Louna Dekker Vargas
France & Japan
Works for Flute

Westbeth Community Room
October 28, 2021 at 7PM

This performance, in collaboration with trumpet player Adam O’Farrill and guitarist Tal Yahalom

The program is a meditation on wind – how it moves, feels on the skin, rises and falls, puffs and billows in a dances, glides through a sigh. The program will feature several classical masterworks for solo flute and two contemporary duos by Franco-Japanese composers (Fujikura and Takemitsu).

PROGRAM
Debussy- ‘Syrinx’
Honegger- ‘Danse de la chèvre’
Marin Marais- ‘Les Folies d’Espagne’ -selected variations
Dai Fujikura- ‘Glacier’ arr. bass flute and flugelhorn (featuring Adam O’Farrill) Toru Takemitsu- ‘Towards the Sea’ (featuring Tal Yahalom)

French-American flutist Louna Dekker Vargas has been described as “promising young artist” (Citizen Jazz). She began to tour the U.S. as a founding member of several award-winning chamber groups before completing her Bachelor in Flute at Peabody Conservatory and subsequently earning the Grace Claggett Raney award for excellence in chamber music. She further developed her training in the French flute school by doing postgraduate studies under Vincent Lucas, principal flute of the Orchestre de Paris. Her curiosity and musicality have led her collaborations and investigations into free jazz, contemporary classical, Indian Hindustani, and improvised hip hop traditions. She is a founding member of Nick Dunston’s quintet Atlantic Extraction, has played numerous times as solo flute with the Wicked Broadway orchestra, and has performed as a guest artist in collaboration with the International Contemporary Ensemble.

Brooklyn-bred Adam O’Farrill, 26, has emerged as a “rising star as a player and composer” (PopMatters) and “a blazing young trumpet talent” (The New York Times). Beginning his career in his teenage years performing with his father, the pianist and composer Arturo O’Farrill, Adam has gone on to work with a wide range of artists such as Mary Halvorson, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Mulatu Astatke, Brasstracks, Kambui Olujimi, Samora Pinderhughes, Sarah Kay, and Anna Webber. His most recent album, 2018’s El Maquech (Biophilia Records) received critical acclaim, including the Wall Street Journal, who wrote that “the band presents rambunctious music that is equally rustic and modern,” as well as receiving Best of the Year mentions from The Boston Globe and the NPR Jazz Critics Poll. In both 2019 and 2021, O’Farrill won the Downbeat Critics Poll for Rising Star Trumpeter. Adam has been recognized and awarded for his composing as well, receiving commissions and grants from The Jazz Gallery, The Shifting Foundation, Metropolis Ensemble, and ASCAP.

Tal Yahalom is an Israeli guitarist, composer and bandleader based in Brooklyn, New York. In his music he seeks to create engaging storytelling, attentive interplay and distinct sonic environments, weaving together influences and elements of hard-bop, alternative-rock,
impressionistic classical music and improvised music. Tal has toured internationally and across the US with the collective-trio ‘KADAWA’ and various collaborative projects, while releasing 3 solo guitar records to date. Yahalom performed as a semifinalist at the 2019 Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz International Guitar Competition, earned 1st prize at the 2015 Detroit Jazz Festival National Guitar Competition, 3rd prize at the 2016 Montreux Jazz Festival International Guitar Competition, and is a recipient of the AICF scholarship award of excellence in 2014-2015.

The concert will last 1 hr and 10 minutes including a brief intermission. Admission is free contingent on reservation. The concert space will follow strict COVID 19 safety protocol and seating will be limited to 35 seats. The venue is wheelchair accessible. Guests must reserve in advance by emailing the following email address:

FREE. RESERVATIONS REQUIRED
Contact: lounadekker@gmail.com”/>

This free performance has been made possible by the City Artist Corps Grants program, presented by The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA), with support from the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment (MOME) as well as Queens Theatre.