Musco Center presents:

Small Island Big Song

Saturday, February 3, 2024 | 7:30 p.m.

Be prepared to have your view of islander music shattered, as leading artists of the blue continent, the Pacific & Indian oceans unite in a powerful & timely cultural statement, a voice for our changing seas – ‘Our Island’.
Small Island Big Song a collaboration between artists of Island nations drawing from their shared seafaring heritage to unite the Pacific & Indian Oceans. The performance ‘Our Island’ brings together some of the most prominent artists of Taiwan, Madagascar, Mauritius, Papua New Guinea, and Tahiti, who have made a choice to maintain the cultural voice of their people, to sing in the language, and to play the instruments of their land. These unique lineages mixed with their diverse contemporary styles - roots-reggae, beats, folk & spoken-word, establish a contemporary musical dialogue between cultures, drawing on their ancestral lineage to confront contemporary issues with a hope driven vision of the future. Framed with live visuals filmed across 16 island nations on a 3-year field trip by the project’s co-founders, creating “Beautiful cinematography and incredible music, one coherent, jaw-dropping piece"  as described by Rob Schwartz - Billboard.
Motivated by their concerns for the ocean, a couple, Taiwanese theater producer BaoBao Chen and Australian music producer / filmmaker Tim Cole, quit their jobs after hearing the predicted effects of climate change to the oceanic nations, and spent the following eight years recording and filming with over a hundred artists on sixteen island nations, layering up songs from island to island. Outcomes include two award-winning albums, a feature film, impact program, and two world-touring productions.
Music critic Tom Orr has noted in the RootsWorld review “Small Island Big Song sound like one very big, very happy family doing what they do best while helping get the word out on a most serious issue.”