The Grand Opening Celebration of the Catalina Island Museum’s new Ada Blanche Wrigley Schreiner Building continues with the famed multiphonic singers of Tibet’s Drepung Loseling Monastery.
The monks will perform Sacred Music Sacred Dance for World Healing at the Catalina Island Museum as part of their international tour of The Mystical Arts of Tibet.
The performance will take place on Sunday, July 3, at 6 p.m. in the Schreiner Family Plaza of the museum’s new building.
The Grand Opening Celebration of the Catalina Island Museum’s new Ada Blanche Wrigley Schreiner Building continues with the famed multiphonic singers of Tibet’s Drepung Loseling Monastery.
The monks will perform Sacred Music Sacred Dance for World Healing at the Catalina Island Museum as part of their international tour of The Mystical Arts of Tibet.
The performance will take place on Sunday, July 3, at 6 p.m. in the Schreiner Family Plaza of the museum’s new building.
The Mystical Arts of Tibet tour is co-produced by Richard Gere Productions and Drepung Loseling Institute. Endorsed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the tour has three basic purposes: to make a contribution to world peace and healing; to generate a greater awareness of the endangered Tibetan civilization; and to raise support for the Tibetan refugee community in India.
The performance features multiphonic singing, wherein the monks simultaneously intone three notes of a chord.
The Drepung Loseling monks are particularly renowned for this unique singing.
They also utilize traditional instruments such as 10-foot long dung-chen horns, drums, bells, cymbals and gyaling trumpets. Rich brocade costumes and masked dances, such as the Dance of the Sacred Snow Lion, add to the exotic splendor.
They have received national acclaim for their performances at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. Distinguished musicians such as Kitaro, Paul Simon, Philip Glass, Eddie Brickell, Natalie Merchant, Patti Smith, the Beastie Boys, and the Grateful Dead’s Mickey Hart, have performed with them.
The New York Times described their New York performance as “…remarkable…the music and the dance invoke sacred ecstasy.”
Their music was featured on the Golden Globe-nominated soundtrack of the film Seven Years in Tibet, starring Brad Pitt (Columbia Pictures) and they performed with Philip Glass in Lincoln Center in the live presentation of his award-winning score to the Martin Scorsese film Kundun (Disney).
This powerful and memorable performance takes place Sunday, July 3, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $15 for members of the Catalina Island Museum and $20 for non-members. This event is expected to sell out. Tickets may be purchased online at www.CatalinaMuseum.org or in the Museum Store between 10 am and 5 pm daily.
Additional details about the Ada Blanche Wrigley Schreiner Building, including the full schedule of Grand Opening events, can be found on the museum’s website: www.CatalinaMuseum.org.
Closing sand paint ceremony set for July 4
The closing ceremony for the creation of a mandala sand painting by Tibetan monks at the Catalina Island Museum will take place on Monday, July 4, at 3 p.m. in the museum’s Hagenah Family Lobby. For over a week, monks from the Drepung Loseling Monastery have been painstakingly creating a mandala sand painting, using traditional metal funnels called chakpurs to gently blow millions of grains of sand perfectly in place.
According to Buddhist belief, every tantric system has its own mandala, each one symbolizing a particular existential and spiritual approach. Monks from the “Mystical Arts of Tibet” have created mandalas in museum throughout the United States.
This experience is free for members of the museum and $7.50 for non-members. For more information, call the museum at 310-510-2414 or visit CatalinaMuseum.org.
The Catalina Island Museum is Avalon’s sole institution devoted to art, culture and history. Open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., the new Ada Blanche Wrigley Schreiner Building is located in the heart of Avalon at 217 Metropole Ave.
For more information, the museum may be reached by phone at 310-510-2414 or at its website: CatalinaMuseum.org.
