Uncharted: Raquel Acevedo Klein & Asher Kurtz

Recently named by The Washington Post as a “classical composer and performer to watch in 2022,” conductor, vocalist, instrumentalist, and visual artist Raquel Acevedo Klein has been described by composer Angélica Negrón as a “force to be reckoned with.” (The Washington Post) With her immense versatility as a musician and composer, Klein is a highly sought after collaborator in the New York City region and surrounding areas.

The upcoming season includes performances with Lincoln Center in collaboration with New Latin Wave for FUTUROS, New Ideas in Composition (Klein performs a selection of her compositions for voice and electronics); a month-long series of live performances with MoMA in collaboration with Shana Moulton and Nick Hallett for Meta/Physical Therapy, an opera installation (Klein performs as lead vocalist); the SXSW premiere of Adrianne & The Castle (Klein co-composes the film score with Arcade Fire’s Richard Reed Parry, and records vocals for the lead actress and underscoring of the film); The Shed inside their Sonic Sphere, a 65-foot-diameter spherical concert hall suspended in air that features immersive, 3D sound and light explorations of music (The Shed programs her multichannel electroacoustic vocal motet, Polyphonic Interlace, which she also performs live); and the premiere of Unfolding the Universe and song cycle set in VR connecting the scientific breakthroughs of the James Webb Space Telescope to human consciousness (as composer in collaboration with VR artist Ashley Zelinskie and in coordination with NASA). Klein is also recording vocals with Grammy Award-winning vocal octet Roomful of Teeth to accompany the upcoming Ken Burns film Leonardo da Vinci, scored by Caroline Shaw. Opera Philadelphia has also commissioned Klein to compose her first opera to be premiered in a future season, which she will perform in as the lead role.

Klein’s dynamic compositions and electric performances have captured the attention of The New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Los Angeles Times. Klein’s conducting credits include the New York Philharmonic, Roomful of Teeth, the Grammy Award-winning Brooklyn Youth Chorus, Beth Morrison Projects, and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. She has premiered vocal works by John Adams, Philip Glass, Nico Muhly, Bryce Dessner, and Paola Prestini. Klein was born and raised in Brooklyn in a Puerto Rican and Colombian family of visual artists.

For her Uncharted performance, Klein joins guitarist Asher Kurtz in the creation of a body of original music featuring voice, effects-processing, electronics, guitarlele, analog tape loops, and baritone guitar, in a performance that will be divided into two parts. The first half will be dedicated to music that explores our human consciousness and cosmic origins through the James Webb Space Telescope. The Webb is an unparalleled yet tangible lens that enables us to observe our past dating back to the first galaxies. This is the story of how we came to exist, set to music. Each piece incorporates scientific concepts from the telescope as building blocks for its composition. The second half will be a collection of original pieces spanning a variety of genres, such as classical, jazz, opera, Arabic music, electroacoustic music, songwriting, and immersive audio experiences. “Much of my work is about audience engagement,” says Klein. “I’m building stories and music that are meant to help engage empathy for communities or ideas outside of the listeners’ immediate experience. The desire for that sense of connection often draws me into creative collaboration as a composer, as a vocalist and as an instrumentalist. For my Uncharted performance, I wanted to offer a sort of charcuterie plate of those connections and to celebrate with some of the colleagues that have joined me on my way.”