• Recuerdos: Momenta Quartet plays Pietro Cerone
  • Recuerdos: Orchestra of St. Luke's plays Frank
  • Recuerdos: Momenta Quartet plays Fernández
  • Recuerdos: Orchestra of St. Luke's plays Benavides
  • Funders
    • Stephanie Griffin

    Stephanie Griffin at Americas Society. (Image: Roey Yohai Studios)

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    Recuerdos: Momenta Quartet plays Pietro Cerone Recuerdos: Orchestra of St. Luke's plays Frank Recuerdos: Momenta Quartet plays Fernández Recuerdos: Orchestra of St. Luke's plays Benavides Funders

    Music of the Americas: Recuerdos

    Music of the Americas returns live with concerts by Stephanie Griffin and the Orchestra of St. Luke's next week, and Recuerdos revisits past performances by the musicians. 

    Music of the Americas is back on stage in New York, with two concerts next week. On February 28, Canadian violist and composer Stephanie Griffin for the premiere of two new works, including the Americas Society-commissioned song cycle Beautiful You Are, and the dance piece For Sameena. Stephanie has been on our physical and virtual stages several times since 2010, with Momenta Quartet and as a violist, including this virtual production of Louis Aguirre's Ebbó and the U.S. premiere of Alejandro García Caturla's Manita en el suelo. This week we share Agustín Fernandez's first String Quartet, which Momenta performed in their debut on our series in 2010, and a piece from Pietro Cerone's El melopeo y maestro recorded in 2019, for which Momenta became a two-viola quartet. 

    On March 3, Americas Society is again the venue for the Manhattan stop of the Orchestra of St. Luke's 5 Borough Tour, featuring string quartets by Tania León, inti figgis-vizueta, and Keyla Orozco. In preparation for their new visit, we share two pieces recorded during last year's tour, by Gabriela Lena Frank and Nick Benavides during last year's tour. 

    En Casa will be back next week. 

    Recuerdos: Momenta Quartet plays Pietro Cerone

    Tuesday, February 21, 10 am

    In 2019, the Hispanic Society invited us to present a concert featuring pieces from their remarkable collection of baroque music. The concert featured Meridionalis, our vocal ensemble, guitarist Adam Cockerham, and Momenta Quartet, who, in this case, became a two-viola quartet for a few pieces from Pietro Cerone's El melopeo y maestro, an influential 16th-century musical manual. 

    The book includes lessons on all aspects of contemporary music-making and a beautiful collection of musical enigmas, i.e., musical pieces notated in non-traditional ways, accompanied by their explanations. The concert featured three of these enigmas, which is part of the Enigma de la mano. 

     

    Recuerdos: Orchestra of St. Luke's plays Frank

    Wednesday, February 22, 10 am

    The first visit of the Orchestra of St. Luke's 5 Borough Tour took place last March, and it was dedicated to music that reflected the current environmental situation. 

    From that concert, we share Gabriela Lena Frank's “Canto de la Hoja” from Suite Mestiza for violin, performed by Alexander Fortes.

    Recuerdos: Momenta Quartet plays Fernández

    Thursday, February 23, 10 am

    In 2010, Momenta Quartet made their Music of the Americas debut with a program that included Bolivian composer Agustín Fernández's String Quartet No 1, ‘Montes,’ written for Momenta in 2007. 

    Recuerdos: Orchestra of St. Luke's plays Benavides

    Friday, February 24, 10 am

    The closing piece of St. Luke's concert in 2022 was Nicolas Lell Benavides' Recyclate, a piece inspired by Hovor II, which is a 15-foot by 15-foot “tapestry” created by El Anatsui, a Ghanian artist living in Nigeria. El Anatsui is particularly intrigued by recycled materials, and this monumental work served as a basis for Recyclate. 

    Funders

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

    The Spring 2023 Music program is also supported, in part, by the Howard Gilman Foundation and by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

    New York Council on the Arts             Howard Gilman Foundation

     

    Additional support comes from the Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, The Amphion Foundation, the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, New Music USA’s Organizational Development Fund, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Association of Performing Arts Professionals’ ArtsForward program, made possible through support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and The Augustine Foundation. 

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