Albino Mbie at the BFNJM
Wed Jan 25, 7:00 PM - Wed Jan 25, 9:00 PM

Join us for the second season of the Boston Festival of New Jewish Music, a free monthly concert series presenting original music drawing from the Jewish cultural experience. Hosted by BackRoom at The Boston Synagogue, co-presented by JArts, and live-streaming everywhere, the Boston Festival of New Jewish Music highlights the best in Jewish-influenced music by composers and performers who live right here in our own backyard.

All concerts will be performed live at the Boston Synagogue and live-streamed.

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Season 2. Concert 7. Albino Mbie

Albino Mbie is an award winning Musician, Guitarist, Singer, Composer, Sound and mixing engineer born in Maputo, the capital of Mozambique, a country in southern Africa known for its rich musical and cultural heritage. Fueled by the resourcefulness and determination that have always characterized Mozambicans, he built his first guitar at 16 from a 5-liter can of oil, scrap wood, and strings made out of electrical cords.

Drawn to the sounds of neighborhood street musicians in Maputo, Albino began to play in a number of local bands. As with his home-made guitar, Albino wanted to combine styles and incorporate diverse elements in his music. For his talents to grow, he knew he needed experience new places, cultures, and sounds.

While studying music education and Performance at Universidade Eduardo Mondlane in Mozambique, he heard about the Berklee College of Music in Boston, USA, where he could expand his musical horizons. Soon after, Mbie was one of the first students to receive a full scholarship to Berklee through the African Scholars program. In 2009, he settled in Boston, Massachusetts.

At Berklee, he was exposed to a variety of influences, but wanted to go deeper into the roots of jazz and expand his knowledge of music. He auditioned and was selected to participate in the Berklee Global Jazz Institute, which is directed by Danilo Perez and the residency teachers, including Joe Lovano John Patitucci, and Terri Lyne Carrington. The Institute emphasizes an artist's original vision in jazz, and has helped Mbie find his own unique voice in the art form.

Albino still felt the absence of his own Mozambican traditions in his music. With the help of his mentors, Richard Bona and Lionel Loueke, two of the most prominent African musicians in the United States of America today, he began to bridge that gap.

Today, Albino”s music succeeds in combining many disparate parts into an organic whole. It incorporates his musical experiences from Mozambique, the U.S., and many other places around the world, combining rhythmic patterns and musical concepts to create a unique Afro-Pop and Moz-Jazz sound. He will always continue to combine and capture the energies of different musical traditions to create a unified and original musical style.

He graduated from the Berklee College of Music in Performance , production music and sound engineering and Minor in acoustics and electronics in 2013 .

About us

The Boston Festival of New Jewish Music was created by local musicians who believe that:

- People find meaning and joy in art and community, and communities come together around shared experiences, especially regular meetings over time.

- We all benefit from hearing great concerts and musicians benefit from the opportunity to develop and present new works to people excited to hear them.

- A strong cultural ecosystem is part of what makes the Boston area so vital and strong.

- Great Jewish music is great music. You don’t need to be from the South Bronx to love hip hop or from Panama to love reggaeton; why should you need to know the difference between the Torah and the Talmud to fall in love with Abigale Reisman’s violin or Zach Mayer’s saxophone? Our music is from a certain cultural place, but it’s for everyone.

- Art should be accessible to everyone in our broader community. Especially after the past 18 months has made hearing live music so difficult, we are doubling down on accessibility. Concerts are free and live-streamed for folks who can’t attend in person. For those who can, the venue is totally handicapped accessible and an easy walk from the Red Line, Orange Line, Green Line, and BlueBike stations.

If you believe any of these things, or just want to hear some amazing concerts, join us for this second season of the Boston Festival of New Jewish Music.

Accessibility

The Boston Synagogue is handicapped accessible and an easy walk from the Red Line, Orange Line, Green Line, and BlueBike stations.

If you need to drive, there are handicapped parking spots at the front door and no stairs from parking to seating or restrooms. It also has non-fixed seating, which means we can accommodate wheelchairs in any row and allow folks in wheelchairs to sit with their friends, families, or PCAs.

If you have any questions about accessibility at the Boston Synagogue or on the Live Stream, please contact Nat Seelen at nat@bostonjewishmusic.org.

COVID stuff

Concerts at the Boston Synagogue will follow the Boston Synagogue’s COVID response plan, which is informed by public health guidance from the CDC, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and the City of Boston.

At this point, that means that we:

- Require proof of vaccination for all artists, audience, and staff.

- Require masks at all times while not eating or drinking. Artists may remove masks when performing and will maintain a 6-ft distance from the audience.

- Limit capacity at the venue to allow for appropriate spacing of seating.

Over the course of the pandemic, the Boston Synagogue has invested in updated ventilation, including a HEPA filtration system, and in improved AV equipment for live streaming.

Based on the situation at the time of each concert, we may be required to further limit in-person seating. If this happens, we will contact ticket holders with alternative options for watching the concert.