NO COVER 7:00pm Show
A blend of solo, duo, and trio performances by composers and improvisers Sara Pajunen (violin/Finnish fiddle), Aida Shahghasemi (Iranian vocals), and Liz Draper (upright bass). The second of four performances featuring Liz Draper at Berlin in October.
Bassist Liz Draper has played with everyone from Sub Pop's Grammy-nominated slowcore band Low to the Balkan folk group Orkestar Bez Ime, Righteous Babe artist Pieta Brown, Grammy Award-winning Okee Dokee Brothers, and Smithsonian recording artist folk troubadour Charlie Parr. Liz grew up playing jazz and has a degree in classical bass performance. Her improvising led her to Brooklyn's SIM (School for Improvised Music 2003). Liz is a 2019 Giant Steps Fellow (San Francisco). She is a 2021 American Composers Forum awardee for her solo work which can be described as "classicaldoomfolkjazz." Liz is currently touring with two-time Grammy-nominated songwriter Iris Dement.
Sara Pajunen is an artist based in Minnesota, specializing in music and the sonic arts. Her work combines folk traditions (violin/hardanger d’amore/voice), still and moving imagery, environmental recording, and ambient aesthetics. Born to the immigrant culture of Minnesota’s Mesabi Iron Range, Pajunen centers landscape, history, and cultural narratives in her artistic output. Pajunen’s work has received funding from the Jerome Foundation, Minnesota State Arts Board, Kone Foundation, New Music USA, American Scandinavian Foundation, and the Arts Council of Finland. She holds classical music degrees in both the United States and Finland and a Master of Music degree in contemporary improvisation from New England Conservatory.
Aida Shahghasemi is a Minneapolis-based musician with roots in Iran. She studied psychology and anthropology at University of Minnesota with a focus on the cultural aspects of Persian classical music and the restrictions imposed on the voices of Iranian female vocalists. She received her master’s degree in arts politics from New York University, where she also taught a course she developed on arts activism in Iran. She has worked with a number of different art and social advocacy groups in New York and Minnesota as a musician, graphic designer, and developer and has served as an assistant program coordinator at Hamline University’s Making Waves Social Justice Theatre Troupe. She has been a touring member of Iron & Wine and Marketa Irglova’s band while also being a recording artist on two of Glen Hansard’s albums. Her three albums are “Wind Between the Horse’s Ears” (2015), “Cypress of Abarkooh” (2019), and “Chashmandaaze Rooydaad” (2022). She is a McKnight Music Fellow and serves as an adjunct faculty in the MFA program at Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Aida is a mental health therapist at Hiraeth Psychotherapy and works primarily with adults and couples dealing with trauma.
