Lauren Pelon’s music touches all ages and places: Pelon performs worldwide with ancient instruments
Emmeline Elliott
Time travel may not be possible, but Lauren Pelon’s music will take listeners back centuries.
Pelon, a Minnesota musician, will give a free public performance Saturday, Jan. 16 at 7 p.m. at the Dakota State University Jerald A. Tunheim Building Auditorium (Technology Classroom Building) as part of the Madison Area Arts Council’s Chautauqua Series.
Her program, called “The Living Roots of Music,” features instruments and music from the 1st to the 21st centuries.
Pelon’s musical program spans many centuries and countries, including ancient Greece, Asia, Africa, the Americas, the Middle East and medieval and renaissance Europe.
“Most continents will be represented,” Pelon said.
Music is so common to all cultures, she said, and there’s much one can learn about the world and cultures through music.
“I am fascinated by the interesting ways people of other cultures and different times have found to make music,” Pelon said on her Web site. “I especially enjoy doing these programs because they differ from ordinary concert performances. They offer not only an opportunity to listen to music, but also a way to think about how music has affected the lives of people all over the world – from ancient times to our own modern day.”
Pelon, 59, doesn’t favor any one genre of music or instrument, which is a reason for the variety of music that she plays.
“Every instrument really has its own distinct sound and is good at doing certain types of things,” Pelon said.
Pelon tries to reflect the modern age with ancient instruments by blending early and contemporary music. Early instruments that Pelon plays include the archlute, cornamuse, hurdy-gurdy, pennywhistles, Kiowa courting flute, eagle bone flute, krummhorn, gemshorns and lyre, to name a few. Many of her instruments were built in the present day, but Pelon will use a couple of original antique instruments as well, such as her concertina that was made around 1880 in England.
Some of her instruments have ancient roots and are still commonly used today, such as the guitar and recorder, which was the first instrument she played seriously.
Pelon doesn’t stay stuck in the past though. She incorporates a synthesizer, electric wind instrument and MIDI-pedalboard into her program.
Between pieces during “The Living Roots of Music,” Pelon explains the instrument to the audience. She uses about 25 different instruments.
“I really am talking a lot about the history of the music and the history of the instrument, so I’m looking at it through a humanistic perspective,” Pelon said.
All of the arrangements in Pelon’s program are her own and half are her own compositions.
Just as her music comes from around the globe, Pelon has performed in concerts worldwide. She has played throughout the country, in Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and China. Pelon performed at the Russian Institute for the History of the Arts in St. Petersburg, Russia and at the Conservatory of Music in Almaty, Kazakhstan. She has worked as a soloist with symphony orchestras and with Garrison Keillor’s radio show “A Prairie Home Companion.”
In 2001, the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council honored Pelon with the Artist of the Year Award.
Madison is one of two South Dakota locations where Pelon is performing “The Living Roots of Music” in the coming months. This program was made possible in part by a grant from the South Dakota Humanities Council, an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
More information about Pelon can be found on her Web site at http://home.earthlink.net/~laurenpelon/.
MAAC’s January meeting is Thursday at 6 p.m. at the Community Arts Center at 106 S.E. 2nd St. The public is invited to attend.
The Community Arts Center consignment gallery is opening to the public the same night from 7 to 9 p.m. The consignment gallery will be open every Thursday from 7 to 9 p.m. thereafter.
Visit the MAAC Web site at http://www.madisonareaartscouncil.org/ for more community art news and events.
