Veladas Culturales - Live Performance of Peruvian Folk Music
The Caribbean, Latin American, and Latino Studies Department Presents: “Veladas Culturales."
This live performance of Peruvian folk music will feature Vocalis Consort: Christopher Sierra, tenor, and Martin Néron, pianist.
About Vocalis Consort:
The Vocalis Consort brings together collaborative musicians and artists who are inspired by the potential found in the union of poetry and music and are also devoted to sharing their passion in meaningful performances. We strive to feature works that have been traditionally overlooked in addition to excelling in performing the core of the Mélodie and Lied repertoire. Our ensemble helps performers and audiences find and broaden the scope of the art song recital beyond the “traditional” Western European canon.
About Christopher Sierra, tenor
Peruvian-American tenor Christopher Sierra is on the faculty at Longy School of Music, Bard College, and Crane School of Music, SUNY Potsdam. Dr. Sierra is recognized for his artistic sensitivity and versatility in repertoire ranging from classical, musical theatre, to contemporary commercial music. He has performed with opera companies and orchestras throughout the United States, some of which include Opera Philadelphia, Santa Fe Opera, Opera New Jersey, Spoleto Festival USA, New York Lyric Opera Theatre, Princeton Festival Opera, Long Island Opera, and the United Nations Symphony Orchestra. Dr. Sierra has also made solo debuts in Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Luxembourg, and India. On the concert stage, Dr. Sierra has performed works such as Bernstein’s Songfest, Schumann’s Spanisches Liederspiel, Britten’s Les Illuminations, Bach’s Weihnachts-Oratorium, Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass, Brahms’s Liebeslieder Walzer, Vaughan Williams’s Serenade to Music, and Schubert’s Mass in G. Most recently, he was invited to sing the tenor solo in Beethoven’s Symphony No.9 with the Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia and was a featured soloist in Peter Bjerring’s Song of the Salish Chief at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center.
About Martin Néron, pianist:
Canadian pianist Martin Néron is on the faculty at Westminster Choir College and is a virtual music instructor at Shanti Bhavan, a boarding school for children from India's lowest socioeconomic class located in Tamil Nadu. He will be joining the faculty of the Art Song Institute of the Snow Pond Music Festival this June in Maine. He has held residencies at University of lexington,Tennessee TU and Fundación Armonía (Ecuador), and presented masterclasses at Butler University, Washington and Ohio State University, TCNJ, Hunter College, NATS, Arte Lirico, and Universidad Central del Ecuador. He is the founder and artistic director of the Vocalis Consort, an ensemble that strives to showcase vocal works that have been traditionally overlooked in addition to excelling in performing the core of the mélodie and Lied repertoire. In 2021 he successfully designed and managed the first Canto Latino Online International Competition, a competition that specifically features and promotes vocal repertoire from Latin America. Martin has been on the faculty at the Taos Opera Institute (2019-2021), and is a past member of the Board of Directors of the Joy in Singing Foundation, serving as Vice President between 2017 and 2019. He is co-founder, co-artistic director, and Vice-President of the newly incorporated Federation of the Art Song. Praised as “an attentive partner” (Opera News), Martin has recorded albums of French, Greek, British, and American songs. His scholarly work is frequently featured in the Journal of Singing. His book, Francis Poulenc: Selected Song Texts, was published by Leyerle in 2010. He holds degrees from the Manhattan School of Music (DMA), Westminster Choir College (MM), and Université de Montréal (BM).
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