Music of the Americas: Live and Online, Old and New

Tuesday, November 8, 10 am

Guilherme Andreas is a Brazilian flutist, educator, singer, and music director-arranger. One of his first musical memories was showing up at choir rehearsals conducted by his father, where he learned the soprano and alto parts on his own, and according to his mother, sang louder than everyone else. Andreas has been an active performer throughout the United States, and is currently based in New York, where he dedicates his time to teaching, and to discovering lesser-known composers whose music expresses extreme ranges of emotions and demands tremendous virtuosity. You can listen to some of his music here.

With pianist Gianne Ge Zhu, Andreas sent us this version of Ary Ferreira's "Nocturne," recorded at Buchanan Chapel The Fourth Presbyterian Church of Chicago. Ferreira (1905–1973) was a Brazilian flutist and composer and an important musical figure in Rio de Janeiro. Like many of his South American contemporaries, Ferreira was under the influence of the impressionist music of Ravel and Debussy, and drawn to the pastel colors, and ambiguous and unresolved harmonies of their music, as we can see in this evocative piece.

Wednesday, November 9, 6 pm

Over the past few years, we have worked to restore our building on Park Avenue to its original beauty. This event will share the beautiful work that went into the project. The event will include a film documenting the process, conversations with the architects, tours of our gallery and building, and a special musical performance.

Find more information here. 

Thursday, November 10, 1 pm

In their New York debut in 2019, the Canadian Eybler Quartet gave the U.S. premieres of Pedro Ximénez de Abrill Tirado’s Quartet, Op.55, written in the 1820s in Arequipa, whose slow movement is based on an traditional Andean yaraví. This mostly unknown composer was active in particularly tumultuous times during his country's history and played a formative role in the development of local music.

From that concert, we share the first movement of Abrill Tirado's "15 Meditaciones para el quinario: día 4"

Friday, November 11, 7 pm

Live on stage in New York, Haitian singers Jean-Bernard Cerin and Melissa Joseph, with Stephen Gamboa on harpsichord and piano, follow the trajectory of the famous baroque song "Lisette quitté la plaine" across the Caribbean over the 19th century.

Reserve your seat here, and watch the video of the concert later this season. 

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.