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Here you will find our last press release, some published articles, photos of Carla Leininger and testimonials about Global Beats.
For Immediate Release 19-May-10
Global Beats and Harp and Fiddle present World Cup Kickoff Celebration
Global Beats and Harp and Fiddle have partnered during the World Cup 2010 to bring excitement and World Cup ambiance to Pittsburgh. On Friday and Saturday, June 11th and 12th, Harp and Fiddle in the Strip District kicks off a series of events to celebrate the biggest single sporting event in the world. With Global Beats as a partner, the Irish Pub is welcoming soccer and world music fans with its traditionally friendly Irish hospitality.
Pub Manager David Regan says the strategic partnership is fundamental in order to provide a multicultural and enthusiastic ambiance for World Cup fans. "In addition to live world music entertainment, we are broadcasting the opening ceremony and games on a big screen TV and on other TV's throughout the venue. We are challenging fans with trivia games, giving away prizes, offering drink specials and organizing several games to make the experience even more fun and unique. We want Harp and Fiddle to be the home for football fans in Pittsburgh." The pub will open its doors at 10 am and activities will continue throughout the day with live music starting at 5 pm both days.
This year's World Cup takes place in South Africa and is the first time the tournament takes place on African soil. The occasion brings together 32 nations to compete and millions of fans. The opening ceremony is billed as the greatest entertainment show to date in Africa and counts on the presence of Alicia Keys, Amadou & Mariam, Angélique Kidjo, Black Eyed Peas, BLK JKS, John Legend, Juanes, Shakira, The Parlotones, Tinariwen, Vieux Farka Touré and Vusi Mahlasela who will take to the stage at Orlando Stadium in Soweto/Johannesburg on the eve of the opening match of the 2010 FIFA World Cup™.
Carla Leininger of Global Beats couldn't be more excited. "Soccer and music are incredible forces to unify people and create social changes. It's a perfect fit for the mission of Global Beats. The formula is ideal: joyful Irish pub hospitality, soccer passion, multiple nations, great music, fun activities and a central location. I'm thrilled that this partnership is providing Pittsburgh with yet another opportunity to enjoy sports and unity of all people!"
On Friday, June 11th, the audience will get a chance to see the Tom Bachelor Band from Morgantown performing some reggae, calypso and rock. One of the surprises of the event is the premiere on Saturday, June 12th, of Pittsburgh's World Beat Band, New World Ginga. Ginga is a Brazilian word used primarily to describe the fundamental movement in the Brazilian martial art of "Capoeira." In music, it describes when musicians and dancers unite in a soulful, swinging spirit of ecstasy and celebration. Their songs will represent samples of popular songs and hit numbers. However, the rhythms that will be explored are a conglomeration of Ska, Rock, Latin, Calypso, Samba/Reggae, Bossa Nova and other African based styles. But above all, the "New World Ginga" band represents a party that celebrates the unity of cultures.
About Global Beats:
Global Beats is a leading producer of global music events in Pittsburgh, PA. It was created to foster multicultural exchanges and to be an agent of social change through the sounds and fusion of world music. Through strategic partnerships with PUMP (Pittsburgh Urban Magnet Project) and GSFA (Guitar Society of Fine Arts), Global Beats has earned grants from the Heinz Endowments and the Multicultural Arts Initiative to present world music acts of great quality, which demonstrate how Pittsburgh is a cutting-edge hub of culture, creativity and collaboration. Regular Global Beats nights are on the last Saturday of the month at the AVA Lounge, 126 S. Highland Ave, in the growing East Liberty area. For details visit www.globalbeatspitt.com
Allegheny_West_magazine pg 44 titled She Beats to the Drums of Other Worlds.pdf
A Unifying Beat
By: Mike Shanley
April 4, 2007
Without knowing the exact address of AVA, the relatively new lounge at 126 South Highland Avenue might be easy to miss. The dark awning hanging over its doorway dwarves the name, which is painted in the lower right corner of the front window, in letters just a few inches tall. At a quick glance, its façade looks similar to many storefronts in this transitional neighborhood. But walk by on the weekend, and it points to the future of this ever-evolving area.
