It isn’t every day that Central Michigan University hosts a concert featuring students performing with a sitar and tabla drums.

But that is what happened Friday night in the Bovee University Center Auditorium.

A crowd of about 130 people attended “Awe and Wonder: Sacred Music from Two Worlds,” which was put on by the philosophy and religion department.

The event featured two CMU philosophy and religion faculty members, Donald H. Matthews and Talat Halman, each with radically different performances.

“It was a unique blend of Indian, Asian and American cultures,” said Lapeer junior Andrea Cook.

Halman and a band of six others performed several songs using exotic instruments, like the saz, sitar and tabla drums, in addition to more traditional instruments, like the guitar, violin and even a cowbell in a performance titled “Awe and Wonder: Sacred Music from Two Worlds”.

Members of the band included two CMU students, Iron Mountain senior Chris Freeman and Livonia Graduate Student Mike List. Freeman played the sitar while List played the tabla drums.

Halman played the saz, a seven-string long-necked instrument, and sang in Turkish, English and Arabic.

Before the band’s performance, the event opened with “The Negro Spirituals,” featuring Matthews.

Matthews sang and discussed history in character as York, the hero of the Louis and Clark expedition. York was the black slave of William Clark and came along with him on the expedition.

Despite making major contributions to the journey, York is not well-known historically and Matthews’ portrayal was the first time many in the audience had heard of him.

The crowd listened and learned as Matthews described York’s life and adventures, interspersed with a few slave songs like “Deep River” and “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen.”

“I really felt that the crowd was really interested and learned about African-American history,” Matthews said.

Matthews had previously performed in Missouri, Nebraska and Kansas.

Guy Newland, chairman of the religion and philosophy department, helped organize the event.

“It was a stunning success and I was really moved by Don Matthews,” Newland said.

news@cm-life.com

E-mail the author: defaultuser