Sound Off x Justice Committee: Celebrating Richie Perez

Angélica Negrón - Marejada
Noel Estrada - En Mi Viejo San Juan
Iván Enrique Rodríguez - Rapsodia Riqueña
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - String Quartet No. 19 in C Major, "Dissonance"
Luis Rodriguez Miranda - Recuerdos de Borinquen

and speeches by Martha Laureano and Hertencia Petersen

PERFORMERS' BIOS:

Rosa Ortega Iannelli is a violist, educator and juggler from San Juan, Puerto Rico. Born to a family of artists, Rosa began their music studies at home and was eventually enrolled in the preparatory program at the Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico. In 2018, Rosa completed their undergraduate studies at Temple University, where they studied with Dr. Ana Tsinadze, Principal Violist of the Bay Atlantic Symphony, and Kerri Ryan, Assistant Principal Violist of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Rosa has had the opportunity to play in masterclasses for renowned musicians including Roberto Diaz, Atar Arad, Jerzy Kosmala, Nokuthula Ngwenyama, and Adriana Linares. As a music educator, Rosa has taught with the Memphis Music Initiative, Play on Philly!, Philadelphia String Project, Common Time Music School and has worked as a Teaching Fellow at the Interlochen Arts Camp.

Rosa is a 2018-2019 alumni of the Iris Orchestra Artist Fellows Program, during which time they spent a year in Memphis, TN, teaching at local elementary schools, performing outreach concerts, and working closely with the world-class musicians of the IRIS Orchestra and ensemble director Michael Stern.

Refusing to conform to a particular genre, Rosa has spent the last two years of their career branching out from their classical training and performing with a variety of artists in a variety of settings. They have had the pleasure to collaborate with close friends and colleagues, including singer-songwriter Jeremy Lordan, local PR band Sin Tribu and Philly-based harpist Sara Henya. Rosa often collaborates with their siblings who are artists as well, combining their experience as a juggler and their musical training to create unique performances.

/

Cellist Rosalyn Iannelli began her musical studies in her home city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her cello studies with Orlando Cole at The New School of Music culminated with her receiving a Diploma in Musical Performance at the age of 20. Immediately after her graduation in 1980, she auditioned for The Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra and became one of its youngest musicians. After gaining her position as Assistant Principal Cellist in 1984, she has often played in the Principal position, including six complete seasons.

Rosalyn has participated in music festivals in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Colorado, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Saint Thomas, Spain, New York, and Washington, D.C. She has performed and recorded chamber music by Puerto Rican and Latin American composers, such as Ernesto Cordero, Rafael Aponte Ledée, Hector Campos Parsi, and Jose Daniel Martinez, who dedicated his Sonata for Cello and Piano to her.

In addition to her performances in the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra, Rosalyn plays chamber music with Gallery Music and other groups. Through the years, she has taught private cello students of all ages and levels of development. In 1989, she taught chamber music and cello orchestral excerpts in the first season of FOSJA (Festival de la Orquesta Juveníl de las Américas). She gave master classes and cello sectionals from 2008 until 2011 in Experiencia Sinfónica, a program in which high school students learn standard orchestral pieces and then perform them seated next to their teachers. In June 2017, she was on the faculty of The Puerto Rico Summer Music Festival.

/

A native of Buffalo, NY, Teagan Faran is a multidisciplinary musician focused on enacting social change through the arts. She has recorded with the Buffalo Tango Orkestra, La Martino Orquesta Típica, and had compositions featured at the NYSSMA Conference and the Persis Vehar Competition for Excellence. Faran has recently served as concertmaster of the University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra and the Ann Arbor Camerata and was a member of the Orquesta Escuela de Emilio Balcarce.

As a soloist, Faran has performed with the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Greater Buffalo Youth Orchestra (including a performance in Salsomaggiore Terme, Italy), the Ann Arbor Camerata, the Williamsville East Symphonic Orchestra, and the University of Vermont Symphony.

Administratively, she worked as the AAC’s executive director for a season, and held internship positions in the Marketing and Education Departments of the Buffalo Philharmonic, and Education and Concerts/Touring with Jazz at Lincoln Center. She founded Ann Arbor arts collective Red Shoe Company and was a teaching artist for the University Musical Society and the Sphinx Organization.

After graduating from the University of Michigan, Faran moved to Buenos Aires on a Fulbright grant. Faran was also a Turn The Spotlight Fellow, receiving their inaugural Hedwig Holbrook Prize. She is currently attending the Manhattan School of Music, pursuing a Masters in Contemporary Performance.

Teagan is also an active web designer, notably for research labs at the University of Michigan Biomedical Engineering program.

/

Originally from Uniondale, New York, 23-year old first-generation Filipino-American Jay Julio (they/them) now lives in Harlem. They look forward to a change of scenery soon, beginning a new chapter as one-fourth of the 2020-2023 LA Orchestra Fellowship. Their recorded work can be heard on Broadway Records, United Common Records, and with artists such as Major Lazer and Marcus Mumford. Their arrangements have been heard at the Cannes Film Festival, NY Fashion Week, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Jay has appeared on WKCR-FM, IPR, the cover of British GQ, and within the pages of Vogue Magazine as a performer and justice advocate.

