in the underground funk and disco clubs of Chicago in the 1970s, "house" dancing is a variation of hip-hop dance developed by a tightly-knit community of highly expressive dancers. The aptly named Junious "House" Brickhouse (Bethesda) has been at the center of that community since the later 1980s, documenting the tradition and commuting its repertoire of movement to apprentices like Desmond Howard (Mt. Rainier).
Boogie Woogie Piano
Master: Daryl Davis Apprentice: Doug Cooke Montgomery County Master-Apprentice Grant Recipients 2000
While convalescing from a childhood injury, Daryl Davis (Silver Spring) decided to dedicate his life to the music of his heroes-- rockabilly and blues musicians like Chuck Berry and Pinetop Perkins. After studying jazz piano at Howard University, Davis workedhis way up through touring country, rockabilly and blues bands, eventually playing alongside those same heroes he emulated. During the course of his apprenticeshop, Doug Cooke (Gaithersburg) has focused on boogie-woogie and rockabilly styles, and has been personally introduced to other masters like Jerry Lee Lewis.
ABOUT THE MASTER-APPRENTICE PROGRAM
Maryland Traditions spotlights living traditions and rewards master artists in the performing, material and building arts. The hallmark of the Master-Apprentice relationship is the time-tested method of passing on knowledge, by example, with mentor and student working side by side. Maryland Traditions Master-Apprentice Awards began in 2003 to offer the opportunity each year for up to ten successful applicant teams to benefit from intensive, systematic encounters of their own design, culminating in a specific product or goal. We are proud to share a glimpse of their experience today and encourage applications for future apprenticeships.
Photographer Edwin Remsberg traveled the state from his home in Harford County to capture the special one-on-one training of each Master-Apprentice pair. Since his captivating images in the book Maryland's Vanishing Lives, he has continued to seek the endangered practitioners of authentic arts and occupations. He is the rare documentarian who takes his work from the purely visual into the realm of the oral historian. His audio-photographic vignettes can be found embedded on each Master-Apprentice team page.
Bharatanatyam: “The art of conducting a recital”
Master: Shobha Subramanian Apprentice: Ashwin Subramanian Montgomery County Master-Apprentice Grant Recipients 2008
In the traditional Indian art form of bharatanatyam, it is the role of the teacher— the guru— to hold the musicians and the dancers together on stage, as a conductor ensures all members of an orchestra play together. The guru maintains harmony on stage by playing cymbals that match the footwork of the dancers and by reciting pure syllables which dictate the rhythmic patterns in the music; this requires much practice on the part of the guru, as they must carry two sometimes varying rhythms simultaneously. Shobha Subramanian , a three-time winner of the Maryland State Arts Council’s Individual Artist Award, trained her son Ashwin in the dance-percussion-vocal art of nattuvangum for bharatanatyam. Shobha explained that while many young people in India are enamored with western trends such as break dancing, she wants her children to learn the same classical style she did growing up and to maintain that part of their heritage in the United States. An engineer by training, Ashwin finds “music and dance more fulfilling than engineering.”
Bulgarian Singing
Master: Tatiana Sarbinska Apprentice: Elin Zurbrigg Frederick County/Montgomery County Master-Apprentice Grant Recipients 2008
Tatiana Sarbinska was born into a singing family in Bulgaria and began collecting folksongs from traditional singers in neighboring communities as a young girl. Considered the paragon of traditional singing in her native country, Sarbinska shared her knowledge of traditional Balkan music with Zurbrigg— not just the songs but also the technique, which is quite challenging for Western voices. Sarbinska and Zurbrigg worked on tonal qualities and ornamentation of mountain singing – distinctive styles that reflect the regional landscape. Sarbinska counsels her students to “steal from me— take from me what I give you.”
Kuchipudi Dance
Master: Anuradha Nehru Apprentice: Lavanya Thamire Montgomery County Master-Apprentice Grant Recipients 2008
Kuchipudi, which originated in a village of the same name, is one of eight forms of classical Indian dance. Kuchipudi dancers must make clean lines and draw upon an extensive language of hand gestures and facial expressions, all the while moving with a soft fluidity in order to tell a narrative. Although women only began dancing Kuchipudi about fifty years ago, that fact is not obvious from observing the expertise of master choreographer Anuradha Nehru and apprentice Lavanya Thamire. Nehru, who has been dancing since age eight, began teaching kuchipudi to keep in touch with this little-practiced art form in the United States. “I primarily decided to teach just to keep it alive,” she said. “I moved into teaching primarily because of a lack of opportunities [to perform. …] I feel that in the last few years, these opportunities are just ever-widening.” In addition to her role as teacher and choreographer, she also founded a dance school and company in Montgomery County named Kalanadhi, or “Treasure Chest of Art.”
