A woman with wavy brown hair and light skin wearing a black sleeveless top, posing against a light gray background.
A woman with shoulder-length brown hair and bangs, wearing a sleeveless magenta top, poses against a solid blue background.
Two musicians playing the piano and cello in a dimly lit room, focused on their instruments.

  • Composer

    In the last three years Carriquí has been a recipient of funding from the New York State Council on the Arts twice, as well as from Manhattan Arts Grants and the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance in 2025, to create Letter from Edith.

    She grew up in a musical household, and began classical voice training when she was 15. At age 18 she began sitting in with her father’s jazz band, and at 21 was hired to sing salsa with Willie Colón and Rubén Blades. She spent the next several years singing, writing, arranging and producing, along the way recording 7 albums on Fania Records and RCA with Colón and other salsa luminaries, including Hector Lavoe and Ismael Miranda.

    She later returned to jazz, dipped her toes in cabaret and acting, and sang in opera choruses in NYC and the Northeast.

    Eventually she realized that she was taking so many turns in the road because she was singing other people’s music instead of her own, and dedicated herself to singing only her own compositions, originally classical with some Latin influence and a hint of jazz. No longer singing, she now focuses on composing in a classical idiom.

    As the poet Antonio Machado wrote, you make the road by walking. Graciela makes her road by composing.

  • Cellist

    Cellist Ben Capps enjoys a versatile performing career as a solo cellist, composer, college professor, chamber musician, and orchestral leader. Capps currently leads the Chamber Music Ensemble at Georgetown University, teaches cello at Ocean County College, and is principal cellist with the innovative Post Classical Ensemble, which is in residence at the Kennedy Center. An avid composer, Capps frequently performs his own compositions in cello recitals. 

    Capps can be heard as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral principal on LP Classics, Innova Records, Tzadik Records, Sony, and Naxos. He was also featured on Vermont Public Radio and in multiple performances of the complete cello sonatas of Beethoven, Mendelssohn, and Brahms. He is dedicated to contemporary music and art forms, experimental sounds, electronics, world music, improvisational music, as well as being an advocate for music as an integral component to holistic healing.  

    Capps grew up in Washington Heights and holds degrees from the Manhattan School of Music, New England Conservatory and Juilliard. He is currently a candidate for a Doctorate of Music Arts at Michigan State University.

  • Mezzo-soprano

    Swedish-American mezzo-soprano Olivia Ericsson commands attention on stages worldwide. This season, Olivia covered the role of Sesto in dell’Arte Opera Ensemble’s production of La clemenza di Tito and appeared as a soloist in the company’s 2025 German lieder programs. She also joined VOICES Boston as a featured soloist for its 35th Anniversary Concert at Jordan Hall.

    Olivia was named a finalist in the 2023 Kentucky Bach Choir Audrey Rooney Vocal Competition and won first prize in the Great Composers Competition Series. She was the 2019 recipient of the Boston University Opera Departmental Award for outstanding musical achievement and was awarded the University of Michigan Merit Scholarship for musical talent and potential.

    Notable opera roles include Sesto in La clemenza di Tito, Dido in Dido and Aeneas, Ruggiero in Alcina, Hansel in Hansel and Gretel, Dritte Dame in Die Zauberflöte, Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro, and the title role of the University of Michigan’s production of La Susanna.