• By Mabel Pais

New York City’s leading chamber choir, Musica Viva NY, launches its 2024-25 season with SOUNDSCAPES, a multicultural project fusing choral music with the indigenous sounds of India on Sunday, September 29, 2024, at 5:00 p.m., at Manhattan’s All Souls (address below). (Seven Musica Viva NY soloists will be joined by special guest alumna Shabnam Abedi (Trinity Wall Street chorus/The VOCES8) in a crossover of Hindustani classical, raga, and jazz music led by Musica Viva NY’s intrepid Artistic Director/Conductor Alejandro Hernandez-Valdez.

Celebrating a decade at the helm, Alejandro curates a program of works and composers that are personally meaningful to him while showcasing the diversity that has been a hallmark of Musica Viva NY for the past 10 years. “Shabnam Abedi is a one-of-a-kind artist,” says Alejandro. “Equally at home in jazz, classical, and Indian classical music, Abedi first came to my attention in 2016 while she was an undergraduate student at Rutgers University. From the first moment I heard her pure and crystalline voice, I knew Shabnam would be a major player in the music scene.”

PROGRAM

WHEN:   Sunday, September 29, 2024, at 5:00 p.m.

Pre-concert talk at 4:00 p.m.

WHERE:  All Souls, 1157 Lexington Avenue (at 80th Street), New York City,

           (Train 6 to 77th Street or N/Q/R to 86th Street)

WHO:    Performers

Musica Viva NY soloists

Alejandro Hernandez-Valdez, artistic director and conductor

Shabnam Abedi, soloist + harmonium

Joe Block, piano

TICKETS

For Tickets visit MusicaViva.org. Discounts are available for Students with valid ID.

Shabnam Abedi

Described by ‘The New York Times’ as having “a lovely warmth,” Shabnam Abedi is a highly sought after soprano and recent addition to The Choir of Trinity Wall Street. She received her Master’s Degree from Juilliard in Jazz Studies making her Juilliard’s first South-Asian American jazz voice graduate. A versatile artist with a reputation for high-level music making in a wide variety of genres, Shabnam also studied opera at Mason Gross School of the Arts. “Shabnam spent eight years as Musica Viva NY’s soprano 1 soloist, delighting audiences with her perfect intonation and purity of tone as a classical singer, jaw-dropping skills as a classical Indian music artist, and remarkable artistry as a jazz vocalist. This not-to-be-missed performance will showcase the uncanny versatility and flexibility of this remarkable artist,” said Artistic Director/Conductor Alejandro Hernandez-Valdez. Having played and sung Indian Classical Music since the age of five, Shabnam’s first album ‘Amar Bijon Ghore’ was released to wide acclaim in India and Bangladesh. Learn more at shabnamabedi.com.

Musica Viva NY

Musica Viva NY is a non-profit arts organization that was established nearly 50 years ago. Its mission is to bring world-class music to a wide community through an annual concert series, an active community engagement program, and an ambitious artistic vision. Under the baton of Artistic Director Alejandro Hernandez-Valdez (musicaviva.org/about-us/artistic-director) since 2015, Musica Viva NY strives to offer joy, solace and renewal in a complex world by presenting new compositions and classic masterworks in transformative interpretations that ennoble the human spirit.

Musica Viva NY’s superb chamber choir and world class collaborating instrumentalists make their concert home in Manhattan’s historic ‘All Souls Church’.

The organization was founded as an annual concert series in 1977 by Walter Klauss, who directed the group for 38 years, and adopted the name ‘Musica Viva’ in 1985. Under Walter Klauss’ baton the choir toured in Paris (2004), Germany and Czechoslovakia (2006) and Italy (2012).

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ICONIC PERFORMER WITH COMPANY SINGS LOVE GOSPEL OF JAMES BALDWIN

• By Mabel Pais

Iconic bassist, singer, and composer MESHELL NDEGEOCELLO makes her New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) debut on Sunday, October 6, 2024, at 7:00 p.m. Her only performance in the New York City area this Fall, this one-night only concert is part of NJPAC’s year-long Dodge Poetry initiative — an expanded partnership with the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation that celebrates poetry as a catalyst for communities to advance social change. Accompanied by some of today’s top jazz artists, Meshell will present works off of her second Blue Note album ‘No More Water: The Gospel Of James Baldwin’ (meshellndegeocello.lnk.to/NoMoreWater), a striking homage to the eminent writer and activist James Baldwin.

Released on Baldwin’s Centennial August 2, 2024, this visionary work is at once a musical experience, a church service, a celebration, a testimonial, and a call to action. With ‘No More Water,’ Ndegeocello embarks on a prophetic musical odyssey that transcends boundaries and genres, delving headfirst into race, sexuality, religion, and other recurring themes explored in Baldwin’s canon. Following 2023’s ‘The Omnichord Real Book,’ her acclaimed Blue Note debut which won the inaugural 2024 GRAMMY Award for Best Alternative Jazz Album, the multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, and producer renders an immersive and palpable document that is as sagacious, unabashed, and introspective as Baldwin was in life. 

Ndegeocello performed songs from the Baldwin album during her recent NPR (National Public Radio) Tiny Desk Concert (meshellndegeocello.lnk.to/TinyDeskConcert) – youtu.be/XBuOd2MzdT4.

Nearly a decade in the making, the album’s origins began in 2016 during a performance at The Harlem Stage Gatehouse as part of their annual showcase honoring Baldwin. Ndegeocello had delved into Baldwin’s work the year before, including the seminal nonfiction work ‘The Fire Next Time,’ which she considers “life-changing” and carries with her as a “spiritual text.” Ndegeocello says, “It was just a revelation to me, and it softened my heart in so many ways.”

‘No More Water’ marks a significant moment of self-discovery for Ndegeocello. She adds that Baldwin entered her life at precisely the right time. “It came when I was ready to look in the mirror. I’ve had to play ‘Plantation Lullabies’ at a few shows. Looking back, I had an interesting perspective, but the dialogue was limited. It was more like a cathartic experience for a young person of color, whereas now I’m going, ‘How can I get us all to love each other? How can I get us all to see this for what it is?’”

The New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC)

Learn more at NJPAC.org.

The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation

Established in 1974, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation envisions a just and equitable New Jersey where people of all races and communities have equitable access to opportunities to thrive. Over its 50-year history, the Dodge Foundation has distributed more than $500 million in grants and technical support to New Jersey nonprofits. Today, building on decades of learning, the organization focuses its support on those who are directly addressing the root causes and repair of structural racism and inequity to transform lives in New Jersey.

(Mabel Pais writes on Social Issues, The Arts and Entertainment, Spirituality, Cuisine, Health & Wellness, Business, and Education)