Spurlock Museum’s 10th WorldFest will be held this Saturday, March 8th. The Museum hosts performers in different art forms from around the world to attract more visitors. Event coordinator, Kim Sheahan, said the first WorldFest began when the they thought, “”Why not have an extravaganza where we have performances going on all over the building?” This year two performers featured will be Port Mor and Goran Ivanovic.
Port Mor has performed authentic, traditional Irish music in the Champaign-Urbana area since 1996. Jake Schumacher, button accordion and piano player, will be leading the group at WorldFest. He spoke with me about Irish music, the upcoming performance, and even his opinion on Unofficial.
Smile Politely: What first got you interested in Irish dance music?
Jake Schumacher: Well I am actually a musician, so what got me interested in Irish dance was Irish music. I lived in Scotland for a year as a junior in college, my year abroad, that was the first time I actually saw Irish traditional music being played. When I moved back to the states, I ran into a bunch of people that were all sort of interested in learning it at the same time, and we had the good fortune to run into an older Irish musician who was living in Missouri at the time, named Mike Hoban. He sort of introduced us to the real living tradition.
SP: Are you Irish yourself?
Schumacher: No.
SP: Is that how the members of Port Mor met, through Mike Hoban?
Schumacher: No actually, Port Mor is a much later incarnation. That was much earlier in my life. Although, one of our members also played with Mike Hoban. Port Mor got together, let’s see we moved to town in the 90s, and wherever you go in the world you generally can find a few people who play Irish traditional music. As soon as we moved here, we found people here. People come and go, but over the years some of us have stayed around all that time. There are some new members in the group, and we have a member who lives in Washington D.C. now who will be back for the performance as well.
SP: How often does Port Mor perform?
Schumacher: Well it varies. Port Mor is more of a concert performance group. I also have a band called the Spudhunters that is more of an Irish bar band. I run a weekly Irish music session at a restaurant called O’Neils in downtown Champaign. So, the people in town that play get together in various combinations here and there. Port Mor hasn’t performed a concert like this for quite a while so this is kind of a reunion concert almost.
SP: For WorldFest you will be joined with Irish dancer and dance instructor Daniel Flora, have you ever worked with him before?
Schumacher: Yeah, Daniel is a regular attendee at the session. We do some dancing at the weekly session too, and Daniel has been a great asset to the group in terms of getting people interested in dancing. Daniel studies it very intensively, and he is a good teacher. He will be doing some solo dancing during the first hour of our performance, and then the second hour will consist of him teaching some Irish social dances to anybody in the audience that is interested in learning them. They are not difficult, and they are a lot of fun. We will be playing live music for it, so it should be quite an event.
SP: Do you Irish dance yourself?
Schumacher: [chuckles] I have two left feet.
SP: Have you participated in WorldFest before?
Schumacher: Not as a performer, I have participated as an audience member.
SP: Is attending as an audience member what made you want to participate?
Schumacher: Well, I like to be able to expose people to Irish traditional music whenever and wherever I can. It’s the music that’s sort of instantly likeable by a lot of people. It’s formed the foundation for blue grass and country music in some ways, and it’s very melodic music. It’s got a good beat. You can dance to it. It’s full of happiness; it’s full of sadness. It really resonates with a lot of people, particularly in this area because so many people are from the Chicago area. So many people in the Chicago area have Irish roots. So whenever we have a chance to perform in public, whenever we have a chance to put this music in front of people who might not have experienced it before or experienced it in a live performance setting, we try to do that.
SP: What is your favorite part about performing?
Schumakcher: Well, you know, I love playing music; I love playing Irish music. I love being able to turn someone on to it who has never heard it before. I try to do the music justice as well as all of the many people who have gone before us in terms of making it a traditional music. Because traditional music is based on people, it’s a social music. It’s a music that you will learn from other people. So when I have a chance to put that in front of still more people, that makes me happy.
SP: As you may know, Unofficial is this weekend. As a member in an Irish band, I was wondering what your take on the event was. Does it offend you?
Schumacher: [laughs] I really don’t think it has much to do with St. Patrick’s day one way or the other. I’m not offended, I just hope people don’t hurt themselves or anyone else.
SP: So you won’t be participating in Unofficial?
Schumacher: Well, [laughs], I think my Unofficial days are probably over at this point.
Goran Ivanovic will also be performing on Saturday. He is a guitar player from Croatia who describes his style as “modern classical/folklore” and has been influenced by jazz, flamenco, balkan folk and latin music. When I asked what he hopes people will take away from his performance he said,
I want to connect with people on a personal level when I perform. I play for people, but I also play for myself. I try not to compromise with music. Just do my thing and hopefully people see/hear it comes honestly from my heart.
Other performers include traditional Caucasus music player, Ben Wheeler; Japanese storyteller, Anne Shimojima; and Indian dancer, Sankhya Hirani. Visitors will also be able to make bell anklets or shakers, inspired by Hirani’s performance. The event runs from 12-4:30 with a suggested donation of $5.
