Doors: 7:30pm
Music: 8pm
Contemporary music by MINK Duo combining trumpet, trombone, electronics, and improvisation faturing guest artist Syd Lane on electric guitar.
Contemporary viola and tenol viol by Laura Caridad Avila.
MINK Duo is an emerging new music collaboration between trumpeter Nick Hill and trombonist Mikayla Frank-Martin. They are strongly invested in the creation of an increased repertoire for trumpet/trombone through commissioning new works from composers all around the globe. MINK Duo values collaboration in many forms, having shared programs and worked jointly on larger works with other artists. MINK showcases Nick and Mikayla's shared fearlessness and sense of humor in delivering a body of work that brings a refreshing sincerity into today’s irony-washed world.
Laura Caridad Avila (they/she) is a Multi-Instrumentalist, Poet, Composer, and Multi-Media Artist from Albany, New York currently based in Boston, Massachusetts. They have a bachelor’s degree in Viola Performance with a minor in Art History and Creative Writing Concentration from Ithaca College, where she was known for curating recitals incorporating visual art, transforming traditional concert venues into engaging visual gallery spaces, one concert of which was entirely dedicated to Bob Ross’ show, "The Joy of Painting". In getting their master's degree from the Longy School of Music of Bard College, Laura has had the privilege of creating concert experiences that highlight underrepresented experiences within society like the femme, immigrant, queer, gender expansive, and experiences of people of color, respectively.
As a composer, her work involves text and dialogue from the mundane. Her work aims to explore that which we covet yet think is not worth sharing with other beings with the belief that the mundane is the core of our life’s essence. In a literary sense, their work finds itself encapsulating what we learn in looking through the eyes of those around us, and how we relate to them on a spiritual and emotional plane. Accompanying their curated programming, Laura typically includes visual works of drawings with ink on canvas to provide a physical emblem of the mental pictures they associate with the auditory work that they present. In concert, Laura has had the privilege to perform with esteemed groups like Palaver Strings, brilliant composer-performers such as Daniel Bernard Roumain, and has had the honor of performing in spaces ranging from local art galleries to Troy Savings Bank Music Hall and Carnegie Hall.
In addition to their Performance and Composition careers, she has also had the honor of establishing a career as an award-winning educator. With over two years of experience supporting public music educators both in and out of the classroom, in addition to a studio of their own viola and violin students, Laura has dedicated themselves to the fascinating process of understanding how we learn the way we do, and how to be kind to ourselves as we do it at every age.
Laura has had the pleasure of studying Viola Performance with Matthew Johnson, Kyle Armbrust, and Ralph Farris, and Composition with Alexandra du Bois. Their art history mentors were Jennifer Jolly and Paul Wilson, and their writing mentors were Christine Kitano and Derek Adams.