Sara Serpa was awarded with a New Music USA Grant to record her project Recognition, an interdisciplinary project,  in which music and image highlighted with texts by revolutionary Amílcar Cabral, invite the viewer/ listener to reflect on history in a non-literal way.  

Serpa produced Recognition  using Super 8 footage filmed by my grandfather, in Angola and Portugal in the 60’s, by then a fascist and colonizer regime. She also composed the music for the film and invited the amazing Zeena Parkins (harp), Mark Turner (tenor sax) and David Virelles(piano) to perform it.

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Sara Serpa has been voted as Rising Star Female Vocalist by the prestigious jazz magazine, Downbeat’s International Critics Poll.

Every year Downbeat Magazine publishes its Critics Poll and Readers Poll. This is the 67th Critics Poll and among other winners are singer-songwriter Cécile McLorin Salvant, saxophonist Wayne Shorter and pianist Sullivan Fortner. The printed edition of this Poll will be published in August with a featured article by Suzanne Lorge.

Sara Serpa’s Indiegogo campaign to raise funds to record my new album Recognition, featuring Zeena Parkins, Mark Turner and David Virelles goes live today!  

We need to reach a goal of $8000 to go the studio and there are many ways you can contribute: you can pre-order a Digital Download, CD, vinyl, eco flash drive with music + film, audio only or audio with film and many more options. Check this short video about Recognition here!

What is Recognition?
Recognition is an interdisciplinary project,  in which music and image highlighted with texts by revolutionary Amílcar Cabral, invite the viewer/ listener to reflect on history in a non-literal way.  

Sara Serpa produced Recognition  using Super 8 footage filmed by my grandfather, in Angola and Portugal in the 60’s, by then a fascist and colonizer regime. I then composed the music for the film and invited the amazing Zeena Parkins (harp), Mark Turner (tenor sax) and David Virelles (piano) to perform it.

Recognition was performed live during the year of 2018 at The Drawing Center (curated by John Zorn), Winter Jazz Festival 2018, Alwan For the Arts (curated by Amir Elsaffar) and The Kitchen (curated by Vijay Iyer). 

Now it is time to document it and record the music, so Recognition can be available to everyone. Pre-order your copy here!

Sara Serpa will be Artist in Residence at Park Avenue Armory in New York, from May 2019-May 2020 to develop and create a new project entitled “Aquarius”.

Part American palace, part industrial shed, Park Avenue Armory is dedicated to supporting unconventional works in the visual and performing arts that need non-traditional spaces for their full realization, enabling artists to create, students to experience, and audiences to consume epic and adventurous presentations that cannot be mounted elsewhere in New York City.

Since 2007, the Armory has opened its doors to visionary artists, directors, and impresarios who provided extraordinary experiences in a range of art forms. Such was its impact that in December 2011, The New York Times noted, “Park Avenue Armory…has arrived as the most important new cultural institution in New York City.”

Close Up,   Sara Serpa’s latest album with Erik Friedlander (cello) and Ingrid Laubrock (saxophones), released by Clean Feed was included in some Best of 2018 Lists:

FEMINIST JAZZ REVIEW: FIVE BEST RECORDS OF 2018 – by Jordannah Elizabeth

20 BUENOS DISCOS 2018 – by Mirian Arbalejo

FAVORITE JAZZ ALBUMS RELEASED IN 2018 – by Adam Shatz (London Book Review)

MELHORES DE 2018 – by Jazz.pt

THE 2018 NPR JAZZ CRITICS POLL 

EL INTRUSO – ENCUESTA 2018 PERIODISTAS INTERNACIONALES – Female Vocals

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If you are in the mood to read or listen, here are some of the most relevant press articles/ interviews from 2018 in which Sara Serpa has appeared:

January 2018 : New York Times about Recognition

March 2018: Wall Street Journal about Close Up

March 2018: WBGO  about Close Up

March 2018: O Público about Close Up (in Portuguese)

May 2018: New York Times about The We Have Voice Collective and The Code of Conduct for the Performing Arts

May 2018: NPR   about The We Have Voice Collective and The Code of Conduct for the Performing Arts

May 2018:  Downbeat Magazine about Close Up

June 2018: JazzTimes Magazine about Close Up

July: A Noise From The Deep Podcast  – Interview with Dave Douglas

September 2018: New York Times about Ashley Fure, New York Philharmonic and Constellation Chor

September: Boston Globe Fall Arts Preview  about Duo with Ran Blake

October 2018: Máxima Magazine   – Interview with Patricia Barnabé (in Portuguese)

Wednesday, November 28th, 7pm, National Sawdust:

A collaboration between Portuguese vocalist-composer Sara Serpa and Nigerian writer Emmanuel Iduma, drawing inspiration from Iduma’s latest book, A Stranger’s Pose, a unique blend of travelogue, musings and poetry, with a foreword by Teju Cole. In a combination of music, text, image and field recordings collected by Iduma during his travels, Intimate Strangers  explores such themes as of movement, home, grief, absence and desire in what Iduma calls “an atlas of a borderless world”.

“Iduma’s quiet meditations on longing, migration, and home give the book a lasting resonance.”  – Vanity Fair
“Composition-wise, Serpa is ahead of the curve.” – Jazz Trail

Buy tickets here.

Sara Serpa will be joining Marisa Michelson’s Constellation Chor, as part of the “moving voices”,  in Ashley Fure’s site-specific world premiere “Filament” commissioned for the New York Philharmonic. There will be four performances with the New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center, including the big New York Philharmonic Gala welcoming Jaap van Zweden.

Dates:
9/20 (7pm): Big New York Philharmonic Season Opening Gala

9/21 (8pm): Pieces by Beethoven, Stravinsky, and Ashley Fure’s “Filament” featuring Constellation Chor

9/22 (8pm): Pieces by Beethoven, Stravinsky, and Ashley Fure’s “Filament” featuring Constellation Chor

9/25 (7:30pm): Pieces by Beethoven, Stravinsky, and Ashley Fure’s “Filament” featuring Constellation Chor

All performances will take place at Lincoln Center, David Geffen Hall.

New Season Ticket Link: https://nyphil.org/concerts-tickets/1819/trifonov-beethoven-rite-of-spring?clicklocation=hp_mc

Gala Ticket Link: https://nyphil.org/concerts-tickets/1819/opening-gala-concert?clicklocation=hp_ue_3