Welcoming Rhythms: June Bach's Lunch Series to Feature African Drumming

African and Afro-Cuban drumming traditions will be featured in the next two installments in the Bach’s Lunch Series of lectures and concerts at the Concord Community Music School.

On Thursday, June 4, Grace Schust and Lindsey Schust, Music School faculty members and leaders of Songweaver Drummers, will give a lecture titled “Women and Drumming: Ancient Traditions, Forbidden Drums, and Modern Practices.” The following week, on June 11, they will join with percussionist Emilie Meadows to present a concert titled “Welcoming Rhythm: African and Afro-Cuban Drumming and Songs.” Bach’s Lunch programs are free and open to the public, and take place from 12:10 to 12:50 p.m. in the Music School’s Recital Hall, 23 Wall Street, downtown Concord.

In their June 4 lecture, Grace Schust and Lindsey Schust will explore the relationship between drums and gender, tracing its history from ancient times to our modern world. Looking into the traditions of West Africa and the African Diaspora, they will examine how drumming began with women’s work, moved into an age of repression, and culminated in a resurgence of women drummers in the modern day. They will discuss how gender and drums have traditionally interacted in the United States, and how traditional mores continue to evolve.

On June 11, Grace Schust, Lindsey Schust, and Emilie Meadows will present a concert of African and Afro-Cuban drumming and songs. The program, which includes traditional music of Liberia, Mali, and Guinea, will feature rhythms that are meant to convey welcome, blessing, and celebration, as well as pieces that honor the strength of women.

The Bach’s Lunch Series is sponsored by The Timothy and Abigail B. Walker Lecture Fund and The Couch Trusts; TD Wealth Management, NA; Trustee. For more information, call 603-228-1196 or visit www.ccmusicschool.org.

About the Speakers and Artists

Grace Schust earned her B.F.A. summa cum laude, from Colby Sawyer College. She has studied African and Afro Cuban percussion since 1983 with master drummers from West Africa & the Caribbean including Babatunde Olatunji, Abdoul Doumbia, Issa Coulibaly, Mamady Keita, Sinaly Diabate, & Jacinto Herrera (Havana, Cuba ‘04). Co-founder/owner of Timbre Drums, Ms. Schust has designed custom Ashiko Drums for Babatunde Olatunji, building custom Ashikos and importing traditional drums from Mali. Director/founder of Arts Bridge the World, 501(c)(3), which brings multi-cultural arts & music to New England, she leads percussion workshops for team-building in the workplace and for building self esteem for at-risk children. Past teaching appointments include percussion at Proctor Academy, Colby-Sawyer College, Brandeis University, Plymouth State University/AIE, Spaulding Youth Center, schools K-12, for NH Association for the Blind, VSA Arts, Lutheran Social Services, and corporate workshops. Grace has performed with Voices of the Heart, Concord Chorale, Mystic Chorale, Dartmouth World Music Percussion Ensemble, and at Portsmouth Percussive Arts Festival, Regis College (MA), Brandeis, Harvard, and Boston University. Grace established the African Drumming Ensemble class for Songweavers in 1992, and has taught that course and other African drumming classes workshops at the Concord Community Music School ever since. In 2003, her daughter Lindsey joined Grace, as co-director of the Songweaver Drummers. Grace plays accompaniment for Songweavers all year along with the percussion quartet (Emilie Meadows, Peg O’Neil, and Lindsey Schust).

Lindsey Schust holds a B.A. in music, cum laude, from Brandeis University and an M.A. in music composition from Tufts University. Since 1990, Ms. Schust has studied with African and Afro-Caribbean master drummers from Mali, Nigeria, Guinea, Senegal, Ghana, Trinidad, Haiti and Cuba. Her primary teachers include: Babatunde Olatunji, Sikiru Adepoju, Joe Galeota (at Berklee College of Music), master Malian drummers Issa Coulibaly and Abdoul Doumbia, and with Afro-Cuban master drummer Jacinto Herrera. She studied classical new music composition at Brandeis and Tufts Universities with award winning composers David Rakowski, Yehudi Wyner, and John McDonald. In 2009, Lindsey and Grace founded the Timbre Drum Ensemble, which performs around the state. Timbre Drums Ensemble is also part of the NH State Council on the Arts’ Artists Roster. Lindsey won the Global Rhythm songwriting competition in December 2006 for her Afro-Cuban song “Café con leche”, and in 2009 she was nominated for a Just Plain Folks Independent Music Award for “best Carribean song” for her piece “Mama Lele.”

Emilie Meadows, a percussionist and multi-instrumentalist, graduated from Florida State University with a Bachelor’s degree in music education. She has performed with Pangaea, a local drum and dance troupe, and the Akimbo women’s drumming ensemble. She has also performed with the Timbre Drums Ensemble, throughout the state. Ms. Meadows has studied African drumming with master drummers Babatunde Olatunji, Sinaly Papus Diabate, Issa Coulibaly, Sekou Sylla, and Jacinto Herrera. She first began playing percussion in Grace Schust’s Songweavers African Drumming class, and has accompanied Songweavers since 1996. Ms. Meadows currently lives in the Seacoast area, where she works for the NH Association for the Blind and performs in various musical groups. Emilie has been an active part of the Concord Community Music School since 1985, when she first enrolled her children for music lessons.

About the Concord Community Music School

Concord Community Music School is a full member of the National Guild for Community Arts Education and is recognized nationally for program innovation and management excellence. Welcoming adults, teens, and children of all musical abilities, 53 artist teachers reach more than 33,000 people in four states with educational programs, concerts, workshops, and community partnerships. CCMS has received major funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Hearst Foundation, New Hampshire State Council on the Arts, Jane’s Trust, and the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation. The Music School is the 2005 recipient of the NH Governor’s Arts Award for Cultural Access Leadership.