Andes Manta, the renowned South American folk ensemble, will perform a concert of traditional Andean music, featuring more than 35 traditional instruments and bringing to life the ancient culture of the Incas and their predecessors.  Recreating the haunting melodies of a civilization thousands of years old, these Ecuadorian musicians perform a variety of traditional rhythms, from the haunting melodies of the high Andes to the joyous dance rhythms of Indian village festivals.

The musicians of Andes Manta believe that through their music they bring a rare opportunity for cultural understanding between the people of their homeland, South America, and the people of modern North America.

Although we know that Andean music has been played in South America for thousands of years, its beginnings have been lost in the mists of time.  Just as the true origins of the native peoples of the Americas continue to elude us, the first players of this wonderful musical tradition remain an enigma.

Despite the mystery, this vibrant and powerful music continues to be played from Columbia to Terra del Fuego, and none play it better than the four Lopez brothers who make up Andes Manta.  Fernando, Luis, Bolivar and Jorge bring this unique art form to North America in its purest and most authentic form.  Natives of the Ecuadorian Andes, the brothers learned their traditional folk music as it has been learned for thousands of years – passed from father to son, and brother to brother.

All children must be accompanied by an adult during all performances.  
*Tickets should be purchased for children older than 12 months of age.

Jamie Bernstein, Narrator - Jamie Bernstein is a narrator, writer and broadcaster who has transformed a lifetime of loving music into a career of sharing her knowledge and enthusiasm with others.

Jamie grew up in an atmosphere bursting with music, theatre and literature.  Her father, composer-conductor Leonard Bernstein, together with her mother, the pianist and actress Felicia Montealegre and their legions of friends in the arts, created a spontaneous, ebullient household that turned Jamie into a dyed-in-the-wool cultural enthusiast.

Replicating her father’s lifelong compulsion to share and teach, Jamie has devised several ways of communicating her own excitement about classical music.  In addition to “The Bernstein Beat,” a family concert about her father modeled after his own groundbreaking Young People’s Concerts, Jamie has also written and narrated concerts about Mozart and Aaron Copland, among others. 

Jamie travels the world as a concert narrator, appearing everywhere from Beijing to Havana to Vancouver. In addition to her own scripted narrations, Jamie also performs standard concert narrations, such as Walton’s Façade, Copland’s A Lincoln Portrait, and her father’s Symphony No. 3, Kaddish. She is a frequent speaker on musical topics, including in-depth discussions of her father’s works.  Her recent appearances at Caramoor include “The American Songbook: Bernstein on Broadway,” and the family concert “Mozart, You Kid You,” during the 2006 International Music Festival.

In her role as a broadcaster, Jamie has produced and hosted numerous shows for radio stations in the United States and Great Britain.  In addition to hosting several seasons of the New York Philharmonic’s live national radio broadcasts, Jamie has presented several series for New York’s classical station, 96.3 FM WQXR, including annual broadcasts from Tanglewood.  Most recently, Jamie presented a series for BBC Radio 3, “Fast Machine,” about the music scene in New York City.

In addition to writing her own scripts and narrations, Jamie writes articles and poetry, which have appeared in such publications as Symphony, DoubleTake and Gourmet.

Marco Granados, Flute - Sonidos Latinos Musical Advisor - A native of Venezuela, Marco Granados maintains an active international career as a soloist, chamber musician, and teacher. His diverse repertoire spans from classical to folk, with an emphasis on Latin-American music as his specialty. He has been a member of many critically acclaimed ensembles, among them the Quintet of the Americas and  Triangulo (Latin American Chamber Trio). As a founding member of the Amerigo Ensemble, The Camerata Latinoamericana, the Granados/Abend Duo, Marco's collaborations also include those with The Cuarteto Latinoamericano, The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and with such distinguished artists as Paquito D'Rivera, flutist Ransom Wilson, harpist Nancy Allen, oboist Heinz Holliger,  flutist William Bennett, as well as with soprano Renee Fleming and baritone Dwayne Croft. Recent performances include recitals at Wigmore Hall in London, Tours of the US, Slovenia and South Africa. He has also performed at many summer music festivals including Caramoor, Moab, Chautauqua, and the Colorado Music Festival.

