Saint Ignatius of Antioch
552 West End Ave
New York
United States
8 to 9 pm ET
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Ekmeles: New Vocal Music from the Americas
The new music vocal ensemble debuts on our stage with a cappella music by Kagel, León, Paredes, and Sabat.
8 to 9 pm ET
Saint Ignatius of Antioch
552 West End Ave
New York
United States
Share
Overview
Video of this concert will be available on this page at 7 p.m. ET on April 1.
This event will take place in front of a live audience, tickets are free, and the program is available online.
We are sold but walk-ins are welcome with proof of vaccination along with a mask.
Also, don't miss the upcoming broadcast and follow us to hear about more exciting performances!
In compliance with New York City’s Emergency Executive Order 239, Americas Society will require proof of COVID-19 vaccination for anyone attending our programs. All guests will be required to wear masks.
Ekmeles is a vocal ensemble dedicated to the performance of new and rarely-heard works, and gems of the historical avantgarde. Ekmeles was founded to present new a cappella repertoire for solo voices, and by collaborating with New York's instrumental ensembles. Director Jeffrey Gavett brings a hybrid vision to the group: he is an accomplished ensemble singer and performer of new works, and holds degrees from Westminster Choir College and Manhattan School of Music's Contemporary Performance Program. He has assembled a virtuoso group of colleagues who bring their own diverse backgrounds to bear on the unique challenges of this essential and neglected repertoire.
Ekmeles performs works by composers of the Americas focused on language and communication. Marc Sabat's Seeds of Skies Alibis is the most ambitious and largest-scale microtonal work that Ekmeles has yet commissioned, stretching 40+ minutes of complex pitch ratios to describe the origin of the world through Ovid's Metamorphoses. Paired with this will be Hilda Paredes's Fragmentos de Altazor, setting Vicente Huidobro's metaphysical text, portions of Mauricio Kagel's Der Turm zu Babel, telling the biblical story of the Tower of Babel in many different languages, and 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Music winner Tania Leon's De-Orishas.
Program:
Mauricio Kagel, Der Turm zu Babel
Hilda Paredes, Fragmentos de Altazor
Tania León, De-Orishas
Marc Sabat, Seeds of Skies Alibis
Personnel:
Charlotte Mundy, soprano
Joy Tamayo, soprano
Elisa Sutherland, mezzo soprano
Tim Keeler, countertenor
Nathaniel Barnett, tenor
Jeffrey Gavett, baritone and director
Steven Hrycelak, bass
Funders
The MetLife Foundation Music of the Americas concert series is made possible by the generous support of Presenting Sponsor MetLife Foundation. The Winter/Spring 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 for this concert comes from the Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, and The Amphion Foundation, Inc.
