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| Magos Herrera & Paola Prestini - New jazz/latin/classical 'Con Alma' album Con Alma, an operatic tableau created and recorded in isolation Featuring original works by Prestini and Herrera alongside classic songs from the Mexican and Jazz songbook, the cross-border collaboration features over thirty musicians from three continents, performing and recording in isolation The project was released as an album on National Sawdust Tracks on December 4, with a live digital experience presented in partnership with the Mexican Secretary of Culture on December 13. The event was broadcast live on the WNET Group's ALL ARTS TV channel in the New York metro area and was live-streamed on allarts.org New video now available for title track "Con Alma", featuring Diego Schissi's arrangement of the Dizzy Gillespie classic Nature and mysticism inform the creative flow that Herrera and Prestini draw upon; science and spirit fuse together in potent alchemy Steve Smith, The New Yorker Composer Paola Prestini and vocalist/composer Magos Herrera present Con Alma, an operatic tableau on isolation that is released as an album recording and live digital experience, featuring original works alongside classic songs from the Mexican and Jazz songbook. Created and recorded remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic, the project explores the question of how we can find communion and shared experience in a time of isolation. The album was released December 4 on National Sawdust Tracks, and the live digital event took place December 13 at 7pm ET, in collaboration with the Mexican Ministry of Culture. The event was broadcast live on the WNET Group's ALL ARTS TV channel in the New York metro area and also live-streamed on allarts.org and National Sawdust's Digital Stage. The music for Con Alma was recorded from March to October, as a cross-border collaboration with over thirty musicians from three continents, all capturing their different musical parts in isolation. It brings together longtime friends Prestini and Herrera, each quarantined in their respective countries of the U.S. and Mexico, and unites them with musical partners that include the all-women German-based Ensemble Sjaella, Constellation Chor, the Young People's Chorus of NYC, Mexico's top symphony orchestra "Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería", and guest virtuosos including former Kronos Quartet cellist Jeffrey Zeigler, Silk Road clarinetist Kinan Azmeh, guitarists Romero Lubambo and Vinicius Gomes, arranger and multi-instrumentalist Gonzalo Grau and arranger Diego Schissi. Spearheaded by the two genre-defying women, the project takes inspiration from the surrealist paintings of Remedios Varo, with their timely and poignant themes of spirituality, nature, creativity, solidarity and purpose that pulse through the album. The music weaves an overarching narrative from texts by a broad selection of female bards through the centuries, with stories ranging from an ode to Rachel Carson's Silent Spring and hope for our environment, to a story about what might have changed if Mary Magdalene had been invited to the table at the Last Supper, to the reincarnation of man, and the human soul represented through the joy of a bird's song and flight. The album was launched via a live streamed performance event on December 13 at 7PM ET/6PM CT, headed by multimedia visionary Ashley Tata (whose recent online performance of the play Mad Forest was praised by The New York Times as "fervently inventive... deeply moving... emotionally direct and lucid"), and partners Eamonn Farrell and Andy Carluccio. The streamed digital experience weaved together self-recorded music videos that examine isolation and solitude, live-drawings by Kevork Mourad simulcast as animations for songs, and real-time conversations and storytelling with the creators and performers of these works, including Magos Herrera and Paola Prestini. The event was broadcast on National Sawdust's live digital stage, in collaboration with The Mexican Government's Secretary of Culture, and also broadcast live on the WNET Group's ALL ARTS TV channel in the New York metro area and live-streamed on allarts.org. In order to provide free, universal access to the event, and as part of Mexico's Indigenous World 2020 efforts, it was streamed on official platforms: screens in key public areas throughout the country, as well as National Public TV and Public Radio, making it accessible as a shared educational and cultural experience to even the most remote communities in Mexico. As part of the process of creation, Con Alma incorporates a social media campaign focused on "the sound of isolation, " in which participants share a video of their experience of isolation, and the responses are incorporated into one of the tracks of the album, giving the creators and this work the opportunity to connect the larger experience during the pandemic to this sonic artifact of a singular moment in our history. The December 13 digital event also gave audience members the opportunity to contribute their voices both before and during the simulcast performance, creating a world-wide chorus, separated by geography and in different languages but joined by intention and spirit. In a joint statement on the project, Prestini and Herrera said: "Con Alma is a sonic painting representing a 15 year friendship through a collaborative process of writing, telling the story of shared ambitions and triumphs, love, trials, hope, and losses. The artists we worked with form our international musical family, and it's a joy to be able to connect through this album, leaving an artifact of this time, and our response to the pandemic, alone, but together." The album was released on December 4, 2020 on National Sawdust Tracks, the in-house label of National Sawdust, which has released