Intarsia Transethnic Arts

However, he is adamant that hearing the term “world music” drives him crazy. “We really want to try to work on the idea of music not being thought of in the dichotomy of ‘world music’ versus ‘local music,’ ” Bauer said. “We are not ‘world music.’ We’re just guys from Denver.” Throughout his travels since graduating from Conifer High School in 2001, Bauer has become passionate about bringing together art forms from various cultures to tell stories. 

“Americans are that group of people who absorb different cultures and innovate,” he said. “That’s my personal stance and always has been. That’s what makes Americans, Americans.” Bauer helped start Intarsia Interethnic Arts about 10 years ago with that multicultural goal in mind. He wants to see other people bring cultures together through art. It’s a goal he’s personally striven for, but he hopes to make the concept more accessible for people who don’t have the means to travel or don’t have the musical and linguistic knowledge he does. “This isn’t just for people abroad. This is for people right here in Conifer,” Bauer said. “My ultimate goal is to be a storyteller on stage as a musician.”

Learning about the World

Bauer attended Cornell College, a smaller liberal arts school in Iowa, and during his first semester, he heard a concert by Yat-Kha, a band that combined Tuvan throat singing and rock. Bauer was captivated by the sounds he heard and wanted to learn more. “It was like, ‘Wow, this takes me away,’ ” he said. Tuva, a republic in southern Siberia just north of Mongolia, is one of several countries whose people traditionally practiced throat singing, a guttural, vibrating vocalization. Bauer had been thinking of studying music at Cornell College but ran into some roadblocks once he started focusing on Tuvan music. “I couldn’t really find anybody in the (music) department who was interested in that,” he said. “So I started with something a little bit broader: Asian studies.” Bauer’s interest in other cultures was further stimulated by a year of study in Japan. He graduated from college with a double major in Asian studies and economics and then did a stint working in Los Angeles for a Japanese company, aided by the language skills he’d learned in Japan. Bauer wanted to get back to his interest in international music, however, so he took a trip along most of the Silk Road in the summer of 2008 and moved to Beijing the next year to develop music projects. Eventually, Bauer ended up at Beijing’s Minzu University, alternately known as Central University for Nationalities, where he’s working on a master’s degree in anthropology with an art emphasis.

Tuvan Throat Singing

Bauer has continued to study Tuvan throat singing since his freshman year of college but says his great leap forward came in the summer of 2012 when he traveled to Tuva and studied the art form with a prominent throat singer. Bauer has focused on the “kargyraa” style of throat singing, with an emphasis on the “sub-style” of mountain kargyraa, which may be related to his own mountain upbringing. “I’ve been born and raised right here in the forest,” Bauer said. “You can feel the power of the mountain right in front of you. … This name (mountain kargyraa) is not just because the guys who sing it tend to be from the mountains in Tuva. … The music references the mountain itself.”

Performances

Conifer native Andy Bauer will perform twice more during his current visit to Colorado:

• 8 p.m. Feb. 13 at the Mercury Café in Denver; $5 per person

• 7 p.m. Feb. 17 at Dazzle Jazz’s fund-raising event for nonprofit Mission Support; $10 per person