On this last Saturday in February, Brazilian dance music blares onto the street as patrons work their way through the door. The throng of bodies — nearly 200 by the end of the night — adds extra heat to the packed room. The décor has yet to be completed, says Justin Strong, who along with Tim Guthrie, runs AVA as well the Shadow Lounge, the seven-year old venue around the corner on Baum Boulevard which connects to AVA via the back hallway. Seating is minimal. Besides a few streamers, the only decoration comes in the form of four candles, mounted a few feet from each other in glass cases along the left wall, which like the rest of the room is painted black. Yet, all of this is secondary to el ritmo that Carla Leininger is spinning from the DJ booth in the back of the room.
Global Beats, which takes place the last Saturday of every month, features dance music not only from Leininger’s native Brazil, but from countries around the world, juxtaposing Arabic music with grooves from Turkey, Venezuela and Iran, to list but a few. The theme of tonight’s event celebrates the Brazilian Carnival, emphasized by the video of lavish parade in Rio projected on the wall. As women in beaded headdresses slink across the wall, women in crop tops on the dance floor fling their arms in the air and chant along with the foreign songs. One couple dances more suggestively with each new song while an ethnically diverse crowd, dressed in everything from ball caps and baggy pants to suits, comes together for the pulsating music and atmosphere.
An International Community
Leininger created Global Beats in 2004. A host of the weekly “Brazilian Radio Hour”on WRCT-FM 88.3, she launched the event at a club in the Strip District. “I saw a lot of people from the international community at Déjà Vu, and asked had they ever considered doing anything there in terms of a World Music night,”she says.
For the next year and half, Global Beats took place at Déjà Vu during the week, first on Wednesdays and later Thursdays. To welcome people of various ethnicities, Leininger contacted different community groups, such as Carnegie Mellon’s Columbia en Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh Venezuelan Association, for assistance in programming the music. (Leininger also has her own Brazilian Pittsburgh website for natives: www.arrepiabrasil.org.) Other informal groups have contributed to evenings that featured Arabic and Persian music. “I can’t claim to know everything about World Music,”she says, modestly. “I need someone who’s involved with the culture too.”
Each Global Beats party has a theme, which makes up half of the evening’s music, with music from other countries blended mixed together for the rest of the set. “It tends to be the music that the youth in their [native] country are listening to when they go out dancing,”Leininger says. “I think a lot of people think of it as folk music, which it isn’t. I want to play whatever it is they’d be listening to, not what their grandparents would be listening to.”While some World Music has the potential to take its bare music essentials, reduce them to an elemental nature and mix it with a generic, programmed beat, the music at Global Beats maintains the exciting quality of the traditional music even as it takes on a modern identity.
Leininger took a break from Global Beats in early 2006 when a job change gave her less time during weeknights. Strong, of the Shadow Lounge, encouraged her to set up shop each month after she helped promote a concert through the Brazilian Radio Hour. AVA had been open a month at that time, but she was ready to pick up where she left off.
Hot Music, Hot Neighborhood
AVA’s location borders Shadyside, East Liberty and Highland Park, an area that has grown by leaps and bounds since Strong opened the Shadow Lounge in 2000. Kelly’s Bar and Lounge on South Penn Circle, as well as the restaurants Abay and the Red Room Cafe, are drawing more people to the neighborhood, and Strong says events like Global Beats add to it by fulfilling a need no one else is addressing. “Pittsburgh is far behind as far as providing a true diverse selection of entertainment and an infrastructure and support of different cultures moving into Pittsburgh,”he says. “A lot of times, it’s very black and white and if you’re anything but that, sometimes you don’t feel as welcomed or tolerated. We want to provide a platform that says this is supported and celebrated. At the same time, hopefully we’ll boost the global population moving into this area.”
testimonials
Carla is deeply committed and passionate about her mission - to create memorable and brilliantly nuanced musical events that build intercultural bridges while being hugely entertaining. The thought, effort and talent that she pours into crafting these exceptional events is most impressive - South America, Middle East, Asia, Europe... all regions have been featured and blended into a unifying force for peace and understanding. Global Beats does more for intercultural awareness and tolerance at a public level than all manners of summits, conferences and speeches, and makes it fun and exciting.
Kannu Sahni
You’re doing some very valuable work in the community.
Bob Ogara