January 21st, 2020 8:30pm Stage
The Soundshop’s Third Anniversary Salon: Musical Inspirations feat. Shelley Thomas, Ibn Orator, Phoenixx
A music community for artists and fans to promote arts education and foster dialogue about music. Our third anniversary event will be on January 21!
The Soundshop
Join The Soundshop music salon as we celebrate our third-year anniversary! For those of you who haven't attended, our Salons are a blend of performance and conversation, and foster intimate connections among musicians and music lovers. Three artists will each have 15 minutes to perform and talk about their music, and then take a few questions from the audience. After the event, we invite you to stick around and mingle at the bar upstairs.
Can't make it out? Save the dates for our future events at Rockwood: Tuesday, February 25th and Tuesday, March 17th!
Shelley Thomas
Shelley is a professional vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and composer. Her compositions blend Balkan, Arabic, Hindustani, Classical, pop-soul, and African musical styles, creating the emergence of a new genre: World Chamber Pop.
For fifteen years, she has performed songs in over fifteen languages with disarming fluidity, authenticity and emotion, syncretizing methods absorbed from different world musics which she has studied extensively. She has taught workshops, recorded, performed and toured internationally with world-class artists including Yo-Yo Ma and Silkroad, The Knights, Kronos Quartet, Simon Shaheen, Hassan Hakmoun, Bassam Saba & the New York Arabic Orchestra, Bulgarian Voices Trio, Brooklyn Raga Massive, AlSarah & the Nubatones, Yael Deckelbaum, Adam Maalouf, Jebebara Unity Drum, Innov Gnawa, Mayssa Karaa, the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, MJ Dorian, Asaran Earth Trio, and Black Sea Hotel. She has performed at venues and festivals such as the Moscow Conservatory, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Pioneer Works, National Sawdust, St. Ann’s Warehouse, Vancouver Island Music Festival, and Abu Dhabi Festival at Emirates Palace.
Highlights include feature on Yo-Yo Ma and Silkroad’s GRAMMY-Winning album, Sing Me Home, with vocal ensemble Black Sea Hotel (Best World Music Album - 2017) and the trio’s Sweden and East Coast tours; an interview on MJ Dorian’s Creative Codex Podcast; and soundscape vocals for Panorama Festival’s 360 ARK Dome. Recent performances include Toronto’s Drom Taberna, The Sonic Jungle, Ecstatic Dance NYC, PLG Arts Festival, Queens College Residency, Alex Grey’s Full Moon Gathering at COSM (Chapel of Sacred Mirrors), ARTERY showcase, Ragas Live Festival, Lund Choral Festival, Stallet Stockholm, Santa Fe’s San Miguel Mission, BRIC, Le Poisson Rouge, Jalopy, SoFar Sounds, Alwan for the Arts, Yale Repertory Theater, Havana World Music Festival, NY Sephardic Music Festival, Rural Route Film Festival, Prototype Festival, Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music, Toronto’s Small World Music Center, and Fete de la Musique Beirut.
Shelley released her solo debut a cappella album of Bulgarian songs, titled Joy, in 2016. A graduate of California Institute of the Arts (2008 - B.F.A. World Music Performance), she has worked as Musical Director with the One World Brooklyn Kids Chorus and MUSE Academy, and teaches with Music To Your Home and Gowanus Music Club in addition to private voice coaching. She recently taught at Canada’s FolkCamp, and has attended Artist Residencies at Canada’s prestigious BANFF Centre (Persian & Eastern Traditions Program) and Avaloch Farm Music Institute in Vermont. She was also a recipient of the Alliance for California Traditional Arts’ Traditional Arts Development Grant.
Upcoming projects include the Winter ’19 release of her first EP + videos for her next album Mirror, written for 10-piece microtonal orchestral ensemble (string quartet, voice, oud, qanun, bass, drums, and piano/ synth); performance at The Invincible Hall’s Nectar Realms Series; collaboration with Electronic producer Husks; and booking her solo U.S. tour. She is currently self-producing the globally-inspired full album, to be released in 2020 with an accompanying book of her travel photography and writings on love, spirituality, philosophy and healing. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.
Phoenixx
Singer- Rapper - Host - Media personality