Sold-out show livestreamed free
CAMDEN — For the first time since late fall, Camden Opera House will host a small audience in its SoundCheck series. All seats have already been sold for Gordon Bok’s 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 23, performance, but the show will be streamed live on the opera house’s Facebook page, free to enjoy, no RSVP necessary.
Bok’s music runs deep and wide, as does his mastery of song, multiple instruments, folklore and history. Caretaker of both Northeast maritime heritage and of the music and liturgy of the Kalmyk Mongolians who immigrated to America in the 1950s, Bok also has been a musical innovator. He reinvented and developed the popular cantefable or “folk-opera” fusion of storytelling and song, now widely used by storytellers and musicians in this country. He invented a multi-keyed Bok Whistle, and collaborated with instrument makers on such wonders as the ‘cellamba, combining a cello and viola de gamba.
The much-honored Bok’s masterful playing, rich, sonorous voice and wellspring of tunes and songs both original and from around the world promise an evening like no other. He calls himself a “rememberer, a keeper of songs and stories,” adding, “I try to keep hope alive in myself and others.”
Bok’s show is sponsored by the Camden Maine Stay Inn. Tickets ($10) are still available for Dave Gutter’s one-set SoundCheck concert Friday, April 30, at 7:30 p.m. and more – most Friday nights through the summer. The free livestreams also will continue, archived thereafter on Facebook and the Camden Opera House YouTube Channel. For the full lineup, and to donate to the Community Arts Fund that makes it possible, visit www.camdenoperahouse.com.