Friday, June 3 at St. Ignatius of Antioch Episcopal Church in Manhattan
Saturday, June 4 at Jamaica Performing Arts Center in Queens
Sunday, June 5 at St. Philip’s Episcopal Church in Brooklyn

gemsny.org

New York, NY (April 13, 2022) — Gotham Early Music Scene (GEMS) presents the final concerts of its inaugural season of its Open Gates Project, Global Roots: Mi Alma, Mi Voz, Mi Corazón, A Journey Through Argentinian and Armenian Folk and Popular Song on Friday, June 3 at 7:00pm at St. Ignatius of Antioch Episcopal Church in Manhattan; Saturday, June 4 at 7:00pm at Jamaica Performing Arts Center in Jamaica, Queens; and Sunday, June 5 at 3:00pm at St. Philip’s Episcopal Church in Brooklyn. The Friday concert will also be live streamed.

The program is led and inspired by Argentinian-Armenian mezzo-soprano Solange Merdinian and features folk and popular music from Argentina and Armenia through the medium of baroque instruments. Solange will be joined by Dongmyung Ahn (violin), Dušan Balarin (guitar), Patricia Ann Neely (viola da gamba) and Rex Benincasa (percussion) in highlighting these folk and oral musical traditions and integrating some beloved melodies in Spanish and in Armenian, alongside the existing canon of repertoire largely stemming from Western Europe.

“By using period instruments, our Global Roots program also explores the intersection of folk music with Baroque style to show what is possible when we expand our lens on early music to include popular and cross-cultural idioms,” said Open Gates Project Co-Director Michele Kennedy. “We envision this program to be a conversation across languages, genres, and cultural traditions that can help to broaden our collective sense of early music: what it sounds like, where it comes from, and how powerful it can be when we can all find personal reflections of ourselves in musical traditions presented on the stage.”

GEMS’ Open Gates Project offers a rich variety of music performed by distinguished professional artists at locations throughout New York City. The series is dedicated to creating greater access to stages for musicians of color in Early Music, while also seeking to create greater access to Early Music for underserved communities. The Project aims to see increased diversity on the stage and in the audience.

Gene Murrow, executive director of Gotham Early Music Scene, engaged bass-baritone Joe Chappel and soprano Michele Kennedy as co-directors of the Open Gates Project, curating concerts, engaging artists, and exploring exciting new venues, all in order to broaden the reach of Early Music. The Open Gates Project presented its inaugural concerts, The Divine Feminine: Centering Women of Color in Early Music, in November 2021 (watch the November concert here), followed by C3: Countertenors, a Consort, and Continuo in February 2022 (watch the February concert here).

Concert Information
Global Roots: Mi Alma, Mi Voz, Mi Corazón  
A Journey Through Argentinian and Armenian Folk and Popular Song 
Solange Merdinian, mezzo-soprano
Dongmyung Ahn, violin 
Dušan Balarin, guitar 
Patricia Ann Neely, viola da gamba 
Rex Benincasa, percussion

Friday, June 3, 2022 at 7:00pm 
St. Ignatius of Antioch Episcopal Church
552 West End Avenue (at West 87th Street)
New York, NY 10024

Saturday, June 4, 2022 at 7:00pm
Jamaica Performing Arts Center
153-10 Jamaica Avenue 
Jamaica, Queens 11432

Sunday, June 5, 2022 at 3:00pm
St. Philip’s Episcopal Church
334 MacDonough Street
Brooklyn, NY 11233

Tickets
$30: General Admission
$15: Under 30/Fixed-Income 
$15: Resident of Queens (6/4); Resident of Brooklyn (6/5) 
$5: Students (ID required)
In-person and live stream options available.

Link: https://gemsny.org/opengatesseason 

Please note: COVID vaccinations and masks are required to attend in person. Read GEMS’ full Covid Protocols here.

About Gotham Early Music Scene
Since 2007, Gotham Early Music Scene (GEMS) has been a 501(c)(3) non-profit New York corporation promoting and supporting “early music” (medieval, Renaissance, baroque, and classical) in New York City. Among our activities are Midtown Concerts, a series of weekly free daytime concerts at the Church of the Transfiguration on East 29th Street; GEMS Live!, a booking agency securing paid concert engagements for New York-based ensembles; GEMS Concert Services, serving organizations and ensembles with marketing, box office, and front-of-house functions; Notes on the Scene, a semi-monthly newsletter emailed to about 8,500 subscribers; collaborations with major New York cultural institutions including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Trinity Church Wall Street, The Juilliard School, Americas Society and others for special events such as The Play of Daniel and the GEMAS series of early music in the Americas concerts; and IRS fiscal sponsorship and administrative services to 21 established and emerging ensembles and organizations.

