About this Event
THE BLANC presents an evening of sound and cultural storytelling with baritone saxophonist and composer Ziaire Trinidad Sherman (SHERMVN) and Cuban pianist and composer Estefanía Núñez Villamandos. Each artist presents a set new solo works for their NYC debut. Drawing on the cultural legacies of the Black diaspora, Sherman connects history and futurism through improvisation, breath, and experimental sound. Núñez blends Afro-Cuban musical roots with jazz into an expressive piano language that speaks to personal experience and collective memory. Bringing together the resonant depth of the baritone saxophone and the piano’s rich textures, the two artists enter a musical dialogue rooted in their distinct cultural traditions and creative perspectives, inviting audiences to explore connections across place and time.
Estefania Núñez Villamandos is a Cuban pianist, film composer, and arranger whose work blends Afro-Cuban rhythms, jazz, and cinematic influences into a deeply expressive and narrative-driven sound. A graduate of the Global Jazz Institute at Berklee College of Music, where she earned a Master of Music in Global Jazz, her work explores the intersection of music, film, and social impact through projects such as her thesis The Enigma of Misunderstood Minds.
She has performed at Panama Jazz Festival, Vermont Jazz Festival, Charles River Jazz Festival, Cambridge Jazz Festival and Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston. She has collaborated with Aida Cuevas, Daymé Arocena, Harold López-Nussa, Arturo O’Farrill, and others. Estefania is the founder and bandleader of Mestizas, who have toured in the US and Europe and is currently recording a new album.
Ziaire Trinidad Sherman (SHERMVN) is a baritone saxophonist and multidisciplinary artist. Drawing from the cultural legacies of the Black diaspora, his practice explores sound, memory and technology through a fusion of futuristic and historical elements. Sherman’s work is rooted in improvisation and storytelling, often engaging computer-based processes to evoke distant and collective memory. Through immersive soundscapes, exposed breath and experimental design, Sherman invites audiences into reflective, sensorial experiences that connect personal narrative with broader historical frameworks. He has performed at Fabrica Research Centre, Treviso; MIT Media Lab, Cambridge; documenta, Kassel; Sharjah Biennale.
About Midtown Live
Jazz, Electronics & Multimedia
Midtown Live launches its inaugural season at THE BLANC in celebration of 20th-century sonic innovations that occurred in our neighborhood—like Fox Film's pioneering of synchronized sound-on-film with the opening of its Movietone studios in 1927, NBC's construction of the world's largest radio studio in 1933, and Charlie Parker's recording of his bebop classic "Ko-Ko" at WOR Studios in 1945, which revolutionized American music.
Curator
Neil Leonard
Neil Leonard curated concerts as Artistic Director of the Interdisciplinary Arts Institute at Berklee College of Music. He was also Director of the Sguardi Sonori festival (Italy) and of Sonic Arts at GASP Gallery (Massachusetts). Leonard served as curator of Bar Matanzas at documenta 14 and of the American Composers Forum's Sonic Circuits, Boston edition. He programmed concerts at Parco della Musica in Rome and, in the US, at THE BLANC and Experimental Intermedia in New York. Additionally, Leonard curated concerts at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, ICA Boston, MIT Media Lab, Mass MoCA, the Paul Robeson House in Philadelphia, and the National Center of Afro-American Artists. His curatorial projects featured performances by Terence Blanchard, Juan Blanco, Olivia Block, Joseph Branciforte, Don Byron, Alvin Curran, Graham Haynes, John Hollenbeck, Vijay Iyer, Mike Ladd, Steve Lehman, George Lewis, Los Muñequitos de Matanzas, Phill Niblock, Pauline Oliveros, Robin Rimbaud, Stephen Vitiello, Amnon Wolman, Pamela Z and numerous emerging artists. Midtown Live extends that work into dialogue with the sonic history of this neighborhood itself.
Event venue & nearby stays
15 E 40th St #12f, 15 East 40th Street, New York, United States
Concerts, fests, parties, meetups — all the happenings, one place.