Archive: Arts & Entertainment

Jake Blount and Libby Weitnauer performing as 'Tui' will present a house concert at The Canaan Institute on Thursday March 7th 2019 beginning at 7:00 pm followed by a jam session. Blount and Weitnauer play traditional music of Appalachia and the USA.

Blount and Weitnauer joined forces to become Tui in mid-2018. They draw inspiration equally from rare archival recordings and the music of their peers, and both have extensive experiences with other genres of music; Blount spent years as a funk and metal guitarist, and Weitnauer has an M.A. in classical violin performances from NYU. Tui’s diverse influences enable them to create music that is innovative and technically demanding, yet accessible and affecting as only old songs can be.

In addition to performances in the United States, they have toured internationally in Australia and New Zealand, and plan to release an album together in the spring of 2019.

Blount is a fiddler, banjo player and scholar based in Ithaca, New York. He has performed and recorded with acclaimed fiddler Tatiana Hargreaves and award-winning old-time string band The Moose Whisperers, in addition to having served as a guest lecturer on music history at numerous museums and universities. In 2018, he and Hargreaves opened a series of shows for GRAMMY-winner and MacArthur 'Genius Grant' recipient Rhiannon Giddens. He centers and venerates his racial and ethnic heritage through his approach to music and its history.

Fiddler and singer Weitnauer has degrees in classical violin performance from DePaul University and New York University, but finds her voice in the traditional music of Appalachia. She has performed in a wide range of venues and concert halls, most recently the Smithsonian National Museum of American History after a summer of research and music-making under the supervision of Grammy Award winner Dom Flemons.

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