Pulitzer Prize-winning operas and collaborations with some of new music's great artists. The Con Alma project is commissioned by Jill and Bill Steinberg. Track Listing The Creation of the Birds-La Creación de las Aves Lyrics by Magos Herrera, Music by Vinicius Gomes. Featuring Magos Herrera, Vinicius Gomes guitar, Gonzalo Grau-cajón & percussion, and Jeffrey Zeigler-cello. Arranged by Gonzalo Grau. Tree of 40 Fruit Developed by Marisa Michelson and Constellation Chor; sung by Marisa Michelson with the voices from the Sound of Isolation campaign. Rojo Sol Music and Lyrics by Magos Herrera featuring Kinan Azmeh-clarinet, Romero Lubambo-guitar, Jeffrey Zeigler-cello, Gonzalo Grau-cajón & percussion. Arranged by Gonzalo Grau. Alma Muerta Featuring Ensemble Sjaella and Magos Herrera. Music by Paola Prestini Con Alma Music by Dizzy Gillespie. Featuring Magos Herrera and Musicians of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería with Gonzalo Grau-Cajón-percussion. Arranged by Diego Schissi Fratres Music by Paola Prestini featuring Ensemble Sjaella and Magos Herrera Interlude: The Sound of Isolation A sound scape by Sxip Shirey serves as an intermission of sorts, bringing the listener to the sounds of isolation and communion that we experienced in our respective countries-from church bells, to "la bestia", the train that carries migrants towards the US, to birds taking over the city of San Miguel de Allende, to city sounds of cheer and applause for the health care workers that could be heard from balconies in NYC. Thrush Song Music by Paola Prestini. Text by Maria Popova. Featuring Young People's Chorus of New York City and Magos Herrera. Soundscape by Sxip Shirey. Cucurrucucu Lyrics and Music by Tomás Méndez. Featuring Magos Herrera and Musicians of Orquesta Sinfonica de Minería. Arranged by Diego Schissi. About Magos Herrera Grammy nominee, born in Mexico City and currently based out of New York City, Magos Herrera is a dazzling jazz singer-songwriter, producer, and educator. Magos is regarded as one of the most expressive, beautiful voices and most active vocalists in the contemporary Latin American jazz scene. She is best known for her eloquent vocal improvisation and her singular bold style, which embraces elements of contemporary jazz with Latin American melodies and rhythms singing in Spanish, English, and Portuguese, in a style that elegantly blends and surpasses language boundaries. She has recorded six solo albums, has worked on joint collaborations for two more albums with producer Javier Limón in addition to having participated as a guest artist on several recordings and albums. An accomplished artist, Magos has performed in a variety of leading international cultural venues such as Lincoln Center in NYC, Kennedy Center in DC, Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid, Union Chapel in London, Duc des Lombardes in Paris, Kamani Auditorium in Delhi, Palau de la Musica in Valencia, and has been part of the line-up of some of the most memorable jazz festivals around the world including Montreux Jazz Festival, Montreal Jazz Festival, Festival Internacional Cervantino, to mention a few. Throughout her career, Magos has garnered important awards and recognitions, including a Grammy short-list nomination in the Best Jazz Vocal Album category for her album Distancia (2009), and is the only female artist to have received the Berklee College of Music's Master of Latin Music Award. She is well known for championing women's causes and currently serves as spokesperson for UN Women, and has contributed to important campaigns including UNITE to end violence against women and He For She, as a promoter of gender equality. She is an advisor for the Mexican Government Cultural Diplomatic Counsel, serves as an artistic advisor of the "National Sawdust" and is a recipient of Chamber Music Americas New Jazz works 2020 Award. About Paola Prestini Paola Prestini has collaborated with poets, puppeteers, filmmakers, and scientists in large-scale multimedia works that chart her interest in extra-musical themes ranging from the cosmos to the environment. She created the largest communal VR event with her Hubble Cantata, and her accolades include being named as one of the “Top 100 Composers in the World” (NPR), one of the “Top 30 Professionals of the Year” (Musical America), one of the “Top 35 Female Composers in Classical Music” (The Washington Post), and Brooklyn Magazine’s 2019 list of “influencers of Brooklyn culture…in perpetuity” alongside household names like Chuck Schumer and Spike Lee. Her compositions have been commissioned by and performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Barbican Centre, Cannes Film Festival, Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Opera, the New York Philharmonic, and the San Diego Opera among others. Upcoming projects include the opera Edward Tulane (Minnesota Opera-where she is the first woman to write for the new works commissions), the chamber opera Sensorium Ex (Atlanta Opera and Beth Morrison Projects Prototype Festival), Silent Light (Banff’s Opera in the 21st Century), a piano concerto for Awadagin Pratt and A Far Cry for New Amsterdam Records, a piano concerto for Lara Downes and the Louisville Symphony, Oregon Bach Festival, and Ravinia, and music for The Amazon, a documentary and arts event (recently screened at the Margaret Mead Film Festival at the Museum of Natural History). She is the co-founder and artistic director of the Brooklyn based arts institution and incubator, National Sawdust, and as part of her commitment to the next generation and equity, she started the Hildegard Competition for emerging female, trans, and non-binary composers and the Blueprint Fellowship for emerging composers trained by female identifying mentors with The Juilliard School. She was a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellow