Music Program, Human Rights Program, Chaplaincy, and Asian Studies Program Present
Tibet in Song
Thursday, March 31, 2016
Olin Humanities, Room 102
7:00 pm – 9:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
7:00 pm – 9:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
Film Screening and Q&A with director Ngawang Choephel
Screening of Tibet in Songfollowed by Q&A with director Ngawang Choephel
Tibet in Song is an unforgettable look at one man's struggle to preserve Tibetan music, culture and national identity. Using rarely seen performances against the backdrop of Tibet's delicate history with China, director Ngawang Choephel tells a harrowing story of beauty, pain, brutality and resilience. Leaving Tibet after the Chinese invasion of 1950, Choephel was raised in India, where he was surrounded by fellow Tibetan refuges who instilled in him a love for traditional music. In 1995, nearly forty years after he first left Tibet, he returned to his homeland as a musicologist, hoping to record what remained of Tibetan folk music. A riveting look at Tibet's unique and vibrant heritage through the eyes of a talented and determined musicologist and filmmaker, this poignant film serves as a celebration of folk music and the generation of Tibetan people challenging cultural domination.
Note also this follow-up event the next day:
Songs From Tibet with Ngawang Choephel
The Tibetan Center in Kingston
Friday, April 1, 8 pm
Tibetan ethnomusicologist Ngawang Choephel will perform the songs he discovered as a Fulbright scholar during fieldwork in Tibet. While recording and filming there, he was arrested, held, tried, convicted of espionage and sentenced to 18 years in prison. Thanks to the intercession of Amnesty International and individuals around the world, Ngawang was released after six and a half years. The recordings, and his experiences after the arrest, became his acclaimed film, Tibet In Song. Ngawang's presentation will include translations of the songs and accompaniment with the dranyen, a traditional string instrument.
Download: TibetInSong.pdf
For more information, call 845-752-4619, e-mail [email protected],
or visit https://www.bard.edu/chaplaincy/.
Time: 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
Location: Olin Humanities, Room 102