7 to 8:30 pm ET

Americas Society
680 Park Avenue
New York

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Toomai String Quintet: Cuban Premieres

The string quintet performs premieres by three of today's most outstanding Cuban composers: Yosvany Terry, Keyla Orozco, and Adonis González-Matos.

7 to 8:30 pm ET

Americas Society
680 Park Avenue
New York

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Overview

On April 18, we will host this concert in person, and tickets are free. 

Registration for this concert is CLOSED as this concert is SOLD OUT. 

Video of the concert will be released at a later date. Remember to follow us to watch this and other exciting performances.   

The Toomai String Quintet (violinists Emilie-Anne Gendron and Alex Fortes, violist George Meyer, cellist Hamilton Berry, and bassist Andrew Roitstein) is an ensemble devoted to performing music from the classical and contemporary repertoire while exploring and arranging music from around the world. 

Program

  • Keyla Orozco: El canto de la cigarra (WP), for narrator and string quintet*
  • Ernesto Lecuona: La Comparsa (arr. Andrew Roitstein)
  • Adonis González-Matos: Conga (NYP), for string quintet  
                                                Interlude (NYP), for piano and string quintet
                                               Corrente (WP), for string quintet
  • Ernesto Lecuona: Danza Lucumí (arr. Andrew Roitstein)
  • Yosvany Terry: Soñando Despierto (WP)
  • Israel "Cachao" Lopez: Cunde echa un pie (arr. Andrew Roitstein)

                  *Narration will be recited in Spanish with a written English translation provided in the program

    Musicians:
  • Emilie-Anne Gendron and Alex Fortes, violins
  • George Meyer, viola
  • Hamilton Berry, cello
  • Andrew Roitstein, bass
  • María Brea, narrator
  • Adonis González-Matos, piano

Presented in collaboration with the Centro Cultural Cubano de Nueva York

Program Notes

The Toomai String Quintet is an ensemble devoted to playing a variety of musical traditions from around the world, creating its own string arrangements, and commissioning new works. The award-winning group has been engaging audiences across the United States for over a decade, performing concerts in collaboration with presenters such as Carnegie Hall, 92nd Street Y, and the Juilliard School, among others. 

Central to Toomai's mission is the expansion of the Latin American repertoire for string ensemble. Toomai has arranged or commissioned over 20 works by Latin American composers. The ensemble also facilitates educational workshops that teach young people creative approaches to music through the lens of Cuban and Brazilian traditions. In 2018, Toomai released its debut album, Cuerdas Cubanas; in 2024, the group will release a new album of Brazilian music, Passos Brasileiros

Formed in 2007 at the Juilliard School, the quintet is named after Rudyard Kipling’s short story “Toomai of the Elephants” in which a young boy journeys into the jungle to witness the dance of the wild elephants. The Toomai String Quintet aspires to cultivate a similar sense of curiosity and discovery by searching for diverse music and sharing it with its audience. The quintet members are violinists Emilie-Anne Gendron and Alex Fortes, violist George Meyer, cellist Hamilton Berry, and bassist Andrew Roitstein.

Funders

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

The Spring 2024 Music program is also supported, in part, 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 Howard Gilman Foundation, by the Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, by the Augustine Foundation, and by the Mex-Am Cultural Foundation.

This concert by the Toomai String Quintet accompanies the exhibition El Dorado: Myths of Gold, and is presented with the support of the Arthur F. and Alice E. Adams Charitable Foundation.

Additional support for new music concerts comes from the Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University and The Amphion Foundation.