Pangaea Music Festival brings world
music fusion group to URI

KINGSTON, R.I. -- November 21, 2000 -- The Armstrong-Nahrmann Group will bring the sounds of more than 50 different cultures to the University of Rhode Island on Friday, Dec. 1, as part of URI's annual Pangaea Roots Music Series. Free and open to the public, the event begins at 8 p.m. in Edwards Auditorium.

The Armstrong-Nahrmann group, formerly called UNO MONDO, is a pioneer in cross-cultural world music. The world fusion music group blends the sounds of more than 50 traditional and ethnic instruments from around the world with synthesizers and high-tech interfaces. Their music incorporates the sensibilities of West African, North Indian, Brazilian, and Caribbean sounds and rhythms with contemporary jazz and world music.

Internationally acclaimed, the group has brought their music to audiences at more than 1,200 concerts throughout the United States, Canada, and India.

Randy Armstrong, the group's co-founder, plays more than 200 instruments. He also co-founded the Do'a World Music Ensemble, which performed at URI in the mid-1970s. Armstrong has performed internationally as well as at New York City's Carnegie Recital Hall and Lincoln Center. In 1998, he was selected as an artist representative to attend a Cultural Trade Mission to Ireland, Northern Ireland, and England.

Armstrong, who holds a degree in composition and world music studies from Columbia Pacific University, has held workshops at schools, universities, and cultural institutions throughout the country. He has composed, recorded, and produced musical scores for film, television, theater and dance for the past 25 years and has released six albums.

Volker Nahrmann, also co-founder of the Armstrong-Nahrmann Group, plays acoustic and electric bass, North Indian Dilruba, cello, keyboards and percussion. A summa cum laude graduate of Berklee College of Music, he has studied jazz and classical music at conservatories in Graz, Austria and Frankfurt, Germany. In his native Germany, he has performed with the German National Youth Orchestra and led the Downtown Bigband of Hamburg. He has toured throughout Europe, Central America, North America and Asia.

Other band members include Marty Quinn on drums and tabla and Steve Ferraris, on percussion.

Pangaea is sponsored by the URI Department of Housing and Residential Life, the URI President's Office, the URI Office of Student Life and the URI Student Entertainment Committee. Other performances this season will include Odaiko New England, a Japanese Taiko Drumming Group, in February and The Poor Clares, who perform traditional Celtic music, in April.

For Information: Serena Kenyon, 401-874-5162, Michael Lapointe, 401-874-5162, Jan Sawyer, 401-874-2116, Jennifer Smith, 401-874-2116