Music of the Americas: From Costa Rica to Argentina

Valeria Atkeys is a Costa Rican pianist, producer, and composer that seeks to create sonic experiences that foster connection. Her style fuses classical piano with Latin American rhythms and genres such as electro-pop, indie-pop, and trip-hop, and she takes great pride in being a visible voice for the LGBTQI+ community and using her platform to celebrate diversity and inclusion. She is the founder of Wila Fest, the first large-scale festival in Central America dedicated to women in music.

For her new participation in our series, she sent us this version of her song "Ciudad escondida" (Hidden City), with Pedro Guzmán on drums and Miguel Vargas on bass. “Ciudad escondida” is inspired by Guayabo de Turrialba, one of the oldest Indigenous settlements in Costa Rica.The song portrays this space as a place outside of time where universal energies converge with memory and ancestral wisdom. Atkeys says that the song "aims to transmit the feeling of connection with time, nature, and the power that dwells in us through generations."

Wednesday, May 27, 10 am

Martín Cecenarro is a guitarist, composer, and educator from Andalgalá in the northeastern Argentine province of Catamarca. He is the guitarist for the band La NN. He has released two albums, Canciones de tregua and Ofrenda y ritual, as well as the single "Distancia." 

He sent us this version of "Espejo de mi tierra" (Mirror of my Land), a song in which love for the land—and the pain caused by the mistreatment of Pachamama—finds a parallel in the suffering of a mother battling a terminal illness. 

Thursday, May 28, 10 am

The Ecuadorian Duo Pakta (Otavalo-Kichwa singer Ana Cachimuel and guitarist and singer Óscar Betancourt Campos) create a sonic journey through songs from various eras and regions of Latin America. They sing in Kichwa and accompany themselves with guitar, charango, ronroco, Andean wind instruments, and light percussion. Pakta was formed in 2023 in response to a shared desire to explore new sonic possibilities, with the voice as an instrument of immense potential capable of transcending established boundaries. 

"Llullugu," by Kichwa-Otavalo singer-songwriter Kaya Cachimuel, is a lullaby for the healthy growth of a child, weaving together music and song in Kichwa—the ancestral language of the indigenous people of Otavalo—as a means of revitalizing this ancestral tongue.

Friday, May 15, 10 am

Kandall is a Panamanian reggae artist who, through his music, seeks to connect and promote his culture. His songs speak of love and spiritualilty and seek to awaken our consciousness.

From Panama City, with Anthony Vega and Mauro Toribio, he sent us this version of "333," a song born out of pure love Kandall felt with the start of his family and the birth of his daughter. 

The MetLife Foundation Music of the Americas concert series is made possible by the generous support of Presenting Sponsor MetLife Foundation.

The 2025–2026 series is also supported, in part, by the Howard Gilman Foundation, Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation, Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, The Augustine Foundation, the Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, and The Amphion Foundation.