In his native country, Mr. Granados has performed with many of the leading Symphony Orchestras premiering both, the Jacques Ibert and Aram Khachaturian flute concerti with the Maracaibo and Venezuelan Symphony Orchestras, respectively. He also gave the South American premiere of the Concerto for F1ute and Orchestra by Mexican composer Samuel Zyman with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Lima in Peru. Past solo engagements have included a special invitation in 1986 by the Mayor of New York City to perform for Placido Domingo at Gracie Mansion. In recital, Marco made his New York debut at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall in 1991. Since then, he has performed recitals in the United States, Canada, South America, and the Caribbean. The first musician to have appeared as soloist for three consecutive seasons with The New York City Symphony at Alice Tully Hall and Merkin Concert Hall in New York City, Marco Granados has also appeared as soloist with Philharmonia Virtuosi of New York, members of The Cleveland Orchestra, The Juilliard Chamber Orchestra, The Haydn Festival Orchestra of Maine, and L’Orchestra in the Berkshires, among others.

On radio broadcasts, Mr. Granados was featured nationwide in 1996 on National Public Radio's Performance Today with Camerata Latinoamericana, and recently presented a program of Venezuelan and Latin-American music on Around New York with host Fred Child of WNYC. Other radio appearances include live performances on WQXR in New York City. As a recording artist, he has appeared on such labels as CRI, Chesky Records, MMC Records, Koch World and XLNT Records, Marco Granados has toured the United States on several occasions with the Quintet of the Americas, with performances at Carnegie Hall, The Bermuda International Music Festival, Chamber Music Northwest, Alice Tully Hall in New York City, and in many university concert series. As an artist-in-residence at Northwestern University in Chicago, he has given recitals and concerts with Elena Abend as well as with the Quintet of the Americas.

Marco currently plays with the acclaimed ensemble "Un Mundo", a group dedicated to bringing the passion and energy of Venezuelan music to the world and instilling in young people the love of music and the bridging of cultures through classical, folk and jazzy arrangements. Recordings by Mr. Granados include Luna, a romantic serenade of songs from Venezuela and South America for flute and guitar; Tango Dreams, a compilation of works by Astor Piazzolla, and Amanecer, a collection of Venezuelan flute favorites.

A devoted educator, he travels the world teaching children about the wonder of creation, through his composition workshops.

Group Inkay - Inkay is a Quechua verb that means "to tend the fire". The members of the group have chosen this name to symbolize their commitment to keep alive, expose and spread the beautiful music of the Andes mountains of Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador.

The musicians play over two dozen musical instruments. Among the wind instruments, they play a variety of pan-pipes known to the natives as "sikus", "antaras" or "zampoñas". They also play end-notched vertical flutes called kenas, transverse flutes, whistles and ocarinas as well as an array of percussion instruments. All these instruments have their roots in pre-Hispanic civilization.
 
Inkay's music, primarily, represents elements of South American indigenous culture when they perform wind and percussion music. They also include European musical elements when they play stringed instruments like the guitar, mandolin and the well known "charango" (a guitar like instrument fashioned of an armadillo shell). Over the past three centuries, harp music, together with other stringed instruments have become an integral part of the "mestizo" traditional music of the Andes. The task of group Inkay is to interpret the different styles of playing Andean music maintaining the styles of the native communities.

Inkay originated in New York in 1984. Their performances at music festivals, museums, schools and concert halls have created a new source of reference for folk music lovers.

The members of Inkay, under the direction of Pepe Santana, a native from Ecuador, are Rothman Teran, César Vele, Iván Vele, all from Ecuador; Fernando Leiva from Bolivia and Andres Jimenez from Peru.  In the past, each member has been involved with various folk groups, both here in the United States and in South America.
  
Inkay's commitment is to keep alive the fire of their vibrant Andean Traditions.

