CANTON -- St. Lawrence University’s Department of Music will host Journey West, a musical program chronicling the migration of melody through an interactive aural and visual lecture and performance, from 2 to 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 30, in Peterson-Kermani Performance Hall located in the Griffiths Arts Center. The event is free and open to the public.

A production of Cornell University, the Journey West illustrates the primary factors involved in carrying melodies to distant land: wars, imperialism, nomadic dispersions, mass emigrations due to political oppression, and musical crazes that sweep the globe.

The musical performance is presented with changing PowerPoint slides to help illustrate the regional and musical differences encountered on the Journey West. The musicians offer demonstrations on their respective instruments and provide basic theoretical explanations to accompany the technical examples.

The Journey West program is designed with multiculturalism in mind; to educate those interested in distant ethnicities and to allow members of ethnicities presented in the program to enjoy music of their homeland or ancestors.

It features director Max Buckholtz on violin; Nikolai Ruskin on percussion, oud and nay; Mark Karlsen on saxophone, clarinet and flute; Dara Anissi on guitar and mandolin; and Chad Lieberman on bass and accordion.

The Journey West program expands the Cornell Middle Eastern Music Ensemble’s goal of fostering unity and understanding between different cultures, including Jewish, Roma, European, American, and the Middle East.

Info: www.journeywestmusic.com.