New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
MoCA Westport’s concert lineup highlights diversity and community
Westport’s Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA) 2023 concert lineup is offering a diverse lineup of musical genres this season.
MoCA Westport organizers decided to dig into its programming to feature more diversity and more collaborations with area organizations. The result is a series of ten jazz, world music, folk and classical performances with emerging and veteran musicians, as well as community collaborations.
“I think it’s really a dynamic year for programming,” executive director Ruth Mannes said. “When I say diversity, I mean diversity in all ways; it’s like diversity on steroids.”
The season kicked off Feb. 18 with Scottish folk band Talisk, but audiences should expect more than folk.
“We were really looking for performers that test the boundaries,” Young said.
Two of the jazz concerts will feature performers from the Jazz at Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Spotlight series. Vocalist Vanisha Gould performs on June 10 and trumpet player Summer Carmargo on July 8.
Kristen Young, who manages the Music at MoCA program, said Gould is being backed by the Greater Connecticut Youth Orchestras, which fits in with this season’s theme of collaborating with local organizations, particularly those that are youth-based.
“That brings up what I’m looking forward to with this next season,” Young said, adding that MoCA is focused on “more impactful performances” this season.
The season also includes two performances from Hartford’s Cuatro Puntos Ensemble. Young said the band’s mission is to use music for social activism so they are bringing in music from Ukraine on April 28 and Iraqi composer and multi-instrumentalist Ameen Mokdad on May 12.
Telling important stories through music and dance — yes, dance — is a key goal for the concert season. An Oct. 14 program called Desde Adentro features performances by Yale’s Fellowship Quartet-in-Residence Callisto Quartet, Alturas Duo and East Coast Contemporary Ballet.
“Picture this, the dancers are going to be in the middle of our gallery and the audience will be wrapped around and surrounded in our unique setting of art. It’s going to be a collaboration of these different types of mediums,” Young said.
“[It’s] the first time we are really having something on this scale in our space.”