Rolando Morales-Matos, Percussion - Rolando Morales-Matos received his BFA in music from Carnegie Mellon University, his MA from Duquesne University, and Certificate of Professional Studies at Temple University. He is a Percussionist and Assistant Conductor with Disney's production of The Lion King in New York City. He performs and records regularly in New York with various Latin jazz Groups. He is the recipient of the 2006 Drum Magazine World Beat Percussionist of the Year award.

Mr. Morales-Matos is a member of Ron Carter Jazz Quartet, Philadelphia Orchestra Percussion Group. He is a professor at both Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, New York City.<?xml:namespace prefix = w ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" /><w:wrap type="tight"></w:wrap>

Elena Pinderhughes, Flute - Flautist and vocalist Elena Pinderhughes is 12 years old. She plays jazz, Latin jazz, Cuban, Brazilian, and classical music and sings in English, Portuguese, Spanish, German, and French. She performs regularly with the SF Latin Jazz Youth Ensemble, the YMP Junior Jazzers, and with Catch 22, a trio she founded with her brother who plays piano and composes and arranges for the group. She has performed at the Fillmore Jazz Festival, San Jose Jazz Festival, Yerba Buena Center, Yoshis Jazz Club, the White House, and Carnegie Hall.

In April 2007, she was the featured soloist with the Montclair Women’s Jazz Band at the Gualala Whale and Jazz Festival; the first time the producers featured a child on the main stage. She has been featured in articles on jazz and in an HBO special on young musicians entitled The Music in Me. Her first CD, entitled “Catch 22”, was released in 2005.

Samora Pinderhughes, Piano - Pianist, composer and arranger Samora Pinderhughes is 15 years old. He has won several awards for his musicality and original compositions, including the prestigious Downbeat Award for “best original composition/best song” for ‘Catch 22’, the title track on his first CD. In 2006 and 2007 he won awards for Outstanding Musicianship at the Folsom Jazz Festival.

His original compositions have been recorded and performed by a number of Bay Area artists, including Grammy nominated percussionist John Santos and his Machete Ensemble. He is first pianist with the Berkeley High Jazz Band (with whom he will tour Japan this summer) and performs regularly with many groups, including  the Berkeley High Jazz Combo, San Francisco Latin Jazz Youth Ensemble, YMP Junior Jazzers, and Catch 22, a trio he founded with his sister who plays flute and sings with the group. He has performed at the Fillmore Jazz Festival, San Jose Jazz Festival, Yerba Buena Center, Yoshis Jazz Club, San Jose Jazz Festival, the White House, and Carnegie Hall.

Choro Ensemble - [Choro is] the instrumental genre of Brazilian music created in the 19th century that served as inspiration and guiding light to composers like Villa-Lobos and Tom Jobim [is finally arriving at Carnegie Hall.] Choro, which means "cry", strongly combines elements of classical, popular and African music in an elegant and virtuosistic way. Poetic alliteration drives several tunes and anyone can identify the fledgling bird in Tico-Tico no Fuba or follow the soccer player dribbling an adversary in  Ginga do Mane. Choro was born in Rio de Janeiro, through a mixing of polka, waltz, mazurka and African rhythms. Former slaves and mestizos put together an original musical style with instruments like flute, clarinet, guitar, light percussion and cavaquinho, a Portuguese soprano guitar that resembles the ukelele.

This rich tradition was brought to New York City by Choro Ensemble. Sao Paulo native and choro scholar Pedro Ramos, a cavaquinho player, started looking for virtuoso instrumentalists to play the music he could not live without right after moving here in the end of 1999. "I wanted a traditional format -- guitar, wind, cavaquinho and pandeiro --, playing in a contemporary fashion with a lot of improvisation and original compositions and arrangements. "Besides fellow Brazilians Carlos Almeida, Gustavo Dantas and Ze Mauricio, he found Anat Cohen, a accomplished horn player from Israel. "On my first encounter with choro, I found it to be very challenging, since it demands virtuosic abilities on the instrument. I was also glad to find a genre where clarinet fit in. I started playing with Pedro in 2000. In January 2001 I went to Brazil and after meeting most of the choro community in Rio, I fell in love with the warmth of the people, their kind of jam sessions, the enthusiasm of the new generation for this music. I came back to New York and said 'that's it, time to get serious about it'"-- says Anat.

