UMS PRESENTS

ANGÉLIQUE KIDJOAngélique Kidjo, VocalsDominic James, GuitarMagatte Sow, PercussionItaiguara Brandao, BassYayo Serka, Drums

with special guest

Meklit HaderoVocals and Guitar

featuringDarren Johnston, TrumpetEvan Flory Barnes, Bass

Darrell Green, Drums

Friday Evening, February 1, 2013 at 8:00Hill Auditorium • Ann Arbor

38th Performance of the 134th Annual SeasonGlobal Music Series

Photo: Angélique Kidjo; photographer: Nabil Elderkin7

P R O G R A M

Tonight’s program will be announced from the stage by the artists and will be performed with one intermission following Meklit Hadero’s set.

Funded in part by a grant from the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan.

Media partnership is provided by WDET 101.9 FM and Ann Arbor’s 107one.

Ms. Kidjo appears by arrangement with International Music Network.

Ms. Hadero appears by arrangement with ALIA Productions, Inc.

S M A L L B I T E S

Ms. Kidjo is fluent in and sings in four languages: Fon (spoken mainly in Benin), French, Yorùbá (spoken in West Africa), and English. She also sings in her own personal language.

Benin is a country in West Africa bordered by Togo, Nigeria, Burkina Faso,and Niger.

Ms. Kidjo founded The Batonga Foundation, named after one of her songs, to support secondary school and higher education for girls in Africa.

Meklit Hadero was born in Ethiopia and grew up in Iowa, New York, and Florida.

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A R T I S T S

Beninese singer ANGÉLIQUE KIDJO is one of the greatest forces in African music

today. She is renowned for high-energy performances and a dynamic, uplifting style that fuses the music of her homeland with Western influences. The Guardian has listed her as one of the “Top 100 Most Inspiring Women in the World,” Forbes includes her in their list of “Africa’s 40 Most Powerful Celebrities,” and the BBC places her among “Africa’s Most Iconic Figures.” She was recently the recipient of the UN’s prestigious “Champion of the Earth” award and was honored by the French government with the Insignia of the Order of Arts and Letters. To date, Ms. Kidjo has released 12 albums including the Grammy Award-winning Djin Djin. PBS recently premiered the highly anticipated Angélique Kidjo and Friends: Spirit Rising, a 90-minute live concert special and CD/DVD taped at the WGBH Studios. The resulting 16-track album features special guests Josh Groban, Dianne Reeves, Branford Marsalis, Richard Bona, and Ezra Koenig (Vampire Weekend). Spirit Rising showcases Ms. Kidjo’s breathtaking voice and exuberant spirit that can only be fully appreciated during one of her magical live performances.

Born in Ethiopia, raised in the US, and nurtured by San Francisco’s richly diverse arts

scene, MEKLIT HADERO embodies worlds. Joining her soul-filled phrasing to a songwriter’s craft, her music’s influences range wide — from

the jazz and soul favorites she grew up on; to the hip-hop and art-rock she loves; to folk traditions from the Americas and her forebears’ East African home. Emerging from her adopted hometown of San Francisco, Ms. Hadero gained national attention with the 2010 release On a Day Like this… on Porto Franco Records. Her full-length debut announced the arrival, as the San Francisco Chronicle has put it, of “an artistic giant in the early stages.” Born in Ethiopia in the early 1980s, Ms. Hadero grew up in Iowa, New York, and Florida. After studying political science at Yale, she moved to San Francisco and became

immersed in the city’s thriving arts scene. Named a TED Global Fellow i n 2 0 0 9 , M s . Hadero has served as an artist-in-

residence at New York University, the De Young Museum, and the Red Poppy Art House. She has also completed musical commissions for the San Francisco Foundation and for theatrical productions staged by Brava! For Women in the Arts. She is the founder of the Arba Minch Collective, a group of Ethiopian artists in diaspora devoted to nurturing ties to their homeland through collaborating with both traditional and contemporary artists there.

UMS welcomes both Angélique Kidjo and Meklit Hadero, who make their UMS debuts this evening.

Patrick Murray, Kidjo Sound Engineer