When the Ancestors Speak by Jen Shyu, Sumi Tonooka, and Val Jeanty

CRS (Center for Remembering & Sharing) presents Crossing Boundaries 25: When the Ancestors Speak on Sunday, December 14, 2025, at 7 pm at Greenwich House Music Hall. Curated by Jen Shyu, this work by Jen Shyu (vocals, Taiwanese moon lute, Japanese biwa, Korean gayageum), Sumi Tonooka (piano), and Val Jeanty (SoundChemist) explores the theme of immigration, growing out of their own rich multi-ethnic family and musical histories, from Africa, Japan, Timor, Taiwan, Haiti, and beyond. This concert mixes music with movement and text, further developing material which was first introduced during Jen Shyu’s 2023 residency at The Stone and expanded upon that fall in Crossing Boundaries 20.

ABOUT CROSSING BOUNDARIES CONCERT SERIES

CROSSING BOUNDARIES is a concert series devoted to dissolving boundaries between performers and audiences, the traditional and contemporary, classical and experimental, and the culturally specific and the global. Series curators are empowered to create unique performance events in collaboration with musical, visual, and/or movement artists of their choosing. The series was conceived in 2018 by the Korean traditional wind player and composer gamin, who has continued to help curate the series each year. https://crsny.org/crossing-boundaries-concert-series/

Crossing Boundaries is made possible in part with funds from Creative Engagement, a regrant program administered by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) and supported by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA) in partnership with the City Council and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. LMCC empowers artists by providing them with networks, resources, and support to create vibrant, sustainable communities in Manhattan and beyond.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Guggenheim Fellow, USA Fellow, Doris Duke Artist, multilingual multidisciplinary artist is “one of the most creative vocalists in contemporary improvised music” (The Nation). Born in Peoria, Illinois to Taiwanese and East Timorese immigrants, she’s produced eight albums available on her record label Autumn Geese Records on Bandcamp. She’s performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Theater of Korea, Rubin Museum, was named Downbeat’s 2017 Rising Star Female Vocalist, and is a Fulbright scholar speaking 10 languages. She’s worked with such musical innovators as Sumi Tonooka, Terri Lyne Carrington, Nicole Mitchell, Val Jeanty, Ikue Mori, Linda May Han Oh, Anthony Braxton, Wadada Leo Smith, Mark Dresser, Francis Wong, Jon Jang, Vijay Iyer, Tyshawn Sorey, Kenny Barron, Reggie Workman, Bill Frisell, and Immanuel Wilkins. Her “Song of Silver Geese” was among The New York Times’ “Best Albums of 2017.” She’s currently touring her third solo production “Zero Grasses: Ritual for the Losses” (commissioned by John Zorn) across all 50 states and has received wide critical acclaim for her latest album of the same name, with “When I Have Power” NPR’s “Best Songs of 2021.” She is a Paul Simon Music Fellows Guest Artist, a Steinway Artist and co-founder with Sara Serpa of .

has been called a “fierce, fascinating composer pianist” Jazz Times “provocative and compelling” New York Times. With fifteen recordings to her name and a vast catalogue of compositions and award winning works in genres symphonic, chamber, dance and film, she continues to be a creative force. Recently, Tonooka was a winning finalist for the Emerging Black Composers Project to compose her fourth symphony, Only The Midnight Sky and Silent Stars premiered by the San Francisco Conservatory in February 2023. She is also a 2021 recipient of the Doris Duke, Creative Inflections Grant, with vocalist/composer Jen Shyu, for In The Green Room, inspired by the stories of Asian and African American women in Jazz. She was awarded the Chamber Music America New Jazz Works grant in 2019, premiering later this year for her trio plus Alchemy Sound Project, a composers collective that she started in 2015.

, also known as Val-Inc, is a Haitian electronic music composer, drummer/turntablist, and professor at Berklee College of Music. Jeanty is a pioneer of the electronic music sub-genre called Afro-Electronica (also called “Vodou-Electro”), incorporating Haitian Folkloric Culture with digital instrumentations. She uses technology to lead listeners into her dream-like expressionism of Afro-Electronica Soundscapes. Jeanty’s performances include The Whitney Museum, The Museum of Modern Art, and internationally at The Venice Biennale, Saalfelden in Austria, and Haus der Kulturen in Berlin. She is the recipient of various grants including the Van Lier Fellow in 2018, New York State Council of the Arts/ New Music USA in 2019, and the Toulmin Fellowship in 2022.

ABOUT THE PRESENTER

CRS (CENTER FOR REMEMBERING & SHARING) is a Manhattan- and Tokyo-based arts and spiritual center founded in 2004 by Yasuko Kasaki and Christopher Pelham. Rooted in the non-dualistic teachings of A Course in Miracles (ACIM), CRS offers spiritual counseling, healing, and mind-training courses to practitioners around the world. The Center uses the arts as a vehicle for achieving awakening, unity, and peace. By producing exhibitions, performances, and an online arts magazine (onlylove.ART), and providing support for individual artists and partner organizations like Mutual Mentorship for Musicians (M³) and Kotohogi, CRS empowers a diverse, international community of artists to experiment, collaborate, and share their visions. https://crsny.org

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