Special Concert to Benefit Monarch Conservation
For Immediate Release
June 9, 2010
The Flight of the Monarch Heralded Through an Evening of Music
At the Niagara Parks Butterfly Conservatory
Niagara Falls, ON – In an effort to help raise awareness of the wonders of the Monarch Butterfly and its migration, The Niagara Parks Commission is proud to present an evening of music on June 13, 2010, with renowned Ontario ecologist and musician Jarmo Jalava and his musical guests from Mexico.
The Monarch Butterfly is classified as a Species of Special Concern in Ontario and the proceeds from the concert will be used to support the Majestic Monarch Program that annually takes place at the Niagara Parks Botanical Gardens. More specifically, the funds will be directed to support the ongoing efforts to enlarge the native butterfly garden at the Conservatory.
Jarmo Jalava is an ecologist who has worked on conservation projects with government agencies, First Nations and various NGO's throughout the world. Since the late 1970’s, Jalava has been involved in many major projects and initiatives such as the Peregrine Falcon Reintroduction Program, the Ecological Survey of the Niagara Escarpment Biosphere Reserve, the Ecological Survey of the Eastern Georgian Bay Coast, the International Alvar Conservation Initiative, and The Big Picture Project: A Natural Heritage Vision for Carolinian Canada. Jalava has authored and co-authored over 100 ecological reports, conservation plans and species-at-risk recovery strategies. Jalava also has an extensive career with collaborative, community based action plans. He is currently coordinating and facilitating the development of such a plan for the Niagara River Corridor and Short Hills areas on the Niagara Peninsula.
Jalava describes his music as “world-folk that rocks, soothes, elevates and doesn't let go: cool blue Canadian water infused with Finnish root extract, seasoned with sizzling Mexican spice and the contemplative serenity of the East.” Jalava’s music also reflects his devotion to raising an ecospiritual consciousness, as displayed in his poetic connection to the lands and peoples of his two homes -- the coast of Lake Huron in Ontario, Canada, and the volcanic mountains of south-central Mexico.
The hour long concert will be held in the auditorium of the Niagara Parks Butterfly Conservatory at 2405 Niagara Parkway, Niagara Falls, Ontario. Tickets are $20 and include admission to the Butterfly Conservatory. Doors open at 7 p.m. with the concert commencing at 7:30 pm.
The Butterfly Conservatory and Niagara Parks Botanical Gardens are owned by The Niagara Parks Commission. Established in 1885, The Niagara Parks Commission operates to preserve and enhance Niagara Falls and the Niagara River Corridor for the enjoyment of visitors, all while remaining financially self-sufficient.
-30-
Artist Biographies Below. For more information, please contact:
Tony Baldinelli, Communications Manager
The Niagara Parks Commission
tbaldinelli@niagaraparks.com
(905) 371-0837
Biographies
Jarmo Jalava writes songs rich in whimsy and wonder. Think of Bruce Cockburn's crisp melodicism and Daniel Lanois's low-burn intensity....Jalava has edge, intelligence, heart and soul. His music stays with you.” -- Charles Foran, world music reviewer for The National Post.
“Warm, celestial sounds…mighty words…Jalava mixes lovely music with a mind, body and spiritual message,” -- The Peterborough Examiner.
With musical influences that span the globe (traditional folk, Appalachia, blues, indigenous chant, Latin, roots rock, Hindustani), Jarmo Jalava's songwriting (in English, Spanish and Finnish) evokes the breadth of perspective of a poet and prose writer (recipient of three Ontario Arts Council Writer's Reserve grants), past editor of the international literary journal Exile, a former busker who has hitchhiked the equivalent of the circumference of the globe, a Toronto cab driver of eight years, and a respected ecologist with more than 100 professional publications to his name.
Jarmo's 2001 debut album, Hole in the Sky, led to invitations to perform in the Festival of Lights in Peterborough, Ontario, and Tapsan Tähdit music festival in Tampere, Finland, and received airplay on both sides of the Atlantic. Jarmo's second independent release, Rites of Passage, has been heard across Canada on CBC Radio and university radio. Jarmo has performed on the main stage at Toronto City Hall's Nathan Philips Square, was a featured artist with the Tlapan Cultural Center concert series in Mexico City, as well as the Parque Nacional Desierto de Los Leones music series in Mexico.
His songs were heard on the streets of Berkeley, California, in the early 1980s, and at the Blue Deer Centre in the Catskills of New York twenty years later. Recent tours have taken him to Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, the states of Washington and New York, as well as Mexico. He is currently recording his third album, which he will be promoting during a spring-summer 2010 tour, with the support of percussionist Jimi Doney and flautist Charly Pena, both based in Mexico.
Jimi (James) Doney grew up in Seattle, Washington, and has been a full-time jazz and world music percussionist for over thirty years. He holds an M.F.A. from the School of Music at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). Since the mid-1990’s, Jimi has lived in central Mexico, where he can be found performing jazz, blues, Hindustani and African percussion, and producing and recording a variety of Latin American artists. With his jazz ensemble he has toured in Puerto Rico, the Caribbean Islands, Panama, Seattle and Alaska. One of Jimi’s recent projects is Tibwa, a sizzling, infectiously-danceable Afro-Cuban drumming quartet. Jimi’s passion with the Pythagorean harp has recently had him performing and giving workshops throughout Brazil.
Charly (Carlos) Peña, originally from Guadalajara, Mexico, is a virtuoso player of transverse flute and various traditional bamboo flutes, as well as soprano saxophone. He also received formal training in classical and popular guitar at the School of Music at the State University of Jalisco (La Escuela de Musica de la Universidad de Estado). Charly regularly performs with Latin, pre-Hispanic Mexican, Cuban, Brazilian, trova latina, New Age and World music groups—and has played in festivals throughout Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Canada, England, Scotland, France and Portugal. He appears on the international Putumayo label, and has been with one of Mexico’s finest Afro-Cuban ensembles, Son de Tepoztlan, since 1997.