Friday Music Series

The Friday Music Concert Series offers free performances each semester in McNeir Hall (New North Building) on Friday afternoons (12:30–1:45 pm) for the university community of students, staff, faculty, and neighbors in the city. Register for tickets below.

Fall 2024

September 13 Matej Čip, aka the “Cimbalom Guy”

Co-sponsored with the Embassy of the Czech Republic

Matěj Číp is a pioneering cimbalom performer from Hodslavice, Czech Republic. Discovering his passion for the cimbalom at the age of eight, he has since trained under the Czech Republic’s foremost cimbalom educators. His talent has earned him prestigious awards, including first prize at the 2017 International Cimbalom Festival, and a Summa Cum Laude degree with a minor in Chinese from Northern State University, where he became the first U.S. university-level cimbalom student.

In 2021, Matěj expanded his horizons at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, where he broke new ground by integrating the cimbalom with traditional Chinese instruments, culminating in a performance at the 2022 Winter Olympics. His repertoire spans classical, folk, and jazz, reflecting his commitment to showcasing the cimbalom’s versatility.

Having recently graduated from Berklee NYC, Matěj is now based in New York, where he focuses on expanding awareness of the cimbalom. His work is supported by institutions such as the Bakala Foundation and Vitreus Foundation. With an international vision, he continues to share the beauty of the cimbalom with audiences worldwide.

Learn more at cimbalomguy.com

September 20 Yasmin Williams

Based in Alexandria, VA, Yasmin Williams is an acoustic fingerstyle guitarist and film composer. She has an unorthodox, modern style of guitar playing and utilizes various techniques, including alternate tunings, percussive hits, and lap tapping, in her music to great effect. “Yasmin Williams treats her guitar like a playground,” says NPR Music, naming her its Breakthrough Artist of 2021, noting the “joy and possibility she brings to the guitar.” Songlines calls her “an original, a genuine trailblazer, one of those rare musicians who challenges your preconceptions about the possible.” Her latest album, Urban Driftwood, was widely acclaimed in several major publications including NPR, Rolling Stone, Paste Magazine, The Fader, The Washington Post, and others. Her third album, Acadia, will be released on October 4th via Nonesuch Records.

Learn more at yasminwilliamsmusic.com

October 11 Jay Hammond

Jay Hammond is a musician, sound artist and cultural anthropologist from Jackson, TN living between Washington DC and Asheville, NC. He records and performs original songs under the moniker Trippers & Askers, whose 2021 release, “Acorn” was called a “shimmering homage to nature” by The Guardian. In 2023, he released an album of instrumental music alongside Andy Stack (Wye Oak) entitled “Inter Personal” that was called “gold” by Talkhouse. As a guitarist, he has performed and/or recorded with Psychic Temple, Eamon Fogarty, No Lands, Chessa Rich and Libby Rodenbough. Through these collaborations, he has worked with current or former members of The Sun Ra Arkestra, The War on Drugs, Lambchop, Wye Oak, Sylvan Esso, and St. Vincent, and Psychic Temple. His recording credits include New Amsterdam Records, Galtta Media and Sleepy Cat Records. He has worked as an instructor Duke University Department of Music, is currently Associate Professor of the Practice in music within the Department of Performing Arts at Georgetown University.

Learn more at jay-hammond.com

October 18 Melissa Wimbish and Outcalls

Soprano and bandleader Melissa Wimbish is a genre-defying vocalist known for her ability to move between opera, art song, Renaissance polyphony, and pop music with alarming ease. She has premiered works for the stage written especially for her, most notably in the title role of JOSEPHINE by Tom Cipullo when “… the afternoon belonged to Melissa Wimbish … Beautifully prepared, vocally stunning, and theatrically riveting, [she] effortlessly held the audience in her hand throughout this one-woman show.” (Washington Post) In the 2024-25 season, Ms. Wimbish will perform the monodrama LA VOIX HUMAINE at New England Conservatory and will sing the world-premiere of Robert Manno’s PORTRAIT OF MILLAY for soprano and string orchestra at the Windham Chamber Music Festival. She will return to Bach in Baltimore as soprano soloist in ST. JOHN’S PASSION and make her debut with Baltimore’s Handel Choir as soprano soloist in MESSIAH. Ms. Wimbish made her Carnegie Hall debut as winner of the NATS Artist Award Grand Prize. Career highlights include the 50th anniversary of Bernstein’s MASS at The Kennedy Center with The National Symphony, Alice in the US-premiere of HARRIET by Hilda Paredes at Yellow Barn Music Festival, Anna in Kurt Weill’s SEVEN DEADLY SINS with Post-Classical Ensemble, her Baltimore Symphony debut in Ligeti’s MYSTERIES OF THE MACABRE, and the role of Nimue in the Helen Hayes Award-winning production of CAMELOT at Shakespeare Theatre DC.

Learn more at melissawimbish.com.

