Fabiola Méndez at the BFNJM

Join us for the second season of the Boston Festival of New Jewish Music, a free monthly concert series presenting original music drawing from the Jewish cultural experience. Hosted by BackRoom at The Boston Synagogue, co-presented by JArts, and live-streaming everywhere, the Boston Festival of New Jewish Music highlights the best in Jewish-influenced music by composers and performers who live right here in our own backyard.

All concerts will be performed live at the Boston Synagogue and live-streamed.

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Native to Caguas, PR, Fabiola Mendez began playing the Puerto Rican cuatro at the age of 6.

She was a student at the Hogar del Cuatro Puertorriqueño, the Humacao Musical Institute, the Antonio Paoli School of Music in Caguas, the Conservatorio de Artes del Caribe, and Berklee College of Music, where in 2018 she graduated as the first student to play the Puerto Rican cuatro as principal instrument.

Fabiola has participated in multiple recordings, including the Banco Popular Special Eco (2008), Fabiola Méndez and Herencia Criolla (2009), Ready for Departure (2014), Cuatro Sinfónico (2019), Al Otro Lado Del Charco (2019), and Afrorriqueña (2021), the last three being cataloged as part of the best 20 productions of 2019 and 2021 consecutively, according to the National Foundation for Popular Culture.

Fabiola has had the opportunity to perform on many different stages. She has worked with organizations such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Celebrity Series of Boston, Agora Cultural Architects, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Puerto Rican Arts Alliance in Chicago, Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, among others. She has collaborated with artists such as: Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra, Totó La Momposina, Pedro Capó, Victoria Sanabria, Cucco Peña, Decimanía de Puerto Rico, Eddie Palmieri, the Gran Combo de Puerto Rico, Rayos Gamma, Danny Rivera, Chicago Philharmonic, among many others.

In recent years, she’s had the honor of receiving recognition such as the Quincy Jones Award, ambassador for the Puerto Rican Day Parade in NYC, a motion from the PR House of Representatives as the first cuatro player to graduate from Berklee, one of WBUR's The ARTery 25 artists by Boston’s NPR news station in 2021, the Brother Thomas Fellowship, and the Whippoorwill Arts Fellowship.

Currently, Fabiola works as a cuatro player and singer-songwriter, presenting her original music projects inside and outside of Puerto Rico. Her artistic vision and original music focus on the exploration of her culture, her ancestry, and her identities. In addition, she works as a composer for children's animated series, including the PBS Kids shows Alma's Way and Work It Out Wombats, and HBO Max's Mecha Builders, produced by Sesame Street.

The Boston Festival of New Jewish Music was created by local musicians who believe that:

- People find meaning and joy in art and community, and communities come together around shared experiences, especially regular meetings over time.

- We all benefit from hearing great concerts and musicians benefit from the opportunity to develop and present new works to people excited to hear them.

- A strong cultural ecosystem is part of what makes the Boston area so vital and strong.

- Great Jewish music is great music. You don’t need to be from the South Bronx to love hip hop or from Panama to love reggaeton; why should you need to know the difference between the Torah and the Talmud to fall in love with Abigale Reisman’s violin or Zach Mayer’s saxophone? Our music is from a certain cultural place, but it’s for everyone.

- Art should be accessible to everyone in our broader community. Especially after the past 18 months has made hearing live music so difficult, we are doubling down on accessibility. Concerts are free and live-streamed for folks who can’t attend in person. For those who can, the venue is totally handicapped accessible and an easy walk from the Red Line, Orange Line, Green Line, and BlueBike stations.

If you believe any of these things, or just want to hear some amazing concerts, join us for this second season of the Boston Festival of New Jewish Music.

The Boston Synagogue is handicapped accessible and an easy walk from the Red Line, Orange Line, Green Line, and BlueBike stations.

If you need to drive, there are handicapped parking spots at the front door and no stairs from parking to seating or restrooms. It also has non-fixed seating, which means we can accommodate wheelchairs in any row and allow folks in wheelchairs to sit with their friends, families, or PCAs.

If you have any questions about accessibility at the Boston Synagogue or on the Live Stream, please contact Nat Seelen at [email protected].

Concerts at the Boston Synagogue will follow the Boston Synagogue’s COVID response plan, which is informed by public health guidance from the CDC, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and the City of Boston.

At this point, that means that we:

- Require proof of vaccination for all artists, audience, and staff.

- Require masks at all times while not eating or drinking. Artists may remove masks when performing and will maintain a 6-ft distance from the audience.

- Limit capacity at the venue to allow for appropriate spacing of seating.

Over the course of the pandemic, the Boston Synagogue has invested in updated ventilation, including a HEPA filtration system, and in improved AV equipment for live streaming.

Based on the situation at the time of each concert, we may be required to further limit in-person seating. If this happens, we will contact ticket holders with alternative options for watching the concert.

Host or Publisher The Boston Festival of New Jewish Music