MANSFIELD, PA – The Mansfield University Music Department is proud to host a concert by the musical ensemble, Journey West, on Saturday, March 16 at 7:30 pm in Steadman Theatre.
Journey West is a musical program chronicling the migration of melody through an interactive multi-media presentation. The journey begins in the middle east, travels through Eastern to Western Europe, and arrives in the United States.
The program is a multi-media production illustrating factors involved in carrying melodies to distant lands: wars, imperialism, nomadic dispersions, mass emigrations due to political oppression, and musical crazes that sweep the globe. The musical performance is presented with changing PowerPoint slides to help illustrate the regional and musical differences on the Journey West. The featured instruments are violin, saxophone, clarinet, flute, guitar, mandolin, bass, accordion, and percussion.
Journey West began performing in 2011 and started incorporating refugee musicians into the group in the spring of 2016 when they toured Belgium, deep in the midst of the refugee crisis throughout Europe. The current 8-musician lineup is a reaction to the initial travel ban that was instituted at the end of January of 2017.
The mission of Journey West is to celebrate diversity while providing an exciting educational experience for their audiences. Journey West donates 5% of their income to the United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees and the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music.
Tickets for $5 to the general public will sell at the door. Students, MU faculty and staff are admitted free of charge.