Led by Peabody Conservatory graduates and besties Britt Olsen-Ecker and Melissa Wimbish, OUTCALLS has become one of the most in-demand musical acts in Baltimore since their 2017 debut. Their ever-evolving sound and smart songwriting has produced three studio albums and several singles. The latest track, “Blast!” is a vibrant pop anthem inspired by astronaut Lisa Nowak. Beloved drummer and bassist Justin Kruger (PRESSING STRINGS) began performing and touring with the duo in 2018. Olsen-Ecker and Wimbish have composed music for multiple film projects including the major motion picture CRISIS. Their interdisciplinary stage show RELEASE THE GOWNS, featuring a script written in collaboration with comedian Jessica Garrett, premiered at Baltimore’s Voxel Theater in 2022 and was remounted at CHAMBERQUEER’s CONSTELLATION FESTIVAL in 2024. Outcalls has opened for dozens of major acts including LL Cool J, Khruangbin, Y La Bamba, Mumford & Sons, Kimbra, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Dessa, Wolf Parade, Say She She, San Fermin, and more. Outcalls has performed at the Kennedy Center, Camden Yards, Greenwich Town Party, and at the brand new M&T Bank Exchange Stage as guest performers for Governor Wes Moore’s 45th birthday. Their latest tour, SCORPIO TOUR presented a series of intimate, acoustic parlor concerts.

Learn more at outcallsband.com.

October 25 Loboko

Loboko, based in New York City, is a small but mighty outfit led by the young singer and virtuoso guitarist Yohni Djungu Sungu. Yohni has performed with legends of Congolese music Fally Ipupa, Soukous Stars and Zaiko Langa Langa. In 2019 he founded Loboko alongside drummer, DJ and journalist Morgan Greenstreet and supported by multi-instrumentalist and producer Nikhil Yerawadeckar, with frequent special guest Ngouma Lokito, veteran bassist and studio musician on hundreds of Congolese records and long-time member of Soukous Stars. Loboko’s unique style draws on classic Congolese soukous, rumba, and contemporary seben delivered in a punchy small band format. In 2023, Loboko released a vinyl ’45: Kanyunyi / Ekenge with the acclaimed Brooklyn label Names You Can Trust.

With Loboko you’ll experience the interlocking guitar parts that are one of Congolese music’s defining features, backed by cracking snare and thumping bass.

Learn more at loboko_music

November 1 Skylar Gudasz

Skylar Gudasz (she/her) is a musician, writer, filmmaker and actress. She has written and produced three full-length studio albums: Oleander (2016), Cinema (2020) and a forthcoming LP (2024). Her songs are currently featured in NPR Music Live Sessions, Billboard, Line of Best Fit and albums reviewed in Pitchfork, MOJO, and Uncut Magazine. In addition to her own music, she has made guest appearances on numerous albums and toured with bands including Big Star’s Third and Hiss Golden Messenger, playing notably at Australia’s Sydney Festival, London’s Barbican Hall and in a TV appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers. She is the music video producer and director for many of her songs and on stage, she originated the role of Joan in the Monica Byrne play What Every Girl Should Know; other recent regional acting credits include Macbeth in Macbeth and Sasha in Orlando. She is the author of essay “Wild Heirloom” published by Southern Cultures. Skylar was raised Quaker in Ashland, VA in a musical family and graduated from UNC Chapel Hill with a BA in Dramatic Art and Creative Writing.

Learn more at skylargudasz

November 8 Ben Capps

Cellist Ben Capps enjoys a versatile performing career as a soloist, chamber musician, orchestral principal, collaborator, and creator. Capps has appeared as recitalist and principal cellist at major performance venues throughout the world, touring extensively and recording as a solo recitalist and chamber musician. Capps currently serves as an Adjunct Professor of Music at Georgetown University, where he leads the chamber music department. Capps is the principal cellist with the innovative DC-based chamber orchestra Post Classical Ensemble, and can be heard in concert around the DMV with other exciting groups such as the Inscape Chamber Orchestra. 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 concert performing the complete cello sonatas of Beethoven, Mendelssohn, & Brahms. Capps is dedicated to contemporary music and art forms, experimental sounds, electronics, and world music. NYC-born, Capps holds degrees from the Manhattan School of Music, New England Conservatory, and Juilliard, where he served as a teaching assistant to David Soyer and Bonnie Hampton. When not playing cello or teaching music, Capps enjoys listening to and improvising music, ocean sports, yoga, and camping.

Learn more at bencapps.com

November 15 PostClassical Ensemble and Andre Mehmari

To music lovers and critics in Brazil, André Mehmari is a musical wonder and a source of national pride. For his work as a pianist and composer, he won the 2023 Grand Prize awarded by Brazil’s leading music journal. To the ear, imagine a meeting of Mozart and Keith Jarrett in Brazil, Mozart for the intensity of his creation, Jarrett for his relationship to improvisation at the modern piano. His standards, however, are the compositions that comprise what he calls “The Great Brazilian Songbook,” works written at the same time that the Great American Songbook was created, equally rich in lyricism and sublimity. All of the world’s songbooks and literature are his realm, a borderless inspiration expressed in his compositions and improvisations. The latter takes special form in his solo piano performances where he invites the audience to give him suggestions which, in the moment, he spins into an improvised suite. He invites you to come to the concert with the music you love and offers it for the creation of these one-time-only but forever memorable creations. Come hear one of the greatest musical minds of our time.

Learn more at andremehmari

Past Performances