Monday, October 23, 2023

Music of the Americas: New Season of En Casa Online and Son Jarocho live in New York

En Casa starts the 2023–2024 season with videos by Central American artists, while Caña Dulce y Caña Brava are live on our New York stage.

Nicaraguan singer-songwriter Ceshia Ubau, who was on our series last season, selected a group of Central American artists for a series of En Casa videos from the region. This week, we share music by Carol Hills and Yuri Pineda. On Wednesday, the son jarocho group Caña Dulce y Caña Brava is live on our New York stage, and we close the week with the video of Ensamble Dal Niente's concert in our hall in June 2023.

En Casa: Carol Hills

Monday, October 23, 10 am

Salvadoran singer-songwriter Carol Hills is a multilingual and multi-genre artist who has been performing and advocating for emerging artists in her home country for over a decade. Her song "Más lejos," included in her album En mi habitación, was in the initial selection of the 24th Latin Grammy awards. She won the prize to songwriter of the year in 2023 and was awarded for her years and contribution to the Salvadoran music scene.

From her home in San Salvador, she sent us ''está bien no estar bien," composed during the pandemic and included in En mi habitación. The song explores a variety of emotions that many of us felt during the Covid-19 pandemic, and the struggles with anxiety and depression. Carol wanted to highlight the importance of mental health not only in the music industry but overall in our societies, and to start the conversation about normalizing not feeling good all the time, and being okay with it.

En Casa: Yuri Pineda

Tuesday, October 24, 10 am

Born in Ocotepeque, Honduran singer-songwriter Yuri Pineda started playing music as a child. In 2005, he participated in the Pepsi Band Competition and moved to Tegucigalpa to study music. He has participated in international festivals in Cuba, Panama, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua.

From Santa Lucía, not far from Tegucigalpa, Pineda, with Diego Rivera on cajón and Paul Cruz on bass, he sent us "Sonríe," an introspective song that invites us to accept the world's chaos and soften it with a smile.

En Casa: Santiago Álvarez

Thursday, October 26, 10 am

Argentine harmonica player Santiago Álvarez has dedicated himself to folk and tango music, leading a young generation of Argentinian chromatic harmonica players who have devoted themselves to traditional tango, following in the footsteps of Hugo Diaz. In 2023 he participated in Hohner's “Harmonica Masters Workshop” in Trossingen, where he taught a workshop on Argentine harmonica.

From Buenos Aires, Álvarez sent us two videos, today we share a solo version of Cobián and Cadícamo's classic 1937 tango "Niebla del Riachuelo."

Funders

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

The Fall 2023 Music program is also supported, in part, by the Howard Gilman Foundation, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, by The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, by the MexAm Cultural Foundation, and by the Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University.