Music of the Americas: Live and Online

Monday, October 17, 7 pm

Live on our stage in New York, the Brazilian string ensemble makes its U.S. debut on our stage with a program including music by Clarice Assad, Heitor Villa Lobos, João Luiz, and Paulo Costa Lima.

Tuesday, October 18, 10 am

Carlo Nicolau is a New York City-based, award-winning composer, producer, violinist, and pianist, with more than 35 years of professional experience. In 2017, his album of original compositions Music for the Moving Imagination was released on vinyl, and on several digital platforms. Born in Mexico City, Nicolau began studying violin and improvising on the family's living room piano, and continued his studies at the National Conservatory in Tours, France. Upon returning to Mexico City he played the violin professionally in some of the top orchestras and founded the legendary chamber rock ensemble NAZCA. Nicolau moved to New York City in 1988 and formed the progressive rock sextet Devil's Breakfast, performing in many NY venues including monthly sold out shows at the Knitting Factory. Around this time he began his work in advertising and in 1994 received a Clio award for the music of a Budweiser television spot that aired during the USA World Cup. Carlo then opened music houses Big Rumble Music (1995–2000), and Razorhead Music (2001–2016), writing and producing music for clients such as Coca Cola, Ford, Heineken, ESPN, Mars Chocolates, History Channel, and Sesame Street, for which the project “A Is for Asthma” won a NY Film Festival Award and an Aurora Gold Award. Carlo also won a 2017 TELLY award in the original music category, for the N.H.T.S.A. television PSA "Good News." Throughout the past 26 years, prominent musicians, such as Mike Stern, Carlos Alomar, and Mark Stewart have recorded on TV spots and/or films composed and/or produced by Carlo. As a film composer, Carlo wrote the original music for feature documentary film “Mission Mt. Mangart”, for which he won Best Original Music Awards at the Milan Film Festival Gold Awards and at the Florence Film Festival. This film’s world premiere took place in November 2021, at Boettcher Concert Hall in Denver, with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra performing to a sold out theater. He also co-wrote the original music for "Santitos," a 1999 Sundance Film Festival winner, and the music for film "Fast Horses." For modern dance, Nicolau has also composed music for renowned choreographers such as Stephen Petronio and Sondra Loring. Carlo often performs as a guest musician on the violin with global music, Latin, and Indie rock bands.

From his home in New York, he sent us "Artaud and the Tarahumaras," a musical interpretation of French writer Antonin Artaud's time with the Tarahumaras in northern Mexico in 1936, and how what he learnt there changed his perspective of life.

Artaud wrote about the experience:

I took Peyote in the mountains of Mexico, and I had a dose of it that lasted me two or three days with the Tarahumara, and at the time those three days seemed like the happiest days of my life.
I had stopped tormenting myself, trying to find a reason for my life, and I had stopped having to carry my body around.
I realized that I was inventing life, that that was my function and my raison d’être, and that I suffered when my imagination failed, and Peyote gave it to me.
A human being stepped forward and drew the Peyote out of me with a blow.
I made it into real shreds, and the cadaver of a man was torn to shreds and found torn to shreds, somewhere.
rai da kanka da kum
a kum da na kum vönoh
Granting that this world is not the reverse of the other and still less its half, this world is also a real machine of which I have the controls, it is a true factory whose key is inborn humor.
sana tafan tana
tanaf tamafts bai

Thursday, October 20, 10 am

Tango guitar soloist, arranger, and professor Mirta Álvarez was born in the Buenos Aires Province and studied in the Escuela de Música Popular de Avellaneda with Aníbal Arias and Kelo Palacios, where she now teaches guitar and music appreciation. Álvarez incorporates tango dancing as an element of her interpretation of the genre. She performs her own arrangements, creating a dialogue between music and poetry, through instrumental and sung versions, from old classics to Astor Piazzolla, and including her own compositions. She has participated in numerous festivals in Argentina and the world and has accompanied great voices, including Susana Rinaldi, the Dúo Salteño, among others. She has participated in several recording projects, including Gauchos Modernos with Javier Sánchez, Versos de Amor with Tucumán Cuatro, Susana Rinaldi’s Conmigo, and Sandra Luna's latest album, Inmensidad. In 2018, Álvarez published her first book of tango arrangements for solo guitar: Tango para guitarra. 

Friday, October 21, 10 am

Dario Acosta Teich has led jazz ensembles, composed for orchestras, and improvised with jazz icons such as William Parker and Mike Stern, all while cultivating his deep Latin American roots. He has also explored a world of other sounds, playing with artists including Garifuna icon Aurelio Martinez, Tim Ries, long-time brass player with The Rolling Stones, and Stevie Wonder, among others. He has appeared as a solo performer and as part of groups and ensembles at major festivals and venues in throughout the world. He has released five albums and contributed to countless others as an engineer, producer, and musician. In 2022, he was awarded the Mercedes Sosa Award for Best Jazz Album. Dario hails from northern Argentina, a region with a wealth of long-lived musical traditions. From birth, he became part of those lineages thanks to his highly musical family. Dario’s father Kato, a luthier and musician, brought him to local folk music gatherings (peñas) and taught him his first guitar chords. Dario was hooked on the instrument, still his main musical companion. In addition to live and static recorded music, Dario has begun to explore collaborative livestreams/videos that reimagine jazz standards and international hits in distinctly Latin ways. His series Latin American Versions has featured stirring duets with Tim Ries, Quique Sinesi, Franco Luciani, Lilian Saba, Cecilia Zabala, Nestor and Omar Gomez, Marcelo Nami, Joca Perpignan, Ricardo Moyano, and Pipi Piazzolla.

The opening song of Dario's new album Folklore features his collaboration with the singer/songwriter Eleanor Dubinsky. In the tinku-inspired “Fiesta Manka,” Acosta paints a musical picture of local traditions, hinting at the boisterous celebration held by the Aymara in Northern Argentina, while paying homage to his chosen home, New York, with its multicultural and wildly creative jazz scene.

The MetLife Foundation Music of the Americas concert series is made possible by the generous support of Presenting Sponsor MetLife Foundation.

The Fall 2022 Music program is also supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, and by the Howard Gilman Foundation. 

Additional support comes from the Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, The Amphion Foundation, the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, New Music USA’s Organizational Development Fund, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Association of Performing Arts Professionals’ ArtsForward program, made possible through support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and The Augustine Foundation.