- Date:
- 2020-09-18
- Main contributors:
- Robertico Arias
- Summary:
- Robertico Arias (Providence, Rhode Island) Robertico Arias is a Dominican musician and leader of the Latin Music Group Alebreke, based in Providence, Rhode Island. He started his music education at ten years old, supported by his mother, folklorist Juana Arias. At the age of seventeen, Robertico became one of the most prominent congas player in the Dominican Republic, eventually moving to New York City. He has toured internationally in Europe, Asia, and North and Central America, and has performed and recorded with musicians such as Wilfrido Vargas and David Byrne. In 1998, he founded the group Merengada which released multiple albums on the BMG Latin label. In 1994, he moved from NYC to Providence, Rhode Island, where he has taught at the Providence Music School and at the Rhode Island Philharmonic. Robertico has performed and taught at many universities in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, including the Berklee College of Music, Brown University, and Rhode Island University. Interviewed by Tamar Sella, 09/18/2020.
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- Date:
- 2020-10-13
- Main contributors:
- Soni Moreno
- Summary:
- Soni Moreno (New York City, New York) Soni Moreno (Maya/Apache/Yaqui) is a vocalist, actress, composer, and poet, based in New York City. She began her career as a cast member in the original San Francisco production of Hair, and has appeared on Broadway plays including Hair and The Leaf People. Off Broadway, she has performed in plays including Aladdin, America Smith, and Blood Speaks. Soni is the co-founder of First Nations a cappella women’s trio Ulali, touring extensively throughout North America and beyond from 1987 to 2010. She is a member of MATOU, a group of Native American and Maori musicians and performers, performing original compositions that celebrate culture and traditions. Soni has toured with musicians including Buffy Sainte-Marie and the Indigo Girls and performed with Martha Redbone’s concert performances of her play Bone Hill. She has contributed to soundtracks in multiple films and television shows and performed at the Sundance Film Festival Native Program: Celebration of Music in Film. Interviewed by Tamar Sella, 10/13/2020.
- Date:
- 2020-09-24
- Main contributors:
- Shannon Heaton
- Summary:
- Shannon Heaton (Medford, Massachusetts) Deeply rooted in Irish traditional music, Boston-based flute player/singer/composer Shannon Heaton has appeared on stages with duo Matt & Shannon Heaton, and with other traditional performers from around the world, including dancers Kieran Jordan and Kevin Doyle, Tokyo-based tricolor, and guitarist/singer Keith Murphy. As ambassador of the tradition, Shannon hosts the culture podcast Irish Music Stories, and her free Tune of the Month video series and instructional books cater to students of Irish music. Stretching from pure traditional music, Shannon also composes for winds, strings, and piano in various contexts. Heaton received a 2016 Artist Fellowship from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Live Ireland named her Female Artist of the Year in 2011 and 2010, and Irish American News named her 2009 Female Musician of the Year. Interviewed by Tamar Sella, 09/24/2020.
- Date:
- 2020-10-16
- Main contributors:
- Sinclair Palmer
- Summary:
- Sinclair Palmer (Durham, North Carolina) Sinclair Palmer is a bass player, educator, and instrument maker based in Durham, North Carolina. They perform in a wide range of genres with multiple local bands, and have toured nationally and internationally. They are a member of the musical groups the Muslims, Violet Bell, and Loamlands. Sinclair is also a music educator, teaching in various contexts from private lessons to university settings. They have taught their own community music course titled Music Queery at the Durham venue Pinhook’s People’s School series. Sinclair also plays several other string instruments, in addition to building their own. They hold a BM in Music Performance in Double Bass from the Miles Davis Jazz Studies Program at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (2017), and an MA in Music from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2019). Interviewed by Tamar Sella, 10/16/2020.
- Date:
- 2020-10-05
- Main contributors:
- Qya Cristál
- Summary:
- Qya Cristál (Provincetown, Massachusetts) Qya Cristál is a singer, musician, and drag performer based in Provincetown, Massachusetts. She is former Miss Gay USofA Massachusetts 2018, and 4th Runner up for Miss Gay USofA 2018, as well as the winner of the Boston Drag Idol 2019. She holds a degree from Berklee College of Music and has performed in venues across the North Eastern Drag community. She has put on her own one woman shows and performed at events in venues including House of La Rue, Provincetown and Jonathan Hawkins Richardson’s Broadway on the Beach at Crown & Anchor. Through her creative work, she seeks to share messages of love, peace, and acceptance, as well as to continue to show support for her LGBTQIA+ family and assert that Black/Trans/POC Lives Matter. Interviewed by Tamar Sella, 10/05/2020.
- Date:
- 2020-09-30
- Main contributors:
- Keith Jones
- Summary:
- Keith Jones (Maywood, New Jersey) Keith Jones is an artist and activist based in Maywood, New Jersey. As an artist, Jones is a rapper, musician, poet, and visual artist. In 1978, he began writing lyrics and performing as a rapper known as Fezo. He has recorded multiple albums including Vocal Tai Chi (2015). He is the co-founder of Krip-Hop Nation, an affiliation of artists around the world with various disabilities seeking to raise artist creativity and inclusion in mediums including music, dance, and poetry. Additionally, Jones is president and CEO of SoulTouchin’ Experiences, an organization that sits at the intersection of public policy, community development, disability, and race. Jones has worked to provide outreach support in relationship to the arts and independent living skills. He was recognized for his leadership by the state of Massachusetts and President’s Commission for Employment for People with Disabilities, as well as the Disability Law Center’s 2011 Individual Leadership Award. Interviewed by Tamar Sella, 09/30/2020.
- Date:
- 2020-10-16
- Main contributors:
- Lakota John
- Summary:
- Lakota John (Pembroke, North Carolina) Lakota John is a Native American artist, songwriter, producer, and musician from Southeastern North Carolina. Lakota John has toured nationally and internationally, performing in venues including the Kennedy Center, the Institute of American Indian Arts Music Fest in Santa Fe, and the Piedmont Blues Festival. He has shared the stage with artists including Pura Fe, Taj Mahal, Keith Secola, and Dom Flemons. He has studied with blues masters John Cephas and Phil Wiggins, among others, and was an artist with the Music Maker Relief Foundation, performing locally as one of their Next Generation Artists alongside elder Bluesmen. His recorded releases include Old Bluez That’s Newz to Me (2009), Lakota John and Kin (2013), and The Winds of Time (2017). Lakota John was awarded a Carolina Music Award in the America/Bluegrass category and has won first place in the 2019 Road to Memphis PBPS Blues Challenge Solo/Duo Competition. Interviewed by Tamar Sella, 10/16/2020.
- Date:
- 2020-10-23
- Main contributors:
- Larry Lee
- Summary:
- Larry Lee (Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands) Larry Lee is a ukulele player and music educator based in Saipan, the largest of the Northern Mariana Islands. Originally from Hawaii, Larry moved to the Marianas around 1990. He has served as music instructor at Northern Marianas College, developing and teaching ukulele courses. He has also taught at junior high schools on the island as well as private lessons and classes at the Public Library. He has performed regularly at venues such as the Surf Club restaurant and produced music videos with his son, musician Kui Lee. Lee is also the co-founder and organizer of the annual Marianas Ukulele Festival, which has received funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities to produce a documentary video about ukulele in the Northern Mariana Islands in 2020. Interviewed by Tamar Sella, 10/23/2020.
- Date:
- 2020-10-06
- Main contributors:
- Layth Sidiq
- Summary:
- Layth Sidiq (Boston, Massachusetts) Layth Sidiq is a violinist, composer and educator. Born in Iraq and raised in Jordan, Layth trained at the National Music Conservatory with Timur Ibrahimov, and later at the Chetham's School of Music in Manchester, U.K. He holds a BM from the Berklee College of Music as well as an MM from the Berklee Global Jazz Institute ,where he studied with artists including Danilo Perez and Terri Lyne Carrington. Layth has performed internationally with artists including Simon Shaheen, Javier Limon, and Jack Dejohnette, and has recorded on Grammy-nominated albums. He has performed as leader and sideman in venues including the Boston Symphony Hall and the Kennedy Center, and in 2018, he won second place in the Zbigniew Seifert International Jazz Violin Competition in Poland. Layth is the director of the Arab Music Ensemble at Tufts University and the Center for Arabic Culture’s Youth Orchestra Program and teaches at Simon Shaheen’s Arabic Music Retreat in Massachusetts. Interviewed by Tamar Sella, 10/06/2020.
- Date:
- 2020-10-19
- Main contributors:
- Lezlie Webster
- Summary:
- Lezlie Webster (Concord, New Hampshire) Lezlie Webster is a Scottish Highland piper and dancer based in Concord, New Hampshire. A native of Ontario, Canada, she began her training in Ontario and Nova Scotia, and studied piping and Scottish highland dancing in Scotland. Lezlie has won many piping competitions in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K., and is a graduate and examiner of the Institute of Piping. She is also an adjudicator for the Easter U.S. Pipe Band Association. Lezlie and her husband, renowned piper Gordon Webster, were co-founders of the New Hampshire School of Scottish Arts in Manchester, NH, Lezlie and Gordon were invited to represent Scottish Highland piping and dance traditions for New Hampshire’s presentation at the 1999 Smithsonian Folklife Festival and again for the expanded recreation Celebrate New Hampshire festival held in 2000 in Hopkinton, New Hampshire. Lezlie has been honored by the St. Andrew’s Society for her contributions to the Scottish Community. Interviewed by Tamar Sella, 10/19/2020.
- Date:
- 2020-10-06
- Main contributors:
- Martha Redbone
- Summary:
- Martha Redbone (Harlan County, Kentucky) Martha Redbone is a Native and African American vocalist, songwriter, composer, and educator. Drawing on the tradition of her gospel-singing African American father and the spirit of her mother’s Cherokee/Shawnee/Choctaw culture, Redbone explores the boundaries of American Roots music and gives voice to issues of social justice. She draws from a number of genres, including folk, blues, and gospel. She has recorded numerous albums, including The Garden of Love: Songs of William Blake (2012), a collection of William Blake poems set to the music of Appalachia. In her work in theatre, Redbone composed original music for the 2019 revival of For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf, the choreopoem by Ntozake Shange. Redbone’s own musical Black Mountain Women for The Public Theater addresses the ongoing environmental destruction of her ancestral homeland in Appalachia told through the lives of four generations of women in her matriarchal Cherokee family. Interviewed by Tamar Sella, 10/06/2020.
- Date:
- 2020-09-15
- Main contributors:
- Lu Fuki
- Summary:
- Lu Fuki and Tazeen Ayub (Detroit, Michigan) Lu Fuki and Tazeen Ayub are performing artists and community organizers based in Detroit, Michigan. Lu Fuki is a guitar player and composer, as well as a director at Dream of Detroit, a nonprofit organization in the Westside of Detroit that focuses on fairness and equity in economics and housing. Tazeen is a composer, instrumentalist, and vocalist, as well a professor of Arabic. They have performed in a wide range of venues including the St. John Coltrane Church in San Francisco and the Burning Man festival in Black Rock City, Nevada. Together, they are founders and members of the collective Lu Fuki & Divine Providence, which comprises dancers, visual artists, and poets, as well as an Afro-Jazz Spirit band. They are also co-directors of GAMA Detroit, the local chapter for Gather All Muslim Artists, a national non-profit organization that seeks to create a platform that nurtures Muslim artists in the United States. Interviewed by Tamar Sella, 09/15/2020.
- Date:
- 2020-10-14
- Main contributors:
- Marlysse Simmons
- Summary:
- Marlysse Simmons (Richmond, Virginia) Marlysse Rose Simmons-Argandoña is a first-generation Chilean-American pianist, composer and educator based in Richmond, Virginia. She is the band leader, arranger and pianist for the globally renowned indie-salsa band Bio Ritmo and the bolero-inspired project Miramar. With her projects she has toured North America, Europe, Russia, and Georgia. She is a recipient of the Mid-Atlantic Touring Arts grant, recorded for Brooklyn’s Daptone, Barbès, and Spain’s Vampisoul Records. She studied composition under Grammy Award-winning artist Arturo O’Farrill and has traveled the world to make independent studies of various musical traditions including Brazil, Cuba, Chile, Puerto Rico and country of Georgia. Simmons also works as a commissioned arranger, educator and lecturer. Interviewed by Tamar Sella, 10/14/2020.
- Date:
- 2020-10-23
- Main contributors:
- Sandhya Sridhar
- Summary:
- Sandhya Sridhar (Nashua, New Hampshire) Sandhya Sridhar is a teacher and performer of Carnatic music based in Nashua, New Hampshire. Growing up in Matunga, Bombay, she studied at the Shanmukhananda Sabha arts center and under the tutelage of Smt.Alamelu mani. In New Hampshire, she founded the Aradhana School, a studio devoted to preserving, propagating, and increasing awareness of Carnatic music. In addition to music lessons and interactive lecture-demonstrations, the studio also sponsors performances at community events. Sandhya has taught students who have performed in several premiere venues of the Greater New England area and have won many prestigious prizes. Sandhya has been a grantee of the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship program at the New Hampshire State Council of the Arts, and has been inducted into the Council’s Board. She also serves on the board of directors of MIT’s MITHAS, an organization that hosts Hindustani and Carnatic Classical music concerts in the Greater Boston area. Interviewed by Tamar Sella, 10/23/2020.
- Date:
- 2020-10-26
- Main contributors:
- Shin-Yi Yang
- Summary:
- Shin-Yi Yang (Cambridge, Massachusetts) Shin-Yi Yang is a musician and educator based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She plays both guqin and guzheng, and is the founder of the Boston Guzheng Ensemble and Boston Qin Society. She is a two-time winner of the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship given by the Massachusetts Cultural Council’s Folk Arts and Heritage Program, and recipient of the 2008 Chinese Culture Connection Award. She has performed in the greater Boston area, and given performances and lecture demonstrations in venues including Yale University, New England Conservatory, and multiple museums. As a contemporary musician, she has premiered compositions and performed with ensembles such as IIIZ+ in venues including the 38e Rugissants Festival. A native of Taiwan, Shin-Yi has studied guzheng and guqin with teachers including Wang Ruey-Yuh, Tzay-Pyng, and See-Wah, and is a graduate of the National Taiwan Academy of Arts and the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. Interviewed by Tamar Sella, 10/26/2020.
- Date:
- 2020-11-30
- Main contributors:
- Sasha Renee
- Summary:
- Sasha Renee (Louisville, Kentucky) Sasha Renee is a rapper based in Louisville, Kentucky. Sasha Renee recorded her first song in 2010. By 2011, she was under the management of Double A Entertainment and released two underground mixtapes. A Proper Introduction and the Yearned Presence mixtapes were both released before 2012 and hosted by DJ Genius. Sasha Renee was nominated for #1 Female Hip-Hop Artist at the Kymp Kamp awards in Kentucky in 2013 and 2014. “Love Lost” was released as her first official single. She continued to record and release new music including a compilation album. She launched her weekly soul based open mic event The Vibe, which became a staple in the Louisville music scene, with artists, poets, and creatives traveling from surrounding cities to be heard. Sasha Renee released the EP I Am Sasha Renee in 2017 and won the KUEA award for Best Female Hip-Hop artist in Kentucky in both 2017 and 2018. Interviewed by Tamar Sella, 11/30/2020.
