Mivos performs the complete string quartets of Steve Reich featuring brand-new pre-recorded quartet parts and remastered field recordings taken from their 2023 album.
Steve Reich: WTC 9/11, Triple Quartet, Different Trains
Sponsored by Judith Bachner and Eric Lasley
Praised by the New Yorker as “the most significant bassist this country has produced since the advent of Charles Mingus and Flea,” Meshell Ndegeocello makes her ArtPower debut with her GRAMMY-winning album No More Water: The Gospel of James Baldwin.
The prescience of James Baldwin is alive nearly forty years after his passing, a testament to his enduring impact. A prolific writer, his essays, novels, plays, and poetry have assessed and often reproached the human condition. As an activist, his oratory prowess in the 1960s was bar none, lending his outspoken views on Black oppression with profundity and eloquence. Born in New York City on August 2, 1924, this year marks the centennial of the eminent writer, a momentous occasion that is celebrated by the release of one of Meshell Ndegeocello’s most intrepid efforts to date: No More Water: The Gospel Of James Baldwin.
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 the celebrated writer’s canon. Following 2023’s The Omnichord Real Book, her acclaimed debut for Blue Note Records which won the inaugural 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.
Camila Fernández has established herself as an unstoppable force in the Mexican regional genre. Her undeniable talent and passion for music have led her to become the lone female voice of the Fernández Dynasty. Born on November 30, 1997, in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, Camila’s love for music was evident from her earliest days. At the tender age of four, her powerful voice and stage presence impressed everyone on every stage she graced, whether it was in musical theater, school choirs, religious pageants, or performances. Her destiny was clear: music was her path.
Her musical influences encompass icons like her grandfather Vicente Fernández, her father Alejandro Fernández, Juan Gabriel, Rocío Dúrcal, José Alfredo Jiménez, and Eugenia de León, who have left an indelible mark on her style and passion for music.
Her new album, “Camila Fernández,” includes 20 tracks, with 10 original songs and 10 covers, all connected by the theme of love in its various forms. Camila penned 9 of the original songs, demonstrating her creative ambition and deep commitment to her music.This creative ambition is reflected in the musical development of her new album, which evokes the nostalgia of Mexican mariachi and the sonic innovation of the 21st century. Camila is an artist with a promising future, capable of reinventing the past through her ranchera passion conveyed in every verse.
Thanks to her unique qualities, Camila Fernández is undeniably the best representative of the new Mexican regional music: a revolutionary woman who blends the best of multiple worlds to create an authentic and distinct style. Her music is a gift for Mexican music enthusiasts and an inspiration for future generations.
Mariachi Continental de San Diego is San Diego’s premiere Mariachi.
The members of the acclaimed Attacca Quartet are passionate advocates of contemporary repertoire and new work—including that of composer and vocalist Caroline Shaw, who became the youngest recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2013. In a special program together, the Attacca and Shaw perform music from their 2022 album Evergreen, which, like their previous record, Orange, garnered a Grammy Award.
Edna Vazquez is fearless singer, songwriter and guitarist whose powerful voice and spell-binding musical talent transcend the boundaries of language to engage and uplift her audience. Edna’s passion for music and performance originated in her homeland of Jalisco, Mexico, and has been nurtured into a bi-cultural melting pot of folk, rock, R&B, and Mexican heritage, deeply rooted in universal human emotion. She has traveled far and wide spreading her message of light, love, and cultural healing.
SML is a new quintet composed of luminaries from Los Angeles’s thriving jazz, improvised, and indie music scenes: bassist Anna Butterss (Jason Isbell, Phoebe Bridgers, Makaya McCraven, Daniel Villarreal), synthesist Jeremiah Chiu (Ariel Kalma, Marta Sofia Honer, Icy Demons), saxophonist Josh Johnson (Meshell Ndegeocello, Leon Bridges, Carlos Niño), percussionist Booker Stardrum (Amirtha Kidambi, Lisel, Lee Ranaldo, Patrick Shiroishi) and guitarist Gregory Uhlmann (Sam Wilkes, Meg Duffy, Perfume Genius).
Their debut album Small Medium Large was engineered and recorded in stereo direct to Nagra by Bryce Gonzales at ETA, then compiled, arranged, and edited with additional production, recording, and studio composition by SML across their various home studios in 2023. It’s a sublime assemblage of circulatory grooves and textural anomalies bewitched by swirls of modular synthesis, at different moments recalling the the jagged dance-punk of Essential Logic, the rhythmic revelry of Fela Kuti, the low-end elasticity of Parliament/Funkadelic, or the glitchy dub techno of Pole. Taken in totality, the album captures a euphoric creative synchronicity between some of today’s most exciting musicians.
The name, SML (or Small Medium Large), exemplifies their collective nature—five solo artists working together in different configurations amongst several groups. The collective model harkens back to a lineage established by AACM and other avant-jazz groups, but may follow a formula closer to the Dusseldorf scene in the late 60s of Kraftwerk, Harmonia, Cluster, Neu! While SML’s primary configuration is quintet, you may find them in different mixes of small, medium, large, and extra large.
DakhaBrakha is a music quartet from Kyiv, Ukraine. Their “ethno chaos” sound spans years of performances prior to Russia’s 2022 invasion, but war is in everything now. They masterfully blend Ukrainian traditional music with influences from around the world, resulting in an unexpected new music.
