
COURTESY / MUSICAL BRIDGES AROUND THE WORLD
The Austin Troubadours will perform March 29 as part of Musical Bridges Around the World’s sixth annual International Music Festival.
Causing heart attacks is not officially in the mission statement of Musical Bridges Around the World (MBAW), but its programming nearly caused a couple of them, according to founder Anya Grokhovski.
The occasion was two classically trained musicians confronting their long-held stereotypes during a 2011 MBAW concert that mixed traditional European classical music with traditional Indian classical music. Just that both could be rightly termed “classical” shocked Grokhovski, and her Indian counterpart, Sujatha Venkatashwar, was stunned that Grokhovski would consider her work to be “folk music.”
Both learned to appreciate each other’s cultures, and such educational experiences are at the heart of MBAW’s mission to “unite, educate, and inspire through culturally diverse programming.”
Continuing its mission, this Friday MBAW opens its sixth annual International Music Festival in San Antonio, with a slate of musicians that unites Serbia and Brooklyn, traditional Japanese taiko drumming with ballet, and Mozart with rumba.
All festival performances are free and open to the public, with concerts Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at the Charline McCombs Empire Theatre and March 29 and 31 at San Fernando Cathedral.

The full International Music Festival schedule is available here.