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Migguel Anggelo and Broadway's Grace McLean to Tour Russia as State Department Attachés
By: Julie Musbach Feb. 09, 2018
After a successful ten-city tour of Russia in 2016, Migguel Anggelo returns this February as a cultural attaché under the auspices of the U.S. Department of State, singing opposite lauded multi-hyphenate actress-singer-writer-teacher on the rise, Grace McLean. In addition to performing on The Great White Way (Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812), Grace is the recipient of the 2017 Emerging Artist Award from Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and in 2015 her band Grace McLean & Them Apples played Pakistan on a US State Department sponsored tour. Backed by Russia's leading chamber orchestras with an American quartet at its core, the ensemble presents "The Songbooks of the Americas", a dynamic evening that parallels the music of The Great American Songbook with iconic songs of the Latin Americas that were all written within the same time period. Led by pianist and Musical Director Mau Quiros, this Russian/American ensemble bestows a fresh take on the classics with Quiros' original arrangements that mash-up American standards with their Latin counterparts to create an unexpected sonic collage.
The Great American Songbook, also known as "American standards," represents the canon of the most important and influential American popular song and jazz standards from the early to mid-20th century. While this collection of enduring songs from the 1920's to the 1960's and beyond - written by such legends as George Gershwin, Cole Porter, and Irving Berlin (among many others) - is world famous, we also ask the question: What are the equivalent songs of the same period coming from the Latin Americas?
"The Songbooks of the Americas" will answer that query, painting a lush, entertaining, and compelling portrait of the musical innovations throughout all of the Americas in that seminal time period. Migguel Anggelo and Grace McLean will give their own distinctive, high-energy, contemporary spin on the classics from both continents, sometimes giving Latin inflection to the American Songbook compositions. In other instances, the team might change tempo or instrumentation of the familiar versions of songs to infuse them with entirely new meaning, and all along, Anggelo and McLean and will bring their passionate performance style to each song as if each is its own individual play.
The program would include two 45 minutes sets, liberally mixing American and Latin American songs in equal measure.
THE SONGBOOKS OF THE AMERICAS:
RUSSIA/U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE TOUR 2018
Monday, Feb 12 | Lipetsk Philharmonics, Lipetsk
Wednesday, Feb 14 | Voronezh Concert Hall, Voronezh
Saturday, Feb 17 | Nizhniy Novgorod Philharmonics, Nizhniy Novgorod
Tuesday, Feb 20 | Tchaikovsky Hall, Moscow
Wednesday, Feb 21 | Spaso House, Moscow (Ambassador's residence)
Friday, Feb 23 | Esse Club, Moscow
Saturday, Feb 24 | Esse Club, Moscow
Tuesday, Feb 27 | Samara Philharmonics, Samara
Thursday, Mar 1 |Saratov Philharmonics, Saratov
Saturday, Mar 3 | Jazz Philharmonic Hall, St. Petersburg
Performed by Migguel Anggelo and Grace McLean
With Russian Chamber Orchestras and an American Quartet
Mau Quiros: Piano, Arrangements and Musical Direction
James Quinlan: Bass
Joel Mateo: Drums
Ivan Llanes: Percussion
ABOUT Migguel Anggelo
Migguel Anggelo is breaking barriers on the American stage, creating unique works that are reflective of the multicultural, multi-lingual, changing demographics of our country and times. The Brooklyn based, Venezuelan born artist began his career at 13 as Pinocchio in a South American touring production of the Broadway musical. He trained for a dozen years in classical ballet, studied voice at the Conservatory of Music in Cologne, Germany, has written music throughout all of his journeys as an immigrant in several countries, and has released two albums, the most recent being La Casa Azul (co-written/produced by musical director, Mau Quiros and mixed by Grammy Award-winner Felipe Tichauer).
In addition to performing on many of the world's greatest stages including Teatro Teresa Careño in Caracas, Venezuela; Teatro Insurgentes in Mexico City; Teatro Lola Membrives and Teatro Gran Rex in Buenos Aires, Argentina; and The New World Center in Miami, Florida, Migguel performs regularly at Joe's Pub at The Public Theater in New York City. His works include, So Close: Love & Hate, Another Son of Venezuela, I, Inmigrante, and Between Dreams. Another Son of Venezuelawas developed at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia as part of a theater residency program. In the summer of 2016, Migguel Anggelo and the Immigrants performed a ten-city concert tour of Russia as a cultural attaché under the auspices of the U.S. Department of State and will be returning again this year.
