Started in 2016 as an acapella project between Helena Ros and Marta Torrella, Tarta Relena’s electronic-accented folk reimagines the traditional music of the Mediterranean as a growing form unbound by precedent. At ArtPower, the Catalan folk duo will perform from their newly released album, És pregunta.
Category: Music
Brentano String Quartet
With a career spanning over three decades, the Brentano Quartet has appeared throughout the world to popular and critical acclaim. The New York Times extols its “luxuriously warm sound [and] yearning lyricism; and the Times (London) hails their “wonderful, selfless music-making.” They bring their “Evocations of Home” program to San Diego—which offers a set of perspectives on the idea of home, culturally, intellectually, emotionally, and geographically. The evening program prominently features a new work by UC San Diego Professor Lei Liang, alongside movements byDvorak, Schubert, Bartok and Monteverdi that evoke a sense of place, identity and heritage.
Program
Antonín Dvořák Dumka from Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 51
Franz Schubert Scherzo from Quartet in G Major, D887
Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi Lamento della ninfa (arr. Lei Liang)
Lei Liang Gobi Gloria
Bela Bartok Scherzo alla bulgarese from Quartet No. 5
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky Andante cantabile from Quartet No. 1
Evaristo Ginastera Allegramente rustico from Quartet No. 1
Chou Wen-Chung Larghetto nostalgico from Quartet No. 1, “Clouds”
Lei Liang “Madrigal Mongolia” for String Quartet (2024)
AJ Lee & Blue Summit
AJ Lee & Blue Summit are an award-winning energetic, charming, and technically jaw-dropping band quickly rising on the national roots music scene. Based in Santa Cruz, California, the group met as teenagers, picking and jamming together as kids at local music festivals and jams until one day, they decided they would be a band. They bring their latest album, City of Glass, to ArtPower.
Cesária Évora Orchestra
A Tribute to the Barefoot Diva Tour
The Cesária Évora Orchestra brings together the cream of Cape-Verdean musicianship and vocalists to honor the late and legendary Cesária Évora. This tribute to the “Barefoot Diva” features some of Cape Verde’s greatest voices, including Elida Almeida, Teófilo Chantre, Lucibela, and Ceuzany, alongside band members from Évora’s band.
Isaiah Collier: The World Is On Fire
Chicago/Brooklyn-based multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger, curator, activist, motivational speaker, and educator Isaiah Collier is a musical virtuoso in the truest sense of the phrase. Most known for his work as a saxophonist, Collier’s sound and approach is drawn from the influences of other master saxophonists such as John Coltrane, Roscoe Mitchell, Wayner Shorter, Ari Brown, and Gene Ammons.
Caroline Shaw & Sō Percussion featuring Ringdown
For 20 years and counting, Sō Percussion has redefined chamber music for the 21st century through an “exhilarating blend of precision and anarchy, rigor and bedlam” (New Yorker). For their ArtPower debut, they are joined by Ringdown, an “ecstatically blissful” (Night After Night) and “irresistible” (Feast of Music) cinematic electro-pop duo featuring composer-musicians Caroline Shaw and Danni Lee Parpan. They create music that floats up from the dusty record bin between Brahms and Brandi Carlile, and centers around joy, human connection, and trying to inspire people to feel more love.
Alfredo Rodríguez Quintet
GRAMMY–nominated Cuban pianist Alfredo Rodríguez returns to San Diego with the sound of Miami from his latest album: Coral Way. This album represents a significant chapter in his artistic journey, reflecting his current worldview as an artist. As Rodríguez himself states, “I play what I live, and Coral Way is my new life. It is the name of the street on which, for the past 3 years, I have been composing this album, and now I’m excited that people from all over the world will finally get to hear it in an expansive way, with a full live band.”
Born and raised in Havana, Cuba, globally acclaimed artist Alfredo, has not only captivated audiences worldwide with his exceptional mastery of diverse genres and disciplines, but his personal story adds an equally captivating dimension to his music. Since 2015, Alfredo has captivated audiences with sold-out performances at ArtPower. Now making his fourth appearance, he continues to be a highly anticipated and celebrated artist on our stage.