Choro Ensemble has been a guest of Winton Marsalis and The Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra in the Apollo Theater and acclaimed by Time Out magazine as one of the five best weekly gigs in New York. Paquito D'Rivera said the presentation of the group during his birthday party was "the best present I ever got". The definitive refinement of choro came through Pixinguinha, a classically trained flute and saxophone player and composer. Further development came through mandolinist Jacob do Bandolin, born in Rio in 1918 to a Russian Jewish mother. The playful, soulful symmetry of choro, the "crying" sound of the clarinet reminded Anat of the klezmer songs she grew up listening to. "When I play, I pay respect to the tradition and the great masters of choro, but I also use a lot of improvisation and bring elements from other kinds of music I found in my path: traditional swing, modern jazz, klezmer, Cuban, Venezuelan and more. The mix of cultures that defines the New York flavor is echoed in Choro Ensemble's sound. Living in the city for several years, all band members have worked with other styles. Gustavo Dantas, who also spent 10 years in Europe, applied his classical training to funk, fusion, reggae, jazz and African styles. Ze Mauricio showed his percussion skills in a Yo-Yo Ma album. Pedro was trained as a jazz guitarist at Los Angeles's Musicians Institute of Technology and is finishing a Master's Degree in Composition at the City University of New York. The anchor of Brazilian music tradition is Carlos Almeida, who as a teenager in the 1970s played with the old choro masters in the Sunday jam sessions in the suburbs of Rio de Janeiro. This experience enabled him to proceed on a career playing with samba legends, such as Beth Carvalho and Alceu Maia. Carlos founded the decade-old Saveiro, now the most famous Brazilian band in the United States, with presentations at Lincoln Center and Central Park's Summer Stage on the resume. Finding Choro Ensemble "was a revival, feelings that were dormant came back", he says.

Un Mundo - Marco Granados and Un Mundo Ensemble perform music from their homeland, Venezuela.  Venezuelan music is characterized by fast melodies, complex syncopated rhythms and jazzy harmonies that blend the traditions of African, European and native cultures with a sense of sophistication that is truly unique.  Many of Un Mundo’s arrangements are virtuosic, giving the performers the opportunity to display mastery of their instruments.  The different styles performed by the ensemble represent the typical forms most commonly enjoyed by the Venezuelan listener.  The styles include: the Joropo, the Merengue, the Tonado, the Gaita and the Valse (or Waltz.)

Andes Manta - In 1960, Teresa and Luis Lopez moved from the village of San Gabriel in the remote Ecuadorian Andes to the capital city of Quito to find a better life.  In the city in the clouds, they had four sons and three daughters all raised in the traditional way, celebrating the cycles of life with the music and dance of their ancestors.

Like most Ecuadorian children the boys made flutes and panpipes of native bamboo, and learned to play from older musicians. Then, when he was eight years old, Fernando found an abandoned guitar in a field.  Although it had only three strings, he worked out melodies, played and learned. A relative had the guitar repaired.  A music teacher noticed an extraordinary talent and sent Fernando to the Quito Conservatory to study classical guitar.  But it was the music of the Pueblo, the folk tradition of the Andes, that drew Fernando and his brothers.  At a remarkably early age, the Lopez brothers gained a reputation throughout the music circles of Quito as a formidable talent in the folk music world.

In 1968 while still in their early 20’s, Fernando and his brother Luis were invited to present a series of concerts at Simon’s Rock of Bard College in western Massachusetts.  Since that time they have performed on major stages throughout North America, appearing in 47 states in the U.S. They are now based in the Hudson Valley of New York.  Andes Manta tours year-round, appearing on major concert stages, in festivals and at countless universities and schools.  They return to South America as often as possible to renew their cultural roots.