They have received fellowships to the Music Academy of the West, Orpheus@Mannes, and the Aspen, Spoleto and Pacific Music Festivals. Jay has served on the substitute viola & chamber music faculty at the Manhattan School of Music, as a Teaching Fellow at the Juilliard School’s Music Advancement Program, on the teaching staff at the Interlochen Center for the Arts, and currently coaches the Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles and the Young Artists Philharmonic.

They were a recipient of a 2020 Music Academy of the West Fast Pitch Award and named a finalist in the 2021 Alumni Enterprise Award competition for their music-meets-prison-analysis organization Sound Off: Music for Bail. Most recently, Jay was recognized as a 2021 WeInspire Foundation ambassador for their work with Sound Off. They are a member of the Justice Committee, a spiritual successor to the Young Lords. For rhythm, Jay studies poetry. AFM Local 47.

/

Brianne Lugo is a freelance violist in NYC, as well as a member of the Lotus Chamber Music Collective. She has thoroughly enjoyed genre-hopping and performing various styles of music throughout the Tri-State area. While we're all feeling the effects and struggles of a pandemic lifestyle, Brianne has since jumped into learning about at-home recording as well as offering her time and efforts in the social justice scene around NYC while advocating for the performance of lesser-known BIPOC and womxn composers. Wear a mask, expand your circle, and advocate for the arts! You can find more information about Brianne at http://briannelugo.com/ and on Instagram @brilugovla. Current member of AFM and Local 802.

/

Noah Koh began his cello studies at the Center for Preparatory Studies in Music at the Aaron Copland School of Music in Queens College-CUNY after studying violin for two years. At the age of 11, he continued his studies as a scholarship student at the Juilliard Pre-College Program. He has not left the building since then.

An avid chamber musician, Noah has been heard at many distinguished summer festivals: the Aspen Music Festival, Bowdoin International Music Festival, the C.W. Post Chamber Music Festival, Festival Del Lago (where he performed alongside faculty members), Kneisel Hall, Luzerne Music Festival, Meadowmount School of Music and the Yellow Barn Young Artists Program. He also performed in concerts throughout the Appalachian area of New York, including The Caroga Lake Arts Collective, or the Roxbury Arts Group.

While only a sophomore at Juilliard, he was invited to participate in Juilliard’s Honors Chamber Program with the Nova String Quartet where he had the privilege to study with violinists Joseph Lin and Laurie Smuckler, as well as violist Roger Tapping. The Nova String quartet also performed in The Juilliard School, Alice Tully Hall, and the manuscript museum in Buffalo, New York. The quartet also collaborated with dancers and composers. The quartet also participated in masterclasses with the cellist David Finckel (live streamed on medici), violinist Sean Lee through Lincoln Center’s Chamber Music Society, as well as others through the Juilliard School, with pianist Robert Levin and the Michelangelo Quartet.

Noah’s teachers include many of the most distinguished pedagogues of our time: André Emelianoff, Bonnie Hampton, Clara Lee Rous, Clara Yang, David Ying, Darrett Adkins, Gloria DePasquale, Natasha Brofsky, Ruth Guideri, and Julia Lichten. He has performed in master classes for David Finkel, David Geber, Evangeline Benedetti, and Frans Helmerson.

Noah loves music and is living in New York City, where the music never stops. He has performed countless Groupmuses in private homes, and finds a lot of joy in every gig he has come across, whether it was to play in an orchestra with members of the Metropolitan Opera in Central Park, or to record the soundtrack in the movie Gemini Man, starring Will Smith.

When he’s not playing the cello Noah can be found doing yoga, playing pick up soccer games, and trying amazing food. He believes that there is a connection to these various things in his life. Yoga is an amazing way to stay mindful and connected to the body, while soccer has taught him to live in the moment and take risks, and good food is an accumulation of wonderful flavors interacting with each other.

/

Martha Laureano, a native New York Puerto Rican, is a founding member and current board member of Justice Committee. She is the life partner of JC co-founder and champion, Richie Perez, who transitioned on March 27, 2004. A graduate of Hostos Community College’s first class of the Nursing Program in the 1970s, Martha’s over 40 years of NYC public service has focused on the promotion of community empowerment through health education and self-management. She is currently the Nursing Director of NYC Health and Hospitals School Based Health Clinics, has served as Director of El Puente’s Institute of Community Health and Environment and as Director for the NYU School of Medicine Institute of Latino Health. Examples of her advocacy for health, social justice, and human rights include: Save Hostos Community College Movement, Coalition Against Hospital Closures, National Congress for Puerto Rican Rights and Justice Committee, Parents Against Police Brutality.

/

Hertencia Petersen is a leader of the movement for police accountability and racial justice, a Co-Chair of the Justice Committee’s Families Organizing Program, and a member of JC’s Leadership Team. Hertencia is the aunt of Akai Gurley, who, in 2014, was killed by former NYPD Officer Peter Liang and Shaun Landau, in the stairwell of the Pink Houses in Brooklyn. Since Akai’s murder, Hertencia has dedicated herself to fighting for justice for all victims and survivors of police violence. Last summer, Heterncia collaborated with other families who have lost loved ones to the NYPD in JC to lead to the way to victory in Communities United for Police Reform campaigns to repeal 50a (aka the Police Secrecy Law) and pass legislation to ensure a special prosecutor for all cases of police killing.