Anoushka Shankar Chapter III: We Return to Light
Chapter III…
Anoushka Shankar marks the culmination of her recent trilogy of mini-albums: ‘Chapter I: Forever, For Now,’ ‘Chapter II: How Dark it Is Before Dawn’ and ‘Chapter III: We Return to Light’ with a visionary new live show. Written and released back-to-back during two years of an experimental, creatively-charged global tour of an ever-evolving programme, the performance of each Chapter infused the composition of the next. After first exploring the transient, bittersweet joy of a summer afternoon on Chapter I and an immersion into a healing, womblike night on Chapter II, Chapter III completes the cycle, leading audiences through each movement and into the strong, golden heat of morning—a time of strength, wisdom and change.
With 30 years’ performance since her teenaged debut, eleven Grammy nominations and an Honorary Degree in Music from Oxford University under her belt, Anoushka has spent her career redefining the conventions of the sitar. Alongside an ensemble celebrated for their endless virtuosity, sensitivity and ear for improvisation, this show sees Anoushka expand the vocabulary of her sitar, looping and bending sound to create a bold new Indo-futurist vision for her music.
Forever, for now
How dark it is before dawn
We return to Light
Anoushka Shankar, sitar
Arun Ghosh, clarinet and keys
Tom Farmer, upright bass
Sarathy Korwar, drums and percussion
James Campbell and John Ducket, sound design
Eric Collignon, lighting design
Sara Schoenbeck and Wayne Horvitz
The Sara Schoenbeck and Wayne Horvitz duo navigate through original tunes and improvisatory soundscapes. With feet firmly planted in a genre-less zone, electronics and an ever-expanding textural palate serve to deepen the feel of a shared melodic language.
Sara Schoenbeck and Wayne Horvitz first met as improvising musicians at the 4 day, “company” style “Time Flies” festival (Vancouver B.C.) in 2000. In 2004 Horvitz formed the Gravitas Quartet with Schoenbeck, Ron Miles (Trumpet) and Peggy Lee (Cello). This quartet recorded two CDs and performed throughout Europe and North America. In 2015 Horvitz fused his ensemble Sweeter Than the Day with the Gravitas Quartet to create a septet performing compositions based on the poems of Richard Hugo. “Some Places Are Forever Afternoon” resulted in a CD, touring throughout the US, and an episode of NPR’s “Jazz Night in America”, hosted by Christian McBride. In addition, Schoenbeck and Horvitz had performed in numerous improvised collectives, special projects, and the occasional duo concert.
In 2018, the duo Schoenbeck/Horvitz was created, with subsequent concerts in NY, Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, Ann Arbor, Sacramento, Northampton, Bellingham, Edmonton, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Chicago, and Detroit. Their first CD, entitled Cell Walk, was released on the Songlines label in May 2020. Since the pandemic the duo has presented concerts in the United States, Canada, and Europe.
Sessa
Vinyl DJ set by B+
Sessa is a long-time fixture of both the American and Brazilian music scenes. Initially known for collaborating with NY guitar legend Yonatan Gat and co-founding the São Paulo psych-funk combo Garotas Suecas, Sessa released his debut album, Grandeza, in 2019. In their review of the album, the New Yorker described Sessa as “a songwriter cut from Veloso’s mold and blessed with a flair for the intimate, the enigmatic, and the licentious.”
Sessa’s songs are sung in Portuguese, with visceral, sensual lyrics, and melodic flourishes not unlike those of Tom Jobim. However, the music gets a deliberate minimalist treatment rarely found in contemporary Brazilian music, more reminiscent of the bareness of Leonard Cohen.
Sessa’s concerts are already stuff of legend, as he takes the stage accompanied solely by a female backing choir and Afro-Brazilian percussion. While the songs often deal with subjects such as the sensual body and spiritual transcendence, the music points to new, more subtle directions for Brazilian pop music – a deep, minimalist, almost insinuated use of the endlessly rich textures and rhythms that define the songwriting history of Brazil, which Sessa joins as one of its most promising new voices.