On Sunday, December 13, at 3pm, Andrew and Noah Van Norstrand will return to Danby at the Town Hall with their high-energy mix of Celtic, Appalachian, Scandinavian, Bluegrass, and World Beat music. If you have only heard the brothers playing for contradances, this will be a great chance to experience the extra dimensions the Van Norstrands can bring when they are not bound to 32 measures.

When they last performed in Danby, five years ago, the brothers had just gained national attention via the Talent from Twelve to Twenty contest on public radio’s Prairie Home Companion. Since then, their repertoire has exploded with original songs and tunes and explorations into a host of musical styles and rhythms. Expect the place to be rocking.

The concert is free, since the Danby Community Council’s concert series has the support of NYSCA Decentralization Grant, administered by the Community Arts Partnership.

The Danby Town Hall is six miles south of Ithaca on Route 096B.

The Cornell Middle Eastern and Mediterranean Ensemble is already extremely fortunate to work under the leadership of the well-known Armenian-American violinist and record producer, Harold Hagopian. For their Fall concert, on December 6th (7.30 pm, The Carriage House, Stewart Avenue), the Ensemble will be joined by Harold’s father and a living legend, Richard Hagopian. Richard has been a musician since childhood, learning to play the violin and clarinet at only nine years old. He started playing the oud at age of 12. He studied Eastern (Ottoman Classical) music theory and oud under the internationally famous Armenian artist Kanouni Garbis Bakirgian. Hagopian gained fame in the 1960s and 70s with the Kef Time Band, formed originally as the band for a Las Vegas show called the Cleopatra Revue, which ran at the Flamingo Hotel from 1963-1967. Hagopian has performed throughout the United States and taught a master class at the Manhattan School of Music, as well as teaching as artist-in-residence at California State University. .

For Sunday night’s performance, the band will also be joined by the fine Turkish percussion player Engin Gunaydin. The concert is supported by Near Eastern Studies, the Music Department and the Mediterranean Studies Initiative of the Cornell Institute for European Studies.