Bronx River Art Center (BRAC) is pleased to present the 8th Annual BRONX RIVER SOUNDS Festival. This summer's festival, titled Resonating across Genres, highlights renowned and emerging performing artists whose work transverses languages, style, and geography. 

The series features three unique women vocalists performing in satellite locations across the Bronx as a continuation of our “BRAC on the Block” programming while our main facility is being renovated. We heat things up with an outdoor concert of Latin/world music by the charismatic singer-songwriter Irka Mateo on June 11.  The rhythm keeps going with an energetic indie performance of afro-punk by Honeychild Coleman on June 18.  And the festival cools down with an inspired collection of alternative/soul music by Bronx native TreZure Empire on June 25.

Now in its eighth year, BRONX RIVER SOUNDS is a festival that aims to connect the spectrum of the performing arts with the rich diversity of the Bronx community and beyond.

Concert Dates & Locations:

Saturday, June 11@ 2pm: Irka Mateo (Latin/World) !RESCHEDULED DUE TO WEATHER!
This concert has been rescheduled due to rain.  The performance will take place Saturday, June 25th.  This will be a double act with Trezure Emprie (7pm) and Irka Mateo (8:30pm).

Venue/Location: BRAC on the Block @ Bronx Art Space, 305 E 140th St., Bronx, NY 10454
Subway: #6 to 3rd Ave./138th St.
Admission: Suggested donation of $6 advance / $8 at the door

Saturday, June 18@ 7pm: Honeychild Coleman (Afro-Punk)

Venue/Location: BRAC on the Block @ Bronx Art Space, 305 E 140th St., Bronx, NY 10454
Subway: #6 to 3rd Ave./138th St.
Admission: Suggested donation of $6 advance / $8 at the door

Saturday, June 25 @ 7pm: Trezure Empire (Alternative/Soul)

Venue/Location: BRAC on the Block @ Bronx Art Space, 305 E 140th St., Bronx, NY 10454
Subway: #6 to 3rd Ave./138th St.
Admission: Suggested donation of $6 advance / $8 at the door

Please contact info@bronxriverart.org to purchase advance tickets.

Performer Details:

Irka Mateo
Irka Mateo: Voice, Percussion
Monvelyno Alexis: Guitar
Fidel Cuellar: Keyboards
Jacinto Perez: Bass
Luis Ruiz: Drums
Ze Mauricio: Percussion
www.irkamateo.org/

Irka Mateo is a Latin/world music singer, songwriter and composer. Her artistic sensibility developed in Spain, France, Brazil, Canada and her native Dominican Republic. She is known for bringing a unique approach to the Latin/world music scene displaying an outstanding array of rhythms and genres due to her vast cultural background. Performing live she has a natural way of embracing a crowd and channeling her particular charisma — whether in front of soccer stadium in St. Kitts or the intimacy of a few score people in smaller venues like the New York’s Nuyorican Poets Cafe. In concert her Latin-Caribbean band is a mighty force propelling her performance.

Honeychild Coleman
www.reverbnation.com/honeychild8rm

Kentucky native Avant-Electro-Pop artist Honeychild Coleman has shared the bill with Cibo Matto, Rasputina, Mike Ladd, Sarah Dorgher, Radio 4, APSCI, Beans, Imani Coppola and TV on The Radio. Known to combine custom electric mountain dulcimer with 1960’s surf guitars and live loops in accompaniment to her ethereal vocals, Coleman presents a sonic decoupage both onstage and on the many records she has contributed to.

Busking underground in the New York City subway, and eventually performing freestyle and improv weekly sets with DJs Olive (we™ /Liminal), Sasha Crnobrnja (Organic Grooves), Lloop (we™), Delmar (Jungle Sky), Fred Ones (Mike Ladd/Sonic Sum) and Badawi (Raz Mesinai) contributed to the unique niche that Coleman created within the New York City electronic scene of the mid-90's and the current Dub and DubStep scenes in New York and abroad.

TreZure Empire
www.reverbnation.com/trezureempire

Album almost complete, she can't wait any longer. TreZure Empire is off to find her way in new lands, languages and in new listeners. Just as she began recording her debut album, THE SHIVERS an amazing burst of opportunity fell into her lap. She was selected for the International Japan Music Week conference in November 2010. Long awaiting a chance to take her music abroad, Shibuya, Tokyo was her first stop on a long journey of multi-lingual, multi-cultural and multi-genre world music.

Born and raised in The Bronx, TreZure uses music to learn, understand and relate to the whole world. Studying ethnomusicology at Oberlin College, she realized her work as a vocalist and as a writer allowed her to share her appreciation for Arabic poetry, Brazilian bossa and axe, Afro Cuban spiritual music, 80s synths, industrial post production and her own soul music background. So she began singing in as many languages as she could learn. Brazilian Portuguese, Andalusian Spanish, Kreyol, Senegalese French are only the beginning. She introduced new tones and timbre to her instrument and used these foreign scales and slurs to tell stories of her own experiences in New York. All of these influences of passion, purpose and power inspired TreZure to create a sound of music that could grab deeply inside her listeners bodies, just as her influences latched onto her. TreZure believes, if her listeners reach a peak of emotion, a shutter on their shoulders or an involuntary head or body bounce, she has done her job.