Uncharted: Erika Ji and Miriam Elhajli

Greenwich House Music School is pleased to present DoYeon Kim and Firas Zreik in its annual Uncharted Concert Series, part of the Elebash Artist-in-Residence Program.

Erika Ji is a cross-genre composer-storyteller whose work has been supported by the National Music Theater Conference, the National Alliance for Musical Theater, and the New York Foundation for the Arts. She, Clare Fuyuko Bierman, and Brandy Hoang Collier are the Vivace Award-winning creators of Yoko’s Husband’s Killer’s Japanese Wife, Gloria, which was commissioned by the 5th Avenue Theatre, developed at the O’Neill, and presented at the National Festival of New Musicals. Erika’s collaborative projects include VISARE (New Voices Winner, Tokyo International Showcase), Starsong (Rattlestick Theater), [untitled hat project] (NYFA Grant), and Passage (NYSCA Commission). The proud daughter of Chinese immigrants, Erika grew up in Palo Alto, studied computer science and philosophy at Stanford University, and built products at Dropbox before deciding to follow the music. erikaji.com

Erika will present four; interwoven is a 30-minute quartet work exploring what it means to choose love and togetherness—especially when that choice is difficult. Four musician-storytellers, part folk band, part theater troupe, part choral quartet, blend composed music with devised performance and improvisation to examine the tension between individuality—unique, fragile, alone—and collectivity—connected, interdependent, and bound by shared responsibility. Through interwoven voices and instruments, and moments of wordless song, the piece creates an intuitive, embodied sound world that invites reflection on our roles within groups, our relationships with loved ones, and our complex ties to nation and society. Through music and movement, four; interwoven offers an experience beyond words, inviting audiences to reflect on the communities that shape them—and to choose love.

Miriam Elhajli is a song-improviser, geographer, and musicologist based in Flatbush, Brooklyn. She works as a researcher at the Association for Cultural Equity and teaches at Citylore, a nonprofit dedicated to the transmission of folklore in public schools. Elhajli has performed everywhere from carpeted basements and living rooms to Lincoln Center, the Noguchi Museum, miso factories, women’s prisons, and alleyways across the Lower East Side. Her current work explores cross-cultural creation myths, traditional shepherd routes in Catalonia, extractivism, and glossolalia through voice-driven, exploratory performance. Her fifth record is set for release this year on Numina Records, a label she founded to support the documentation of women’s music and poetics from the Maghreb and beyond.

Miriam Elhajli will present a set of newly written solo work alongside collaborative pieces featuring Victor Campbell, a Cuban pianist currently based in New Orleans, for her Uncharted debut. Together, they explore new material rooted in Cuban, Venezuelan, and Argentine musical traditions. The performance also includes special appearances by Mafer Bandola and Willie on select songs, expanding the set into a layered, communal exploration of voice, place, and shared musical language.

Uncharted, now in its twelfth year, has been an invaluable resource for New York-based musicians to develop original material, foster new collaborations, and premiere first-look projects in an intimate concert setting.

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