Performance is part of URI Great Performances

KINGSTON, R.I. –October 2, 2007 –The URI Great Performances series continues its world travel with a concert by the Rose Ensemble to Hawaii. Specializing in preserving ancient music from around the world, the St. Paul-based Rose Ensemble will perform Oli and Mele: Retracing the Path of Ancient Hawaiian Vocal Traditions.

Forget stereotypes, no grass skirts or coconut shells or Don Ho – this evening of traditional dance, storytelling. and song begins with an ancient creation chant and ends with the imprisonment of the last Hawaiian queen – Lili’uokalani, who wrote the famous “Aloha ‘Oe”.

A live band accompanies the singers as they explore more than 200 years of music most people don’t associate with Hawaii – Victorian parlor songs, Hawaiian-language hymns, paniolo or ‘cowboy’ tunes and compositions by the last monarchs of the Hawaiian Kingdom. It is a journey through an unexpected musical heritage – steeped in tradition, transformed by worldwide influences and reborn through the struggle to carry the past into the present.

This unique performance takes place at 8 p.m. on Friday, October 12 at the Fine Arts Center Concert Hall, Kingston. Tickets ($20 General, $15 Seniors and $5 Students) are available by calling 401-874-2627. This concert is sponsored, in part, by a grant from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts.