Festival Schedule:

Iris Trio: Project Earth

CHRISTINE CARTER, clarinet
ZOË MARTIN-DOIKE, viola
ANNA PETROVA, piano

Our Spring 2024 festival kicks off in April with the 5BMF debut of the virtuosic IRIS TRIO in two  performances of their new program, Project Earth.

A culmination of the ensemble’s multi-year endeavor to illuminate the impact of human behavior on the environment, Project Earth addresses issues of climate change, pollution, habitat degradation, and biodiversity loss through chamber music and poetry. Giving center stage to the immense beauty and wonder found in nature, the project features original works by poets Don McKay and Karen Solie, and new works and commissions by Florian Hoefner, Sarah Slean and Andrew Downing.

THURSDAY, APRIL 11, 2024 - 7:00 PM
FOTOGRAFISKA MUSEUM, 281 PARK AVE. SOUTH., MANHATTAN

General Admission: $40
Museum Members: $20
Museum Patrons: $10

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SUNDAY, APRIL 14, 2024 - 4:00 PM
TRINITY LUTHERAN CHURCH, 309 ST. PAULS AVE., STATEN ISLAND

General Admission: $20
Students: $10
Seniors 60+: $10

Pedro Giraudo Tango Quartet: From Tradition To The Future

Nicolás Danielson, violin
Rodolfo Zanetti, bandoneón
Ahmed Alom, piano
Pedro Giraudo, bass and compositions

Our Spring 2024 festival continues with two back-to-back concerts featuring Latin GRAMMY Award winner Pedro Giraudo with his Tango Quartet in “From Tradition to the Future,” a program tracing the history of tango music.

Pedro’s Tango Quartet represents the evolution of tango, from its roots in the traditional Orquesta típica, then to tango nuevo as epitomized by Astor Piazzolla, and now to a contemporary sound that respects the past and looks to the future. Pedro has become an active cultural ambassador of this beautiful and passionate music of his native Argentina, bringing something new and exciting to the form while retaining all the lushness and beauty of tango.

This program includes selections from great tango masters from the 1930s to the present: e.g., Alfredo Gobbi, Francisco Canaro, Osvaldo Pugliese; the revolutionary Astor Piazzolla and—evolving even further, Pedro Giraudo. The Quartet offers the audience insight into how tango evolved from marginal venues to cafes and dance halls, and finally to prominent concert halls. The musical journey will be accompanied by short anecdotes about the main figures in the history of tango, as well as some explanation of the principal rhythms of the genre (milonga, waltz, and tango).

SATURDAY, APRIL 27, 2024 | 4:30 PM
BRONX RIVER ART CENTER, 1087 E TREMONT AVE., BRONX

General Admission: $10
Students and Seniors: $8

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SUNDAY, APRIL 28, 2024 | 3:00 PM
LITTLEFIELD, 635 SACKETT STREET., BROOKLYN

General Admission Advance: $12
GA Door: $15

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People of Earth:

American Timba Music

Our Spring 2024 festival continues with two dynamic concerts featuring the 13-person global music collective People of Earth in “American Timba Music,” a term coined by People of Earth to describe their distinctive repertoire that seamlessly weaves together influences from Cuba, Puerto Rico, Haiti, Brazil, and Black American Music. The majority of the band’s compositions, prominently featured on their debut album “People of Earth,” are masterfully crafted by its own members. The set list also includes commissioned pieces from Cuban maestros Dafnis Prieto and Pachy Naranjo Jr, along with classic Cuban standards by luminaries such as Cesar Pedroso and Guillermo Rodríguez Fiffe as nods to Haitian Compas and Hip Hop. The performance, delivered in a blend of Spanish, English, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese, is a vibrant celebration of the rich and unifying heritage of the Americas and the Caribbean.

People of Earth is a global music collective quickly emerging as one of the United State’s most exciting latin and tropical bands, with an explosive blend of the music of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Brazil and beyond. The 13 musicians comprising this supergroup represent a cross-section of the world, boasting an array of some of the best musicians from Cuba, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Canada, Switzerland, Haiti, Greece and more.

Formed in 2017, the band has performed at acclaimed venues including Disney Hall in LA, The Kennedy Center in D.C., The Kimmel Center and Mann Center in Philadelphia, and The New World Center for the Performing Arts in Miami. PoE, as the band is often referred to, has a frontline of three singers, backed by four horns, three percussionists, two keyboards, and electric bass. The band plays original music that blends influences from Cuban Timba and Rumba, Puerto Rican bomba and plena, Haitian Kompa, Brazilian MPB, and American soul, RnB, and hip hop, with songs in Spanish, English, Portuguese, and Kreyole.

THURSDAY, MAY 9 - 7:00 PM
BRONX MUSIC HALL, 438 E 163RD ST, BRONX, NY 10451

SUNDAY, MAY 12, 2024 - 3:00 PM
FLUSHING TOWN HALL, 137-35 NORTHERN BLVD, QUEENS

General: $20
Students/Seniors: $10

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Fest Date: April 11 - May 12, 2024

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