(NORTH ADAMS, Mass.) – Blending 1970s Nubian songs, Western soul, and vintage Sudanese pop, Alsarah and the Nubatones rock Club B-10 at MASS MoCA on Saturday, November 10, 2012, at 8 p.m. Alsarah, a Sudanese-American firecracker, is the leading lady of this extraordinary band bound together by a collective love for Nubian music and the belief that soul transcends all cultural barriers.

Born in Sudan’s capital city, Khartoum, Alsarah grew up in Sudan, Yemen, and the Berkshires. After attending the Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Charter High School in Hadley, Mass., she attended Wesleyan University, and now resides in Brooklyn. Alsarah performs music from different parts of the Middle East and East Africa.

Heavily influenced by music from both her native homeland and her adopted ones, Alsarah comes together with her band, the Nubatones, to create music that reflects a journey through diaspora; this is musical migration filtered through an urban lens.

Afropop Worldwide calls the band’s sound “a blend of original compositions and traditional pieces, grounded in the Sudanese and Nubian musical traditions but sails in the pocket of funk and soul music.” Inspired by the pentatonic scale – the musical mode with five notes per octave as opposed to a heptatonic seven-note scale that much of Western music utilizes – the band brings a fresh perspective to music.

Alsarah and the Nubatones take the stage in MASS MoCA’s Club B-10 on Saturday, November 10, at 8 PM. Club B-10 is an intimate, casual venue on the third floor of MASS MoCA. Tickets are $12 in advance or $16 on the day of the show. Student tickets are $10. Members receive a 10% discount on tickets. Tickets are available through the MASS MoCA Box Office, located off Marshall Street in North Adams, from 11 AM until 5 PM (closed Tuesdays). Tickets can also be charged by phone by calling 413.662.2111 during Box Office hours or purchased online at MASS MoCA.

MASS MoCA, the largest center for contemporary visual and performing arts in the United States, is located off Marshall Street in North Adams on a 13-acre campus of renovated 19th-century factory buildings.  MASS MoCA is an independent 501(c)(3) whose operations and programming are funded through admissions and commercial lease revenue, corporate and foundation grants, and individual philanthropy.  Except for an initial construction grant from the Commonwealth, and competitive program and operations grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Massachusetts Cultural Council, MASS MoCA is privately funded: 90% of annual operating revenues are from earned revenues, membership support, and private gifts and grants.