The melodic sounds of Tibetan singer Dadon came to Middletown in time for Tibetan New Year, which fall this year on Feb. 22. Dadon’s performance at Oddfellows Playhouse on Washington St. marks her eighth annual visit to the theater in honor of the holiday.
“Oddfellows is [a] very good supporter of Tibetan culture,” said Tsedron Normatsang ’02, Dadon’s sister.
Many residents seemed delighted with Dadon’s performance after the concert.
“There is no another artist that I would have come out on a cold February night to see,” said concertgoer Joy, a local Tai Chi master and a Reikie—a healing modality—specialist. “She is one of the most beautiful, spiritual people I know.”
Dadon’s musical style is a mixture of both contemporary and traditional Tibetan music. The singer’s early career began in Tibet, where her music is widely known. She is also now popular in China.
At Sunday’s concert, Dadon sung several original songs, each filled with messages of peace, love, and hope. Approximately 80 people attended the show.
Before each song, Dadon told the audience a short anecdotal story about the meaning of the song. She also recited English translations of her songs before going on to sing them in Tibetan.
Dadon shared her story of how she escaped Tibet in 1992 by crossing the Himalayas into Nepal, then traveling into India, and then to the United States.
“When I tell people about my life story, they say, ‘My gosh, I would have died if I was in your shoes’…and when I go home, I say to myself, ‘Yeah, I did almost [die],’” Dadon said.
Dadon said her nostalgia for Tibet inspired her song “Refugee.” The song is a lamentation of a world that she has not been able to return to for over a decade. It includes lyrics in Tibetan that translate to, “Every time I see a snowy mountain/I miss my home.”
“Bumble Bee,” a crowd favorite at the performance, is a song about a bee who arrives at a flower too late, just missing its nectar. Dadon described this as a metaphor for lovers who find love at inopportune times, and who, like the bumblebee that must wait until the next season for nectar, will wait for each other in the next lifetime.
According to Normatsand, Dadon is hoping to do more service for the Tibetan and Buddist communities in the Conn. area, the most visible being in Middletown and Old Saybrook. In 2002, Dadon organized a Tibetan Cultural Festival in Conn. and invited Tibetan monks to perform scared rituals, and had Tibetan vendors sell authentic products.
“[Dadon] also wants to start a Tibetan language class for local youth, so that the language is also preserved,” Normatsang said.
Dadon is a renowned performer who has sung at both the Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall in New York City, and has performed in the Tibetan Freedom Concert alongside musicians Sheryl Crow, Natalie Merchant, Emmy Lou Harris, Philip Glass and Yo-Yo Ma.
Dadon has also performed at Trinity College and at the University of Connecticut. She frequently tours internationally, and her music is featured in several independent films to be released.
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