- Date:
- 2020-10-23
- Main contributors:
- Rabbi Sandra Lawson
- Summary:
- Rabbi Sandra Lawson (Elon, North Carolina) Rabbi Sandra Lawson is a rabbi, activist, public speaker, and musician based in Elon, North Carolina. Known for teaching Judaism in unique ways, Rabbi Sandra is known as the Snapchat Rabbi, and she has been featured in the Jewish Telegraph Agency as one of 10 Jews you should follow on Snapchat” and “The 50 Jews everyone should follow on Twitter.” She was ordained as a rabbi by the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. Rabbi Sandra is a guitar player and singer. Her musical projects include the Barefoot, Bluegrass and Blues on the Porch virtual series, and The Torah of the Blues, which explores connections between Judaism and the Blues in relation to her perspective as a Black rabbi with southern roots. Rabbi Sandra serves as Associate Chaplain for Jewish Life at Elon University. Interviewed by Tamar Sella, 10/23/2020.
- Date:
- 2020-09-29
- Main contributors:
- Tarik Shah
- Summary:
- Tarik Shah (Delmar, New York) Tarik Shah is a musician, bassist, music teacher, professor level martial artist, practicing Muslim, and student of knowledge. Born and raised in New York City, Shah began playing the upright bass at age twelve and was a student of Slam Stewart. He has performed and recorded with jazz legends such as Ahmad Jamal, Dakota Staton, Vanessa Rubin, Ellis Marsalis, Barry Harris, Pharaoh Sanders and the late great songstress Betty Carter. Additionally, Shah performed with big bands such as the Duke Ellington Orchestra, and in small groups led by Red Rodney, Sir Roland Hanna, Abbey Lincoln, Harold Vick, Dr. Lonnie Smith and others. He has toured extensively nationally and internationally, including performing at the inaugural ball of President Bill Clinton in 1992. In 2018, he began rebuilding a career as a musician after wrongful conviction by the FBI in 2006. His group the Tarik Shah Quintet has performed in venues including New York City staples Smalls and Mezzrow. Interviewed by Tamar Sella, 09/29/2020.
- Date:
- 2020-09-24
- Main contributors:
- Sugar Vendil
- Summary:
- Sugar Vendil (New York City, New York) Sugar Vendil is a composer, pianist, and interdisciplinary artist based in Lenapehoking/New York City, on stolen land of the Lenape people. She is a proud second generation Filipinx American. Vendil has been awarded multiple commissions to write works, including the ACF | Create commission to write a work for Boston-based duo Box Not Found (May 2020), and the 2019 Chamber Music America commission to write a new work for her ensemble, The Nouveau Classical Project, which she founded in 2008. She has held numerous artist residencies in institutions including the High Concept Labs in Chicago, Mabou Mines, the Target Margin Theater, and the Marble House Project. She holds a Master of Music degree in piano performance. Vendil has collaborated with many artists including choreographer Emily Johnson and composer-saxophonist Darius Jones. She has performed at a variety of venues, including BAM Fisher, MoMa PS1, National Sawdust, and The Stone. Interviewed by Tamar Sella, 09/24/2020.
- Date:
- 2020-10-14
- Main contributors:
- Aurélien Barnes
- Summary:
- Aurélien Barnes (New Orleans, Louisiana) Aurélien Barnes is a New Orleans trumpet player steeped in the tradition of the city. Born in 1995, he is part of the young generation of musicians carrying on the legacy of the trumpet and the blues in New Orleans. From an early age, he learned from some of the best musicians and teachers in the city, including the Tremé Brass Band, Leroy Jones, Gregg Stafford, Kent Jordan, and many others. He is the son of Bruce “Sunpie” Barnes, a multi-instrumentalist and specialist in blues, zydeco, and Afro-Caribbean musics. Aurélien performs with several brass bands in New Orleans and around the world, including Grammy-nominated Cha Wa, Kings of Brass, the Palmetto Bug Stompers, and more. He has performed with a wide range of artists across several genres, such as Marcus King, Nicholas Payton, Solange, Dr. John, and Carlos Vives. In addition to his musical diversity, Aurélien is a French citizen and speaks French, Spanish, and Portuguese fluently. Interviewed by Holly Hobbs, 10/14/2020.