“INDIGENOUS RESILIENCE” - Dzul Dance in rehearsal with members of The Harlem Chamber Players and La Camerata Washington Heights. Photo taken by Sergio Reyes April 23, 2025 at Aaron Davis Hall.
Please join us for a concert featuring all world premieres by Latin composers. This concert is presented in collaboration with City College Center for the Arts and the Association of Dominican Classical Artists.
This concert will also feature a world premiere by composer Sergio Reyes as well as a world premiere choreography by Javier Dzul, who grew up in the jungles of southern Mexico performing Mayan ritual dance until the age of 16. The Harlem Chamber Players commissioned both Reyes and Dzul to work together on this final piece of the concert to portray Mayan/Indigenous resilience. See detailed program notes below.
TICKETS
This concert is FREE and open to the public. RSVP is required. Registration is available here or by clicking the button below.
PROGRAM
ALL WORLD PREMIERES
Ariel Pirotti Los Sueños de Nina
Pablo Gómez-Estévez Too Nietzsche
Carlos Bernales Suite Afro Peruana for Strings and Percussion
Sergio Reyes Resiliencia de los Pueblos Indígenas de Guatemala for Strings, Marimba, and Clarinet
With dancers from Dzul Dance, choreography by Javier Dzul
ARTISTS
Featuring members of The Harlem Chamber Players with members of La Camerata Washington Heights (of the Association of Dominican Classical Artists).
This concert is part of Carnegie Hall's Nuestros sonidos festival.
Resiliencia de los Pueblos Indígenas de Guatemala
(Resilience of the Indigenous Peoples of Guatemala)
The chamber suite is an homage to the Indigenous Peoples of Guatemala who led protests that lasted 106 days in October, 2023. They defended the democratic vote against the attempts by the so-called ‘Pact of the Corrupt’ to declare electoral fraud. The music is also inspired by two archaeological pieces from the PreClassic and Classic Maya periods which illustrate and evoke the importance of consensus and well being.
I. Origin
A square-shaped vessel from the Maya Classic period ---found in El Naranjo and signed by artist Lo’ Took’ Akan in the 8th Century, C. E.--- depicts the gathering of deities of Creation on August 11th, 3114 B.C, considered to be the beginning of the Mayan calendar. The coincidence of these characters marks the conditions for the advent of the earth and of human beings.
II. Xibalbá/Mayan Underworld
Stele 25 in Izapa, México from the PreClassic period depicts a scene in the Popol Wuj, the sacred book of the Maya K’ich'e. Twins and heroes Junajpú and Xbalanké, fight against Wuqub Kak’ix, an ostentatious Macaw who pretends to be the sun but sheds only a dim light. The monstrous avian being is defeated through tricks and humor. The twin heroes substitute his golden teeth with maize grains.
III. Resistance and Hope
Currently, the Indigenous Peoples of Guatemala preserve their ancestral traditions and ancient Mayan cosmogony. Through the conservation of their languages, textiles, sustainable agriculture, and their relationship with the natural world the Indigenous Peoples resist and defend life, dignity, and the right for their voices to be heard.
Commissioned by The Harlem Chamber Players with the support of NYSCA, this piece is a work in collaboration by Sergio R. Reyes, composer, and Javier Dzul, choreographer and artistic director of Dzul Dance.
— Notes from the composer, Sergio Reyes
ACCESSIBILITY
Aaron Davis Hall is accessible through the entrance from Convent Avenue. There is an accessible bathroom on first floor, and wheelchair seating available in theater.
For more information about accessibility please click here.