and a Sundance Fellow, and is a graduate of the Juilliard School. About Ashley Tata Ashley Tata, director, creates multimedia works of theater, contemporary opera, performance, cyberformance, live music, and immersive experiences. These have been presented in venues and festivals throughout the US and internationally including Theatre for a New Audience, LA Opera, Austin Opera, Miller Theater, National Sawdust, EMPAC, BPAC, Crossing the Line Festival, Holland Festival, Prelude Festival, National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing, and the Fisher Center at Bard. These works have been called “fervently inventive, ” by Ben Brantley in The New York Times, “extraordinarily powerful” by the Los Angeles Times and Tata’s staging of Kate Soper’s Ipsa Dixit was named a “notable production of the decade” by Alex Ross of The New Yorker. Since the pandemic-induced theatrical shut down, Tata has conceived and directed a live cyberformance of Caryl Churchill’s Mad Forest which transferred from Bard College’s Fisher Center to TFANA Off-Broadway; a Zoom-accessed Virtual Nightclub and dance party called The Boot with Beth Morrison Projects; a music video for rock band Sylvan Esso; a physically-distanced adherent, landscape-integrating adaptation of John Luther Adams’s Ten Thousand Birds with ensemble Alarm Will Sound at PS21 in Chatham, NY; and the live performance webcasting of "Out of the Silence" Bard Music Festival's 2020 concert series. Tata is currently in residence at Coffey Street Studios working on the first phases of a number of projects including an exploration of works by playwright and novelist Chana Porter and two multi-media "opera" works for music, Crown Poppea! a music-video-electronic-sample-remix-opera (after Monteverdi) re-scored by Ted Hearne and featuring Eliza Bagg and a virtual reality opera about the time code of trees. Working title, Virtual RealiTree it is being created in collaboration with interdisciplinary, cross-platform composer/designer/artists, Eliza Bagg, Afsoon Pajoufar, Sadah Espii Proctor, Booker Stardrum and Aoshuang Zhang. Elements of these and other projects continue to build on an investigation of live-streaming technologies with partners at Liminal Entertainment and designer/director Eamonn Farrell. These explorations will continue into the spring when Tata takes up residency at Brooklyn Academy of Music as one of the members of the inaugural artist in residence cohort they have named for the 20/21 season. After earning an MFA in directing from Columbia University Tata has taught or been a guest artist at Columbia University, Mannes School of Music, Harvard University, MIT, A.C.T., Marymount Manhattan College, Colgate College, Bard College, and LIU Post. Member of Lincoln Center Theater’s Directors’ Lab; recipient of the Lotos Foundation's Emerging Artist Award in Arts and Sciences, and a winner of the 2017 Robert L. B. Tobin Director/Designer grant. About Kevork Mourad Kevork Mourad employs his technique of live drawing and animation in concert with musicians – developing a collaboration in which art and music harmonize with one another. Collaborators include Yo-Yo Ma, Kim Kashkashian, the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Brooklyn Rider, The Knights, Perspectives Ensemble, Paola Prestini, and Kinan Azmeh and he has performed in many institutions, including The Aga Khan Museum (Toronto), The Art Institute of Chicago, The American Museum of Natural History, The Brooklyn Museum of Art, The Bronx Museum of Art, Carnegie Hall, ElbPhilharmonie (Germany), Rhode Island School of Design, Nara Museum (Japan), Lincoln Center Atrium, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Walt Disney Concert Hall. Born in Qamishli, Syria, Mourad now lives and works in New York City. He received his Master of Fine Arts from the Yerevan Institute of Fine Arts in Armenia. Mourad has been a resident teaching artist at Brandeis University, Harvard University, and Holy Cross (Worcester). He is the only visual artist member in Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble and is featured in the film “Music of Strangers” (2016). Recent commissions include Israel in Egypt, for the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Sound of Stone to accompany the exhibition “Armenia!” for the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Well Wish Ya, a dance performance piece with the OYO Dance Troupe in Namibia. His performance, Home Within, co-produced with clarinetist Kinan Azmeh, has toured the world. The 2016 recipient of the Robert Bosch Stiftung Film Prize, his animated film 4 Acts for Syria made its 2019 premiere at the Stuttgart Animation Festival. He was recently asked by the Aga Khan Foundation to create a site-specific 20-foot drawing-sculpture called Seeing Through Babel, at London’s Ismaili Center, addressing the importance of diversity in our contemporary times. About ALL ARTS ALL ARTS is breaking new ground as the premier destination for inspiration, creativity and art of all forms. This New York Emmy-winning arts and culture hub is created by WNET, the parent company of New York’s PBS stations. With the aim of being accessible to viewers everywhere, ALL ARTS’ Webby-nominated programming – from digital shorts to feature films – is available online nationwide through allarts.org, the free ALL ARTS app on all major streaming platforms, and @AllArtsTV on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. New York area TV viewers can also watch the 24/7 broadcast channel. For all the ways to watch, visit allarts.org/everywhere. Partners Both Con Alma’s album and event were commissioned by Jill and Bill Steinberg, in partnership with the Mexican Ministry of Culture, The Orquestra Sinfónica de Minería, WNET Group's ALL ARTS TV and National Sawdust. write your comments about the article :: © 2020 Jazz News :: home page |