From our performance of Remembering at Collage in San Pedro, CA in June 2022
Remembering is an intimate program that delves into the personal and professional journey of two remarkable artists and soulmates Aristides Rivas and Meena Malik. Aristides and Meena, both immigrants and parents, share their vulnerability and unique life stories storytelling and music.
Remembering takes audiences on a captivating journey as Aristides and Meena reconnect with the folk and pop songs that held a special place in their heart during their youth in their native Venezuela and Japan. As the performance transitions seamlessly from these nostalgic tunes to classical music repertoire, Aristides and Meena showcase their artistic versatility and fluidity of healing and growth as artists.
Aristides and Meena invite the audience to explore the power of music and storytelling by sharing their own journey of identity reconnection. Throughout the program, they share how music has not only been a career for them but a profound source of healing and connection.
This program is an intimate and deeply moving experience that offers a glimpse into the lives of two artists who have embraced music as a means of expression, identity, healing, and liberation. It is a testament to the power of art to transcend borders, bridge cultures, and touch the soul.
Creators & Performers
Photo by Jeffrey Filiault
Meena Malik is a musician, arts consultant, mediator and coach, who is known as a mover and shaker re-defining what conversations around equity in the arts look like. Meena has performed with Opera Providence, MassOpera, Boston Opera Collaborative, New England Orchestra among others. She was a founding member and performer with Voci Angelica Trio, an international band that created a musical fusion of world folk and classical music, for 14 years. With Voci Angelica, Meena toured to the USA’s East Coast, Midwest and Southern regions, Canada, Japan, and South Korea. An alumna of the artEquity National Facilitator Training, a member of the Emergent Strategy Ideation Institute Facilitation Cohort and a Senior Associate at The Aspire Group, Meena is actively engaged in a national community of practice for anti-oppression work in the arts. For more information, visit www.meenamalik.com
Photo by Gulnara Niaz
A unique mix of talents, Grammy nominated cellist Aristides Rivas embodies a rich culture from South America and combines it with a western European repertoire to delight audiences. The exquisite balance of sounds, storytelling, and sometimes flavors, invites you to a new experience of live concerts. Rivas’ multi-style career has brought him to share the stage with world renown artists such as latin jazz legend Paquito D’Rivera, Yo-Yo Ma, and jazz virtuosic guitarist Julian Lage. He has performed at a wide range of international music venues and festivals such as Caramoor Music Festival, Tanglewood, Carnegie Hall, Newport and Montreal Jazz Festivals, the Barbican in England, Sejong Center in South Korea, and Teatro Colon in Argentina, among many others. Rivas serves as a cello faculty at California Baptist University. For more information, visit www.aristidesrivas.com
Dramaturg & Director
Photo by Chris Emerick, courtesy of the Segerstrom Center for the Performing Arts
Shyamala Moorty is an award winning director, choreographer and dramaturg who values collaboration, connection and transformation through the arts. Her interdisciplinary performance work draws on dance, theater, multimedia, yoga and community engagement and has been described as a “tour de force” (LA Times, 2003) and “that special kind of healing that art can accomplish” (Contemporary Indian Dance, 2011). Her two short films have won multiple awards and are currently showing on the International film festival circuit. Shyamala teaches in the Dance Department at California State University Long Beach and is honored to be working with Meena and Aristides on Remembering. For more information, visit www.shyamalamoorty.com