Five Boroughs Music Festival Announces Fall 2022 Season

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PR Contact: Katlyn Morahan | Morahan Arts & Media
katlyn@morahanartsandmedia.com | 646.378.9386

FIVE BOROUGHS MUSIC FESTIVAL
ANNOUNCES FALL 2022 SEASON

Five Borough Songbook, Volume III Premieres
in Queens, Bronx, and Manhattan, October 21 to 23

Castle of our Skins Makes New York City Debut in
Love Affects on November 18

www.5bmf.org

New York, NY (September 22, 2022) — Five Boroughs Music Festival (5BMF) – champions of chamber music in all corners of NYC – today announces its Fall 2022 season, which features the Queens, Bronx, and Manhattan premieres of the Five Borough Songbook, Volume III, and Love Affects by Castle of our Skins featuring Angel C. Dye.

5BMF collaborates with On Site Opera to present the Queens, Bronx, and Manhattan premieres of the Five Borough Songbook, Volume III on Friday, October 21, 2022 at 7:00pm at Flushing Town Hall; Saturday, October 22, 2022 at 7:00pm at the Bronx Music Heritage Center; and Sunday, October 23, 2022 at 3:00pm at Hebrew Union College. These anticipated performances will complete the Songbook’s citywide tour which began in April 2022 with borough premieres in Brooklyn and Staten Island. 

The Five Borough Songbook, Volume III, a new cycle of 15 songs, duets, and ensemble works by 15 composers, was commissioned in honor of 5BMF’s 15th anniversary and On Site Opera’s 10th Anniversary seasons. It also marks the third installment of 5BMF’s critically acclaimed flagship Five Borough Songbook project. The Songbook is performed by members of Kaleidoscope Vocal Ensemble – sopranos Nicole Joseph and Gitanjali Mathur, mezzo-soprano Cecilia Duarte, tenor Haitham Haidar, and baritone Jonathan Woody – in addition to pianist Erika Switzer, violinist Pala Garcia, and cellist John Popham.

The Songbook is divided into five sections, each inspired by one of New York City’s boroughs. Its songs were composed by Arianne Abela, Raquel Acevedo Klein, Kinan Azmeh, Colin Britt, Majel Connery, Laura Jobin-Acosta, Will Healy, Brian Lawlor, Jessica Meyer, Angélica Negrón, Nkeiru Okoye, Juri Seo, Aaron Siegel, Darian Donovan Thomas, and Jonathan Woody. Song texts were drawn from a variety of sources: written by the composers themselves; drawn from existing poetry by Nick Main, Amy Lowell, Joseph Tusiani, and Walt Whitman; and with new texts, in Arabic by Firas Suleiman, in Spanish and English by Noel Quiñones, and in English by Tom Lee and Valerie Seeley.

On Friday, November 18, 2022 at 7:00pm, 5BMF co-presents Boston-based ensemble Castle of our Skins – a Black arts institution dedicated to fostering cultural curiosity and celebrating Black artistry through music in classrooms, concert halls, and beyond – at the Langston Hughes Auditorium at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. The program, entitled Love Affects, pairs chamber music with text to explore how love influences our sense of self, humanity, heritage, and future, and is a revival of their inaugural concert program, performed in celebration of their 10th anniversary this season.

This concert is co-curated with and features Castle of our Skins' 3rd Annual Shirley Graham du Bois Creative in Residence, Angel C. Dye. Dye is a poet, scholar of African American Literature, and the author of BREATHE (Central Square Press). She hails from Dallas-Ft. Worth, TX/Milwaukee, WI, is a graduate of Howard University, holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Kentucky, and is currently a PhD in English student at Rutgers University.

