Gabriela Lena Frank is not your typical composer. With Peruvian, Chinese, and Jewish roots, she explores her multicultural heritage through her compositions that often use Western and indigenous instruments in new, genre-bending ways. Imagine string quartets and pan flute ensembles playing together, emulating each other, and daring to create new sounds and find new synergies. Gabriela does this like nobody else.

Last year, Gabriela received the prestigious 25th Anniversary Heinz award, in recognition of her breaking gender, disability, and cultural barriers in classical music, and for her work as an activist on behalf of emerging composers of all demographics and genres.

She'll join us tonight and we'll dive deep into her incredible talent and the inspiration for her compositions bridging western classical music and indigenous music of Latin America.