Traditional music has seen a resurgence in Ukraine over the past decades, after being suppressed during Soviet rule. DakhaBrakha uses Ukrainian polyphony as its foundation, interweaving complex rhythmic and melodic structures from India, Arabia, Africa, and Australia. Their music is textural, layered sounds with distinctive percussive heartbeats, thumping bass lines, distorted electric guitars and influences of jazz, spoken word, rap and even punk. DakhaBrakha calls this tapestry of influences “ethno chaos.” And this chaos is a strength, allowing them to draw in strands of music that connect Ukraine with the world.
They are troubadours, activists and educators. Though their name means Give/Take in the old language, DakhaBrakha is new Ukraine, both pre-colonial and post-Soviet, working within a global network of art and music. They aim to help audiences see Ukraine not as a monolith, but as a cosmopolitan culture that takes in other cultures, and gives in return.
DakhaBrakha was created in 2004 at the Kyiv Center of Contemporary Art “DAKH” by the avant-garde theatre director Vladyslav Troitskyi. Theatre work has left its mark on the band performances – their shows are always staged with a strong visual element. Projected behind them are a mix of animations from different Ukrainian artists and photos of life in today’s Ukraine. Some are celebratory, bright and bold. Some are dark, others curious, a reflection of the many facets of Ukrainian culture.
In March 2011 DakhaBrakha was discovered by Australian Womadelaide and began their ascent in the international music scene. They have since played hundreds of concerts and performances at major international festivals including Big Ears Festival, Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, WOMAD, Roskilde Festival and on the main stage at the Glastonbury Festival. In March 2020, DakhaBrakha won the Shevchenko National Prize for Musical Arts – the biggest award in Ukraine in the sphere of contemporary art – and confirmed its place in the culture once again. In 2023 DakhaBrakha won globalFEST’s Artist Award in the USA and became Chevaliers of the Order of Arts in France.
The band is currently in the process of recording their first album since 2020 in Kyiv (Ukraine), which combines material created before and during Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
“A polished sonority and well-balanced, tightly synchronized ensemble with nearly faultless intonation….it is heartening to know that chamber music is in good hands with such gifted young ensembles as the Isidore Quartet”—Chicago Classical Review
Winners of a 2023 Avery Fisher Career Grant, and the 14th Banff International String Quartet Competition in 2022, the New York City-based Isidore String Quartet was formed in 2019 with a vision to revisit, rediscover, and reinvigorate the repertory. The quartet is heavily influenced by the Juilliard String Quartet and the idea of ‘approaching the established as if it were brand new, and the new as if it were firmly established.’
The quartet began as an ensemble at the Juilliard School, and has coached with Joel Krosnick, Joseph Lin, Astrid Schween, Laurie Smukler, Joseph Kalichstein, Roger Tapping, Misha Amory, and numerous others. They are currently completing their final year as Peak Fellowship Ensemble-in-Residence at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.
In North America, the Isidore Quartet has appeared on major series in Boston, New York, Berkeley, Chicago, Ann Arbor, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Durham, Washington DC, Houston, Toronto, and Montreal, and has collaborated with several eminent performers including James Ehnes, Jeremy Denk, Shai Wosner, and Jon Nakamatsu. Their 24/25 season includes performances in Salt Lake City, Buffalo, Kansas City, Portland (OR), Louisville, New Orleans, Cincinnati, Memphis, Vancouver, San Francisco, and many other cities across the U.S. and Canada. In Europe they will appear at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, and in Bonn (Beethoven Haus), Stuttgart, Cologne, and Dresden, among many others.
Over the past several years, the quartet has developed a strong connection to the works of composer and pianist Billy Childs. His String Quartet No. 2, “Awakenings” was among the repertoire that delivered the Isidore their Banff victory, and this season they will play Childs’ Quartet No. 3, “Unrequited.” In the 2025-26 season, they will premiere a new Childs quartet written expressly for them.
Both on stage and outside the concert hall, the Isidore Quartet is deeply invested in connecting with youth and elderly populations, and with marginalized communities who otherwise have limited access to high-quality live music performance. They approach music as a “playground” and attempt to break down barriers to encourage collaboration and creativity. The name Isidorerecognizes the ensemble’s musical connection to the Juilliard Quartet: one of that group’s early members was legendary violinist Isidore Cohen. Additionally, it acknowledges a shared affection for a certain libation – legend has it a Greek monk named Isidore concocted the first genuine vodka recipe for the Grand Duchy of Moscow!
Program
Haydn: Op. 76 No. 4 “Sunrise”
Childs, Billy: String Quartet No. 4 (2026)
Dvořák: Quartet No. 13 in G Major, Op. 106
Sponsored by Judith Bachner and Eric Lasley
Join Grammy Award winner Delfeayo Marsalis and the Uptown Jazz Orchestra for an evening of non-stop fun. Time to throw up your hands, cut the king cake, and grab some beads as we celebrate New Orleans and the greatest time of the year with songs by Fats Domino, Professor Longhair, Earl King, Marsalis, and more. A member of The First Family of Jazz and an NEA Jazz Master, the middle Marsalis brother leads the vibrant Uptown Jazz Orchestra from his seat in the trombone section, in a performance that is full of the joy and soul of NOLA.
A celebration of the enduring appeal of frontier songs and Western music, this exciting collaboration of virtuosity and storytelling celebrates the connections, beginning in the late 1900s, between Black cowboys, gunfighter ballads, herding songs, and Mexican border music, as well as ranch dance fiddle, hot jazz, blues, Western swing, and beyond.
Join Grammy-Award winner and American Songster Dom Flemons and critically acclaimed hot jazz and Western swing trio Hot Club of Cowtown for an authentic and joyful journey through songs of the Cowboy West.