Celebrate The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing’s newly reimagined Ancient Americas galleries with an illustrious lineup of U.S. and Mexican performers.

This exciting evening will include two newly commissioned works by acclaimed Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz, whose list of accolades includes a Grammy Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and Mexico’s National Prize for Arts and Literature.

The program begins with Grammy-winning vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth singing Ortiz’s Canta la Piedra—Tetluikan, commissioned by The Met on the occasion of the reopening of The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing and based on poems by Nahua multidisciplinary artist Mardonio Carballo that reflect on the deep connection to nature that informs Mesoamerican culture. Then, Mexican contemporary choral ensemble Coro Acardenchado, appearing in partnership with México Now Festival, presents a rare taste of the endangered Mexican canto cardenche musical tradition, a wrenching expression of pain and heartbreak through song. Finally, the two ensembles come together to premiere a brand-new double-choir arrangement of Ortiz’s powerful Kauyumari, in which a single melody unfolds into an entrancing, rhythmic ode to music as a means of healing and transformation. The performance will include live, hand-drawn animated projections by Arturo López Pío, as well as video of the sacred Wirikuta desert by Mercedes Aquí and Paola Stefani.

Program:

ORTIZ Canta la Piedra—Tetluikan

Co-commissioned by MetLiveArts and Carnegie Hall, on the occasion of the re-opening of The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

TRAD. MEXICAN Canto cardenche selections

ORTIZ Kauyumari (world premiere arrangement for double choir)

Arrangement commissioned by MetLiveArts