Album Notes

Our name, MuzikoMonda, means 'world music' in the Esperanto Language. Music is an important part of every human culture on this Earth. It seems to serve the universal human need to express, experience, and share feelings.

With all the conflicting differences we encounter among people in the world today, music is an area where we can peacefully enjoy and celebrate each other's differences. In this recording (our first) MuzikoMonda (MuMa) respectfully and enthusiastically continues the ages-old process of balancing tradition and innovation by researching, arranging, learning, and performing musics from many parts of the world - illuminating the differences (and similarities) of rhythms, phrasings, scales, harmonies, moods, instrument colors, and effects. We adapt those musics to our instruments, or, more accurately, try to adapt our instruments to those musics.

Our instruments include concert harp, cello, acoustic guitar, marimba, and lots of percussion from many parts of the world - - drums, rattles, gongs, cymbals, shakers, scrapers, rhythm sticks, and more. The five musicians are all students or recent graduates of The Boston Conservatory (Boston, MA, www.bostonconservatory.edu).

For the summer of 2007, MuzikoMonda received a Project for Peace Grant from the Davis United World College Scholars Program to tour youth audiences in the Boston area. In October 2007, we provided the music for the World Peace Forum at Columbia University in New York.