“Musica Viva NY: sounds of the city…with a commitment to new music and diverse composers, New York City choir Musica Viva NY is paving the way for daring collaborations”
– Choir & Organ

New York City’s leading chamber choir, Musica Viva NY, launches its 2024-25 season with SOUNDSCAPES, a multicultural project fusing choral music with the indigenous sounds of India on Sunday, September 29, 2024, at 5:00 p.m., at Manhattan’s All Souls. Seven Musica Viva NY soloists will be joined by special guest alumna Shabnam Abedi (Trinity Wall Street chorus/The VOCES8) in a crossover of Hindustani classical, raga, and jazz music led by Musica Viva NY’s intrepid Artistic Director/Conductor Alejandro Hernandez-Valdez.

Celebrating a decade at the helm, Alejandro curates a program of works and composers that are personally meaningful to him while showcasing the diversity that has been a hallmark of Musica Viva NY for the past 10 years. “Shabnam Abedi is a one-of-a-kind artist,” says Alejandro. “Equally at home in jazz, classical, and Indian classical music, Abedi first came to my attention in 2016 while she was an undergraduate student at Rutgers University. From the first moment I heard her pure and crystalline voice, I knew Shabnam would be a major player in the music scene. Shabnam spent eight years as Musica Viva NY’s soprano 1 soloist, delighting audiences with her perfect intonation and purity of tone as a classical singer, jaw-dropping skills as a classical Indian music artist, and remarkable artistry as a jazz vocalist. This not-to-be-missed performance will showcase the uncanny versatility and flexibility of this remarkable artist.”

About Shabnam Abedi
Described by The New York Times as having “a lovely warmth,” Shabnam Abedi is a highly sought after soprano and recent addition to The Choir of Trinity Wall Street. She received her Master’s Degree from Juilliard in Jazz Studies making her Juilliard’s first South-Asian American jazz voice graduate. A versatile artist with a reputation for high-level music making in a wide variety of genres, Shabnam also studied opera at Mason Gross School of the Arts. Having played and sung Indian Classical Music since the age of five, Shabnam’s first album Amar Bijon Ghore was released to wide acclaim in India and Bangladesh. ShabnamAbedi.com

About Musica Viva NY
Musica Viva NY is a non-profit arts organization that was established nearly 50 years ago. Its mission is to bring world-class music to a wide community through an annual concert series, an active community engagement program, and an ambitious artistic vision. Under the baton of Artistic Director Alejandro Hernandez-Valdez since 2015, Musica Viva NY strives to offer joy, solace and renewal in a complex world by presenting new compositions and classic masterworks in transformative interpretations that ennoble the human spirit.

Musica Viva NY’s superb chamber choir and world class collaborating instrumentalists make their concert home in Manhattan’s historic All Souls Church. It regularly combines its presentation of the classical repertoire with less widely known works, as part of its commitment to perform the works of living American composers, women composers and composers of color, including works that address social, racial or environmental issues. Composers whose works have been featured in recent Musica Viva NY performances include Florence Price, Alexandra T Bryant, Steve Reich, Frank Ticheli, Missy Mazzoli, Alice Walker, Joel Thompson and Jesse Montgomery.

Musica Viva NY has commissioned and premiered numerous works by contemporary composers including Bora Yoon, Seymour Bernstein, Elena Ruehr, Joseph Turrin, Bruce Saylor, Jean-Louis Petit, Eugenio Toussaint, Gilda Lyons, Richard Einhorn, Trent Johnson and Trevor Weston.

Beyond high-quality concert performances, Musica Viva NY also serves the communities of New York City through a growing variety of rich community engagement programs. Currently, Musica Viva NY partners with New York city public schools, extracurricular youth ensembles, New York Public Library branches and the All Souls’ Monday Night Hospitality dinner program, offering free performances, artist clinics, interactive workshops, and more. Musica Viva NY has nurtured young artists throughout its half century of existence. Great musicians who have been Musica Viva NY singers and soloists include the Metropolitan Opera stars Samuel Ramey and Renée Fleming, and Broadway’s Aladdin, Michael Maliakel.

The organization was founded as an annual concert series in 1977 by Walter Klauss, who directed the group for 38 years, and adopted the name “Musica Viva” in 1985. Under Walter Klauss’ baton the choir toured in Paris (2004), Germany and Czechoslovakia (2006) and Italy (2012).

Performers:
Musica Viva NY soloists
Alejandro Hernandez-Valdez, artistic director and conductor
Shabnam Abedi, soloist + harmonium
Joe Block, piano

Program:
TBA