Concert Information

Five Borough Songbook, Volume III (Queens Premiere)
Friday, October 21, 2022 at 7:00pm
Flushing Town Hall | 137-35 Northern Blvd | Queens, NY 11354
Tickets: $25 General Admission, $15 Seniors & Students w/ID
Link: https://5bmf.org/events/five-borough-songbook-vol-iii/ 

Five Borough Songbook, Volume III (Bronx Premiere)
Saturday, October 22, 2022 at 7:00pm
Bronx Music Heritage Center Laboratory | 1303 Louis Niñé Blvd | Bronx, NY 10459
Tickets: $15 General Admission, $10 Seniors & Students w/ID
Link: https://5bmf.org/events/five-borough-songbook-vol-iii/ 

Five Borough Songbook, Volume III (Manhattan Premiere)
Sunday, October 23, 2022 at 3:00pm
The Chapel at Hebrew Union College | 1 W 4th St | New York, NY 10012
Tickets: $25 General Admission, $15 Seniors & Students w/ID
Link: https://5bmf.org/events/five-borough-songbook-vol-iii/ 

Performers:
Kaleidoscope Vocal Ensemble
     Nicole Joseph, soprano
     Gitanjali Mathur, soprano
     Cecilia Duarte, mezzo-soprano
     Haitham Haidar, tenor
     Jonathan Woody, baritone
Erika Switzer, piano
Pala Garcia, violin
John Popham, cello

Program:
Five Borough Songbook, Volume III

The Bronx

New York Revisited – music by Will Healy, text by Joseph Tusiani
Mantras from Jesup – music by Brian Lawlor, text by Valerie Seeley
The Rocking Chair – music by Laura Jobin-Acosta, text by Noel Quiñones

Manhattan

TimesSquare – music and text by Darian Donovan Thomas
We Met at the Symphony – music and text by Nkeiru Okoye
by the bone dry fountain of an early winter – music by Juri Seo, text by Nick Main

Queens

You Can Find Queens – music by Arianne Abela, text by Tom Lee
Others Will See – music by Colin Britt, text by Walt Whitman and Amy Lowell
The Sea Rolls Along – music and text by Majel Connery

Staten Island

????? (The Island) – music by Kinan Azmeh, text by Firas Sulaiman
Nonnas – music and text by Jessica Meyer
Song of Fresh Kills – music and text by Aaron Siegel

Brooklyn

In Kings – music by Jonathan Woody, texts by Petrus Stuyvesant and Gertrude Lefferts Vanderbilt from the
     New York Gazette (1776) and United States Census Records (1790)
Between Two Islands – music and text by Raquel Acevedo Klein
Hello Beautiful – music and text by Angélica Negrón

Love Affects
Friday, November 18, 2022 at 7:00pm
Langston Hughes Auditorium, Schomburg Center | 515 Malcolm X Blvd | New York, NY 10037
Tickets: On sale beginning October 1, 2022

Performers:
Castle of our Skins
Angel C. Dye, poet

About Five Boroughs Music Festival
Since 2007, Five Boroughs Music Festival (5BMF) has brought virtuosic chamber music performances of the highest caliber to every borough of NYC, cultivating new audiences for the genre and encouraging music lovers to look beyond Manhattan for outstanding performances. Lauded as “imaginative” by The New York Times, “enterprising” by The New Yorker, and “vital” by WQXR’s Operavore blog, 5BMF’s commitment to musical outreach and diverse programming has distinguished it as a standout presence in the New York City arts community from its earliest days.

5BMF’s artist roster of over 250 individual performers and ensembles is comprised of talented emerging artists and distinguished musicians alike, representing a diverse range of musical genres and styles. Its venues are just as eclectic, and have included performing arts spaces, cultural centers, and historic New York City landmarks such as Federal Hall, Pregones Theater, Flushing Town Hall, King Manor Museum, Brooklyn Historical Society, the Alice Austen House, and the Staten Island Museum, to name merely a few.

As champions of new music, 5BMF has commissioned over 50 composers and presented world premieres of their works all across New York City, most notably the two borough-wide tours of its Five Borough Songbook Volumes I and II. 5BMF’s outreach initiatives continue to expand every year, and have included program-related interactive lectures and discussions, public masterclasses with world renowned performing artists, and free public programming. Learn more at www.5bmf.org.

Photo at top of release by ??Irina Island Images

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