Carnegie Hall

Puerto Rican–born percussionist, composer, and arranger Juan “Juango” J. Gutiérrez has been instrumental in helping to revitalize bomba and plena music in New York City and the rest of the US. In 1983, he met leading plena musician Marcial Reyes in New York, and together they created Los Pleneros de la 21. Juan has remained at the helm of Los Pleneros de la 21 ever since as the visionary behind its ongoing success, earning a Grammy Award nomination in 2005. For his vision and contribution to music, Juan was named an NEA National Heritage Fellow. Julia Gutiérrez-Rivera is Juan’s youngest daughter. As Los Pleneros de la 21 formed when she was 10 months old, Julia was weaned on bomba and plena, and is now a guiding member of the group and respected bomba and plena dancer and educator.

Browse Unit: Bomba and Plena with Juan and Julia

S T A R R busby (who accepts all pronouns said with respect) is a singing, writing, acting, and teaching artist committed to the liberation of all people. They may be seen playing solo shows with their loop station, Francis, or fronting the Brooklynbased experimental soul band People’s Champs. S T A R R has also performed with the Gorillaz, esperanza spalding, X Ambassadors, Kimbra, and Alice Smith. Selected appearances include Moby Dick (American Repertory Theatre), the Drama Desk Award winner Octet (Signature Theatre), Where Love Lies Fallow (The Shed), Apollo Music Café: The Soul Cypher (Apollo Theater), #BlackGirlMagic Show, Mikrokosmos (Steirischer Autumn Festival and Nottingham Contemporary), and The Girl with the Incredible Feeling (Festival dei Due Mondi). They were an Ars Nova 2020–2021 Vision Resident. S T A R R also enjoys working as an arts educator at Carnegie Hall and Long Island University, where they teach as an adjunct faculty member.

Browse Unit: Freedom Songs with S T A R R

Known for her astonishing melodic range, vibrant approach to song lyrics, and uncanny ability to blend genres and styles, Falu Shah has received one Grammy Award and four nominations. She has released seven albums to critical acclaim and her evocative vocals have been featured on dozens of other musical recordings. In 2022, she was featured at the Grammy Award’s pretelecast ceremony and then became the fi rst India-born singer-songwriter to win the award for Best Children’s Album. Falu was nominated in 2023 in the Global Music Performance category for a song about world hunger that featured Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Among her music partners are world-famous artists like Yo-Yo Ma, Wyclef Jean, Philip Glass, Ricky Martin, Blues Traveler, and A. R. Rahman. In 2023, she appeared at the largest stadium in the world and sang to 132,000 attendees, while another 1.7 billion around the world watched on television. She has been invited to sing at festivities honoring India at the White House by presidents Obama and Biden. Since 2006, she has served as Carnegie Hall’s Ambassador of Indian Music. She has performed to sold-out crowds at Carnegie Hall as well as headlining at other landmark venues including the Grand Ole Opry, Monterey Jazz Festival, and Wolf Trap.

Browse Unit: Indian Classical with Falu

Lily Henley is a Sephardi American singer, multi-instrumentalist, composer, and researcher known for her expressive songwriting, gifted fiddling, and original Ladino repertoire that bridges Sephardi and American folk traditions. Recognized as an innovator within the Sephardi cultural sphere, she crafts new songs that honor diasporic language and history while embracing contemporary musical sensibilities. Her 2022 album Oras Dezaoradas was awarded Top of the World by Songlines Magazine, named Album of the Year by Hey Alma, and featured in The Guardian, Fretboard Journal, and Acoustic Guitar. A Fulbright Award winner, she has received fellowships from the Folger Shakespeare Library and the New Jewish Culture Fellowship, was named a NYFA/NYSCA Artist Fellowship Finalist, and has held artist residencies at the Cité internationale des arts in Paris and JArts in Boston. She has performed nationally and internationally at festivals and venues including the Caramoor American Roots Festival, Festival des Cultures Juives in Paris, and New York Sephardic Music Festival, and has collaborated with artists including David Krakauer, John Doyle, Karan Casey, and Brittany Haas.

Browse Unit: Sephardi Ladino Folk with Lily

Claudia Acuña is a Latin Grammy Award nominee and appeared on NPR’s Tiny Desk. She established herself on the Chilean jazz scene before arriving in New York in 1995, and quickly gained recognition as a leading voice of a wave of brilliant Latin American musicians in New York. She is celebrated for blending her South American folk music with jazz and world music. She has collaborated with Harry Whitaker, Arturo O’Farrill, Guillermo Klein, Branford Marsalis, George Benson, Kenny Barron, Louie Vega, Tom Harrell, and the San Carlo Di Napoli Symphony Orchestra. Her fi ve albums as a leader established Claudia as a creative force, including her debut album Wind from the South. Other albums include Rhythm of Life, Luna, In These Shoes, and En Este Momento, which have all received critical acclaim. Her 2019 album Turning Pages received a Latin Grammy Award nomination for Best Jazz Album.

Browse Unit: Chilean Folk with Claudia

Mehrnam Rastegari is a prominent Persian musician, award-winning film score composer, singer, violinist, and master kamancheh player, who takes Persian microtonal music in new directions by combining it with rock and modern fusion styles. Her performances have taken her to international stages, including Bill Gates’s Goalkeepers 2024, where she played alongside Jon Batiste, and to some of the most prestigious music festivals worldwide, including GlobalFEST, Secret Planet APAP Showcase, Ragas Live Festival, Montana Folk Festival, WOMEX (World Music Expo), Crossing Border Festival, Le Guess Who?, Pitchfork Music Festival, Into the Great Wide Open, Mutations Festival, Feeërieën, and Fajr International Music Festival. She was a featured guest speaker at the TEDx event Oasis: Existence in Nothingness and has recorded with the Center for Traditional Music and Dance in New York. She has composed for more than 10 feature films, theaters, and award-winning short films. Notably, Dispirited earned her the award for Best Original Score from the Melbourne City Independent Film Awards; her score for Rotten received a nomination at the Japan Kadoma Festival; and A Poetess won the Best Persian Film award at the US World Music & Independent Film Festival.

Browse Unit: Iranian Folk with Mehrnam