The collaborative trio of Anggelo, Quiros and Drake are currently at work on two new music-theater projects, the first titled: The Suitcase Project, was developed in part during a BRIClab Residency at BRIC (Brooklyn, NY). The Suitcase Project explores issues of Hispanic immigration and assimilation into the United States of today through original music, characters and theatrical storytelling, chronicling what we carry and discard in the quest to follow our dreams. The second, a piece called So Close: Love & Hate is a rich song cycle that includes an array of brand new compositions punctuated by Latin classics, American standards, Broadway, opera, and Björk. Migguel will be returning to Joe's Pub for two nights this spring (March 29th and April 4th) to pour his lush voice and enormous soul into this intimate new show addressing divisiveness, humanity and hope.
Most recently, he explored what it meant to be a Latino member of the LGBTQ community in the sold-out one-man show, Welcome to La Misa, Baby. Swirling through a gallery of characters, Migguel responded to the Pulse Nightclub shooting by introducing us to the diverse array of multi-dimensional characters found in a gay nightclub, and showing us how sacred such a place can be.
ABOUT Grace McLean
www.gracemclean.com
Called "electrifying" by The Huffington Post and "phenomenal" by The New York Times, Grace McLean is a multi-hyphenate actress-singer-writer-teacher on the rise. In addition to performing on Broadway (Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812), Grace also makes time for her acclaimed original music, both as a solo artist and with her band Grace McLean & Them Apples. With a sound that combines Regina Spektor's quirkiness, Nellie McKay's jazz sensibilities, Fiona Apple's irreverence, Kimbra's sass and Merrill Garbus of tUnE-yArDs' rhythm, McLean adds up to one beautiful weirdo. Manhattan User's Guide writes, "this pop and jazz singer writes seriously infectious melodies with seriously antic lyrics. Her voice can Raise the Roof, or she can slide off a note and break your heart," and Stephen Holden of the New York Times says "Ms. McLean's voice [is] a flexible instrument with unexpected reserves of power...Behind her playful adventurousness lies a well of passion."
Grace was a headlining performer and vocal instructor at the SingStrong a cappella festivals in DC and Chicago in 2014 and in 2015 her band participated in a US State Department sponsored tour of Pakistan. Grace McLean & Them Apples headlined the Lincoln Center American Songbook in both 2015 and 2016, and Grace is the 2017 recipient of the Hunt Family Emerging Artist Award through Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Grace's work as a performer and educator has taken her to Jamaica, Scotland, Italy, Croatia, Serbia and Pakistan. In New York, you can find her band at Joe's Pub, 54 Below, Rockwood Music Hall, Ars Nova (where she developed the interactive concert experience Grace McLean: Lives in Concert), and the Museum of the American Indian, where they performed as part of a panel discussion on storytelling for The Economist's 2012 Ideas Summit.
As a solo performer Grace has been seen at Lincoln Center, New York City Center, The McKittrick, BAM, the ACE Hotel (where she collaborates monthly with The Dance Cartel's show OnTheFloor) and numerous other venues both uptown and downtown. She is also a frequent contributor to Obie winning investigative theater company The Civilians' cabaret series "Let Me Ascertain You." McLean has developed work at CAP21, SPACE on Ryder Farm, The Orchard Project, Johnny Mercer Writers Colony at Goodspeed, and her pop opera about 12th century mystic Hildegard von Bingen has been commissioned by Lincoln Center Theater. Grace released her newest EP in May 2015, featuring the single, and her first feature video, "Natural Disaster". The band will release a new full-length album in 2018.
ABOUT MAU QUIROS
Costa Rican born, Brooklyn based Mau Quiros won a contest at age 17, writing a symphonic work for the Costa Rica National Symphony. As a musician, Mau performed with the Big Band of Costa Rica before receiving a full scholarship to the FIU School of Music in Miami. Mau has composed for, performed with, and produced recordings for a diverse range of artists and organizations from the Contemporary Youth Orchestra of Cleveland to Ben Folds and Graham Nash. He has played the most prestigious jazz festivals worldwide including the Monterrey, Costa Rica, and Montreal festivals. As Migguel Anggelo's long-time collaborator, Mau produced the album La Casa Azul, while performing in such venues as the New World Center, Joe's Pub, and the Detroit Institute of the Arts. The two have created four theater works together: So Close: Love & Hate, Another Son of Venezuela, I, Inmigrante, and Between Dreams. Along with Migguel Anggelo, Mau has done residencies at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, BRIC in Brooklyn, and was the Musical Director and DJ supporting Migguel Anggelo and David Drake's play Welcome to La Misa, Baby. In the summer of 2016, as Musical Director and keyboardist of Migguel Anggelo and the Immigrants, Mau was part of a 10 city concert tour of Russia as a cultural attaché under the auspices of the U.S. Department of State.
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