Singing The Bones Salon w/ Lydia Violet, Kele Nitoto, and M'Gilvry Allen

Through an evening that is part musical performance & part sing-a-long, the Singing The Bones ensemble will lead us with riveting folk music from around the world, encouraging reconnection to ancestral cultures through music and cultural legacy. Many of us grow up disconnected from our ancestral cultures, requiring us to consciously turn towards our histories and study to learn the foods, festivities, folklore, and songs that lie there. Tonight is a celebration of three American artists who have pursued this path of reconnection, sharing some of the bounties of what they have found.

Lydia will share songs from her Iranian and Armenian heritages, rich with poetry and longing. M'Gilvry Allen will share fiddle tunes and ballads from his Scottish, Irish, and Scandinavian ancestries, luring us in with rhythm and strings. And Kele Nitoto will share music from Haiti, Congo, and West Africa, drawing from his multiple generations of a musical family from Oakland itself. Through all these shares these three artists will collaborate, sharing cultural bounty through and through!

You're invited to come and enjoy the sounds, and learn some tunes as well! We will also teach you some songs throughout the night, summoning the joy of singing together. We hope to weave a soulful thread for that which feels tattered and longs for peace and reconnection.

Lydia Violet Harutoonian: www.lydiafiddle.com

Lydia Violet Harutoonian is an Iranian-Armenian-American singer, fiddler, educator, and cultural facilitator whose work bridges music, memory, and collective healing. Through her original songs and community singing spaces, Lydia weaves together threads of personal and ancestral resilience, inspired by folk music traditions from all over the world. Her signature offering, Tending the Bones, is a course and practice space for diasporic and ancestral healing, where participants explore the impacts of cultural severance and pathways to reconnection through song, story, and collective reflection. Rooted in her heritage and grounded in care, Lydia’s work nurtures cultural renewal and the deep remembering needed in these times.

Kele Nitoto: www.instagram.com/kelenitoto

Kele Nitoto is a second generation African-American percussionist and singer. Born and raised in the Oakland Dance Culture, Kele Has studied with masters of many styles, becoming proficient in West-African, Congolese, Afro-Cuban, Afro-Peruvian, and Afro-Haitian traditional musics. Over the last 25 years, Kele has performed internationally in dance companies, bands, and teaching workshops and classes, summer camps, spiritual and workplace retreats, and for countless ceremonies and celebrations.

M’Gilvry Allen: mgilvryallen.com

M’Gilvry Allen will bring with him a set of fiddle tunes from his ancestral Scottish lineages and the diaspora of Scottish & Irish immigrants through eastern North America. M’Gilvry also writes original music and tours with several projects, including Maya Elise & The Good Dream, Josiah Johnson, and the Feelings Parade. His work can be found at mgilvryallen.com

@ Ballard Homestead

7p doors, 7:30p show

All ages, mostly seated

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EVENT & VENUE INFO:

Ballard Homestead is partially ADA accessible. Please email boxoffice@fremontabbey.org with questions and for accommodations. ballardhomestead.org/about
Service animals as defined by the ADA are allowed. Service animals are defined as dogs that are individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities.
Please limit photos during the show so as to not distract other attendees from the experience.
Please enter quietly if the show has already begun.
Please leave quietly, it's a very quiet neighborhood.
Quiet Picnics Welcome. ie. please no crunchy packaging or loud chips, smelly foods, etc. We sometimes have a few tables out, or you can use the side yard if weather is nice.
Light snacks & non-alcoholic beverages may be available for purchase, but no other food or bar service at Ballard Homestead shows.
We have a mix of padded chairs, benches, and a little standing room in back for big shows.
We are an all ages venue. Kids 10 & under are free at Abbey Arts concerts & arts events unless noted. Please request by emailing boxoffice@fremontabbey.org
Entering the venue indicates agreement to adhere to the Abbey Respect Policy. All are welcome. fremontabbey.org/respect