CARAVAN WORLD RHYTHMS, founded in 2000, is a non-profit charitable organization whose mission is:
- To provide high-quality, engaging live cultural entertainment with artists from a diverse range of cultures and backgrounds from Canada and around the world.
- To provide the public with the experience of “spirit” that underlies the expression of tradition-based music and dance, and more contemporary expressions created in today’s world.
- To provide talented local and other Canadian world musicians and dancers more opportunities for exposure and integration into the local art scene.
- To develop new ways for audiences to participate in cultural events, sharing in the experience of music making and movement.
- Since our founding, we have also produced a number of thematic festivals focused on the arts of Tibet, West Africa, Indonesia, the Balkans.
Highlights of our programming over the years include Ravi and Anoushka Shankar, the Soweto Gospel Choir, Les Ballets National de Guinée, Salif Keita, Nuevo Ballet Español, Masters of Persian Music, and Goran Bregovic, to name a few. Caravan also prides itself on presenting lesser-known artists and forms of musical traditions, including polyphonic choirs from southern France, or northern Italy; throat-singing and music from the republic of Tuva; Mbira music from Zimbabwe; Balinese gamelan music and dance; and much more.
In recent years, Caravan has expanded our programming vision, as artists from various cultural traditions and musical genres increasingly collaborate and create new fusions and forms of expression.