TORONTO, November 17, 2003 -- Ethnomusicologist Gage Averill will give an illustrated talk on "Female Folkloric Singers as the Embodiment of National Sovereignty in Haiti" as the featured speaker at the first Lise Waxer Memorial Lecture on November 27 at York University.

Chair of the Music Department at New York University, Averill is author of A Day for the Hunter, a Day for the Prey: Popular Music and Power in Haiti (Chicago 1997) and Four Parts, No Waiting: A Social History of American Barbershop Harmony (Oxford 2003), and co-editor of Making and Selling Culture (Wesleyan 1995). He is also the editor of the Routledge series, Perspectives on Global Pop, and a 12-CD series on Rounder Records titled The Alan and Elizabeth Lomax Haitian Expedition, 1936-37.

In his presentation, Averill will examine the performance practice of Haitian women singers of folkloric songs in staged concerts and popular musical recordings of the 1940s. He will begin with Lumane Casimir who went on to become one of the greatest Haitian female artists, followed by Martha Jean-Claude, considered "The Grand Lady" of Haitian song, and Emerante de Pradines, a Haitian roots singer who has performed with Jean-Claude since the 1940s. The talk will also embrace a younger generation of Haitian singers, such as Toto Bissainthe, Farah Juste, Myriam Dorismé and Carole Demismen.

The lecture commemorates musician, ethnomusicologist, author and educator Lise Aerinne Waxer, an alumna of York University’s Graduate Program in Ethnomusicology and Musicology, who passed away in August 2002. Waxer’s pursuit of ethnomusicology included producing and hosting one of Toronto’s first world music radio programs on CIUT-FM, conducting fieldwork on salsa music in Cali, Colombia, and publishing two books: Situating Salsa: Global Markets and Local Meanings in Latin American Popular Music (Routledge 2002) and The City of Musical Memory: Salsa, Record Grooves, and Popular Culture in Cali, Colombia (Wesleyan University Press 2002). At the time of her death, she was a faculty member in the music department at Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, where she was not only an inspiration to her students but also actively worked to forge links between the university and the city’s Hispanic community.

Ethnomusicologist and popular music historian Rob Bowman, director of York’s graduate music program, said: "In losing Lise, many of us lost a dear friend and the world of ethnomusicology lost one of its brightest, most energetic scholars."

Waxer’s family, friends and colleagues established the Lise Waxer Memorial Lecture to celebrate her love of music of all cultures, and her joy in sharing that passion with others.

The lecture will be held on Thurs. Nov. 27 at 4:00 pm in the Senior Common Room, 021 Winters College at York University, 4700 Keele St. Admission is free and all are welcome to attend. For more information, call 416 736-2100 ext. 77122.

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Media Contact:

Mary-Lou Schagena
Communications, Faculty of Fine Arts
York University
Tel 416 736-2100, ext. 20421
schagena@yorku.ca