Ramón Araiza presents “The Genealogy of California’s Gold Rush Music”

Musician and music scholar, Mr. Ramón Araiza, will present “The Genealogy of California’s Gold Rush Music” at the Santa Barbara County Genealogical Society’s monthly meeting, Saturday, June 17th at the First Presbyterian Church, 21 E. Constance at State Street, 9:30 am to 12:00 pm.

Pianist Ramón Araïza will present a one-hour program dedicated to the fascinating genealogy of California’s gold rush music, featuring examples of folk/vernacular songs and dances from both the early Hispanic and later Anglo-Saxon traditions . . . as well as a foray into the suddenly imported art-music of the European scene.  The program will feature the splendid artistry of Santa Barbara’s favorite lyric soprano, Christine Hollinger, whose surprise performance wowed the SBCGS last June.

Ramon will also take a look into the after-work times of a 49er, the churches, saloons, brothels, inns, tent cities and the public squares and explore the public and private entertainment of the 300 thousand who braved the elements and each other to build the cities and rural areas as California grew exponentially from the promise of gold initially found at Sutter’s Mill. Over $100 Billion of gold was recovered at today’s prices.

Mr. Araiza was Music Director of The National Theatre for Children and composed original scores for the Ensemble Arts Theatre, the AVOCE Ensemble, the Bill Evans Dance Company, the Lenna De Marco Dance Company and the SGI-USA American Victory Symphony. He has performed many piano recital programs and solos recitals nationally and internationally.

Special Interest Groups meet at 9:30 am for Beginning Genealogy, Civil War Genealogy, Writers’ Support Group, German Ancestry, Italian Genealogy, French Canadian Genealogy, Computer Genealogy, DNA, and Jewish Genealogy.  The Society Monthly meeting starts at 10:30 and the featured speaker starts at 11:00am.
Come join us. You do not need to be a member to enjoy this wonderful free presentation.
A calendar of genealogical events can be found at the Society web site (http://sbgen.org/eventListings.php?nm=216).

END

Media contact: Glenn Avolio, PR Chair, glennavolio@gmail.com (805) 886-5438