NEW Interlude:

Fado — Music of Portugal

Our Sixth Interlude

Sensitive to social injustice, the history of Fado traces back to the early 1800’s but a huge resurgence happened between 1930 – 1945 through the performances of Amalia Rodrigues and others. The simplicity of Fado’s melodic structure values the voice interpretation. With a strong evocative inclination, Fado’s poetry appeals to the communion between the interpreter, the musicians and the listeners, which speaks to themes related to love, luck, individual fate, and with this recording, the city of Lisbon’s daily narrative. This recording at the Clube de Fado is typical of contemporary Fado performances in that the singer and the musicians rotate and are not introduced by name before or after the performances. There is no amplification of the singer’s voice or the instruments. Ceilings are low and the seating is intimate as reflected in this 2018 performance. The clinking of wine glasses can be heard in tandem with the incredible quiet and focused attention of audience members.

We are now accepting proposals for gallery exhibitions. Work needs to be wall mountable fine art that relates to our mission of supporting multicultural arts that help to educate the community about diversity. We also strive to support artists and groups who may not otherwise have access to a professionally equipped and accessible facility or the cultural mainstream. BIPOC artists are strongly encouraged to apply.

Because so much of the pandemic has revolved around what we can’t do, we wanted people in the community to be able to do something pro-active. Our stories are about sharing with one another - something we can do. We have great hope for the future and we think that our stories will help us to both better understand what is happening now, show how we are coping, and give us a path to moving forward. Our day-to-day may be restricted but not our creativity, which has no boundaries.

What people are saying about Cambridge: Our Town - Our Stories:

Powerful! — Delightful! — A Valuable Historical Document! 

What a great idea! — Eloquent!

Current Virtual Gallery
 

Moved to Act!

Co-Curated by Ellen Feldman & Marky Kauffmann

Other Pieces in Our Interlude Series

Interlude: 
You Move Ya Lose — Socially Distant

This is our fifth Interlude which features the Second Line Social Aid & Pleasure Society Brass Band, with musicians from Cambridge, Somerville and the Greater Boston area, presenting a piece released in May 2020 entitled You Move Ya Lose – Socially Distant.

This incredibly energetic video by Geoff Adams brings the spirit of Mardi Gras (something warm in the otherwise cold month of February) to our website home page for you to enjoy if you need a lift! This band is part of the annual HONK! Festival and has played their vibrant music at the Multicultural Arts Center free Outdoor Summer Concert Series as well.

Interlude: For This Year's Joyful Noise — Since We Can't Be Together

This is our fourth Interlude. The performance was recorded in 2016. Historic and recent events have been brought into the video and they are both important and timely. I tear up every time I listen to these young voices and watch the images that cross the screen. Watch, listen and you will see what I mean.

This year we will be unable to bring you our annual Joyful Noise Gospel Concert that celebrates the life and legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Junior with the Harlem Gospel Choir. But next year on Saturday, January 15, 2022 we will be back at Sanders Theater - so mark your calendars now! 

Interlude: Stream

This is our third in a series of offerings. Recorded in April at the beginning of the pandemic, "Stream" is a solo saxophone improvisation with looping electronics by Ken Field. It was recorded for inclusion in the online Cambridge Arts "Stream" Festival, which replaced the planned in-person River Festival. The piece captures the frustrating sense of isolation that many of us feel, while simultaneously evoking the beauty of our shared community and world.

Ken Field is a Cambridge-based composer and musician whose group, Revolutionary Snake Ensemble, has performed both nationally and internationally, including at the Multicultural Arts Center. He also leads the Ken Field Nonstandards, a "super-group" that includes Yoron Israel, Helen Sherrah-Davies, Mike Rivard, and Amy Bellamy (and sometimes Jeff Lockhart). This group was also scheduled to perform at the cancelled River Festival in June.

Field is the President of the Board of JazzBoston, hosts a weekly radio program on WMBR & WOMR, and is on the organizing committee for the HONK! Festival of Activist Street Bands. He was named a Finalist in Music Composition by the Massachusetts Cultural Council.

Interlude: Justice for Breonna Taylor: Duos in Dedication

This is our second in the Interlude series of offerings, and we hope you take the time to listen to this beautiful and haunting musical dedication to Breonna Taylor, the innocent African-American woman killed in Louisville, Kentucky. 

This piece is one of 14 duo tracks — with accompanying videos— that are part of a larger project called "Justice for Breonna Taylor: Duos in Dedication." This project is Boston-based trumpeter and educator Jason Palmer's way of responding to one of today’s most difficult issues through jazz music. Throughout the project Palmer collaborates with different musicians. In this piece, jazz pianist Kevin Harris adds his own sound to Palmer's basic solo track that appears in each of the 14 pieces.

Kevin Harris has performed at the Multicultural Arts Center and with Jason Palmer and others at the River Festival in Cambridge at the Jazz, Blues and R&B Stage which is produced and hosted by the Multicultural Arts Center for the last 12 years.

Interlude: Historia de un Amor 

Saxophonist/composer Marco Pignataro created a beautiful, haunting video to accompany an improvisational exploration of "Historia de un Amor" by Panamanian composer Carlos Eleta Alamarán. This stunning work was created in duo with Jazz Pianist/composer Laszlo Gardony.

Both musicians are on faculty at Berklee College of Music and have performed at both the Multicultural Arts Center’s Jazz Club and at the Cambridge River Festival on the Jazz, Blues and World Music Stage, which the Multicultural Arts Center organizes, helps produce and hosts each year.