2007.06.25: June 25, 2007: Headlines: COS - Central African Republic: Music: COS - Ivory Coast: The State Journal-Register: Central African Republic RPCV Michael Shereikis is a singer and guitarist for Chopteeth
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2007.06.25: June 25, 2007: Headlines: COS - Central African Republic: Music: COS - Ivory Coast: The State Journal-Register: Central African Republic RPCV Michael Shereikis is a singer and guitarist for Chopteeth
Central African Republic RPCV Michael Shereikis is a singer and guitarist for Chopteeth
Chopteeth is an "old-school afrofunk orchestra, with a big horn section and the whole works," according to Shereikis. The music is a mix of Yoruba tribal music, Jamaican ska, Ghanaian funk and Senegalese rumba. The band consists of a five-piece horn section, a drummer, two percussionists, two guitarists, a bassist, a keyboardist and two singers. When I was in the Peace Corps, I started zeroing in on African guitar styles, then in New Orleans and Abidjan," Shereikis said. "Making rhythmic music is always something I've just done. I pursued (guitar) in my second or third year of college."
Central African Republic RPCV Michael Shereikis is a singer and guitarist for Chopteeth
Michael Shereikis: 1980s soccer player sinks teeth into afrofunk music
By MARCIA MARTINEZ
STAFF WRITER
Published Monday, June 25, 2007
The following is the latest installment of a new series in The State Journal-Register called "Headliners: A look at people who made the news." Each Monday, we'll catch up with a newsmaker from the past.
Web extra: View photo gallery
Righteous rhythms ... one of D.C.'s funkiest bands. Only the most determined stoics will be able to resist the grooves conjured up by Chopteeth ... be ready to dance," proclaimed the Washington Post.
One member of the 14-piece afrofunk big band Chopteeth is Michael Shereikis. The former soccer player at Southeast High School and Brown University is a singer and guitarist for the group.
Chopteeth is an "old-school afrofunk orchestra, with a big horn section and the whole works," according to Shereikis. The music is a mix of Yoruba tribal music, Jamaican ska, Ghanaian funk and Senegalese rumba. The band consists of a five-piece horn section, a drummer, two percussionists, two guitarists, a bassist, a keyboardist and two singers.
Chopteeth performed in January at the inauguration of Washington, D.C., Mayor Adrian M. Fenty. The band also played at a wrap party for the HBO series "The Wire" and at Washington's Kennedy Center.
The band has been nominated by the Washington Area Music Association for four Wammie awards, including Best World Music Group. Members expect to finish recording their first compact disc by summer's end.
Shereikis composes most of the music for Chopteeth, which he helped found in 2004. Shereikis and the band's other vocalist sing in at least seven languages or dialects, including English, French, Yoruba (Nigeria), Twi (Ghana), and Swahili (eastern Africa).
Shereikis' life has been sprinkled with international flair. Growing up, his parents Richard and Judith, former Sangamon State University professors who now live in Evanston, often opened the family's home to exchange students.
In the fall of 1987, Shereikis made Brown's varsity soccer team as a freshman. But his college athletic career lasted only a year and a half. He fractured both shins while playing broomball on a frozen Lake Springfield, and then there was a back injury.
He graduated from Brown in 1991 and married fellow Southeast graduate Natasha Sakolsky, who directs projects for a nonprofit international public health agency.
The couple joined the Peace Corps. In 1992, they were posted to a remote village in the Central African Republic but had to return to the U.S. later that year because of civil unrest in the African nation. Shereikis and Sakolsky moved to New Orleans in 1994, where Shereikis received his master's degree in anthropology from Tulane University.
In 1997, the couple returned to Africa for a two-year stint in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire. Their son was born there, and, while overseas, Shereikis did research for his dissertation on the popular music industry in West Africa.
"When I was in the Peace Corps, I started zeroing in on African guitar styles, then in New Orleans and Abidjan," Shereikis said. "Making rhythmic music is always something I've just done. I pursued (guitar) in my second or third year of college."
The family left Cote d'Ivoire in 1998 and relocated to the D.C. area. In 2002, the Shereikis family added a daughter. Two weeks after her birth, he suffered a slight heart attack. He was working on his dissertation and had a government contracting job at the time. Since then, he has recovered, dropped his dissertation and become a stay-at-home dad to 8-year-old Nicholas and 5-year-old Rachel.
"Both kids are soccer players and musicians," Shereikis said.
The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
Marcia Martinez can be reached at 788-1547 or marcia.martinez@sj-r.com.
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Story Source: The State Journal-Register
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