GEMS is supported by fees for services; grants from The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, The New York State Council on the Arts, The Howard Gilman Foundation and other private foundations, and generous individual donors. Learn more at https://gemsny.org.

About the Artists
Acclaimed for her “smoldering stage presence” (The New York Times) her “richly-hued voice” (BBC Music Magazine), and that she “brought many to tears” (The New York Times), the Miami based American- Armenian-Argentinean mezzo-soprano Solange Merdinian has garnered an international reputation for her versatility and interpretation as a recitalist, chamber musician, and opera singer in repertoire ranging from Baroque to contemporary, folk, tango, cabaret, and world music. She is the Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of the non-for-profit organization, New Docta.

She has performed as a soloist in North and South America, as well as Europe, and Eastern Europe. She is an effective advocate for social, educational, and cultural programs through music and the arts in general, and that is the reason that nine years ago, she co-founded along with her brother violinist Sami Merdinian, and cellist and friend Yves Dharamraj, the non-profit organization that has been extending its mission through the Americas and the world for the past eight years.

Solange graduated with a Master in Voice and Vocal Performance from Bard College Conservatory and she received her Bachelor of Music degree from The Juilliard School. In 2021 she released her debut solo album, "Composing Roots" and also made her Carnegie Hall solo debut recital.

For more information visit www.newdocta.org and www.solangemerdinian.com.

Early string specialist Dongmyung Ahn is a performer, educator, and scholar whose interests span from the twelfth to eighteenth centuries. She studied Baroque violin with Stanley Ritchie at Indiana University where she received her Bachelor’s of Music with high distinction and her Master’s of Early Music. Dongmyung is co-founder of Duo Custos, a medieval duo that specializes in music of the fourteenth century. She regularly performs with Green Mountain Vespers, Pegasus, Raritan Players, the Sebastians, and TENET Vocal Artists. She has played rebec in the critically acclaimed production of The Play of Daniel at The Cloisters. A dedicated educator, Dongmyung is the director of the Queens College Baroque Ensemble and has taught music history at New York University, Queens College, Rutgers University, and Vassar College. She received her PhD in musicology at the Graduate Center, CUNY and has published an article on medieval liturgy in the Rodopi series Faux Titre and an article on Jewish-Christian relations in Henry VIII’s court for IU Press.

Dušan Balarin is a Peruvian-American soloist and accompanist on lutes and early guitars. His passion for inventive collaboration has led him to perform with artists and ensembles including Bruce Dickey, Paul Watkins and Phil Setzer from the Emerson Quartet, Tessa Lark, Nicholas Phan, Washington Bach Consort, Early Music New York, Classical Uprising, and Alchymy Viols. Dušan is currently attending The Juilliard School where he regularly performs with Juilliard415 under the direction of conductors including Masaaki Suzuki and William Christie. Dušan holds a Masters in Music in Historical Performance from Indiana University where he apprenticed with Lute virtuoso, Nigel North.

Rex Benincasa is a freelance drummer and percussionist working in New York since 1978. He has played on hundreds of television/radio soundtracks and commercial recordings, performed with Ensemble Caprice, ALBA Consort, Eurasia Consort, Concordia Chamber Players, Seraphic Fire, and others. Rex has recorded on CDs and/or movie soundtracks for Marty Balin, Karen Mason, Andrea Marcovicci, Craig Rubano, Jamie deRoy, Stephanie Pope, Foday Musa Suso, Douglas Cuomo, Philip Glass, Sesame Street, and NFL Films, to name but a few. Broadway appearances include Fosse, Mrs. Doubtfire, Flower Drum Song, Man Of La Mancha, Never Gonna Dance, Little Shop of Horrors, The Frogs, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Hairspray, The Drowsy Chaperone, Curtains, The Color Purple, Shrek, In the Heights, Billy Elliot, and Motown the Musical, among many others.

Patricia Ann Neely is an early bowed?string player and music teacher. She holds a BA in music from Vassar College and an MFA in Historical Performance from Sarah Lawrence College. She has performed with many early music ensembles including Sequentia, Tempesta di Mare, Washington Bach Consort, Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra, Rheinische Kantorei Köln, among others. She is currently director of Abendmusik – New York’s early music string band. Patricia has been a member of the Board and Chair of the Equity and Diversity Task Force of the Board of Early Music America and is currently on the Board of the Viola da Gamba Society of America and Chair of its Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee. She teaches at many early music workshops and was a long-time member of the music faculty at The Brearley School in New York City.?

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