January 2025 Benefit Concerts

Beruriah  Viviana Lombrozo, Artist

Voices of Shekhinah: Four Illuminations highlights three stellar women in Jewish history and one contemporary teen who represents today's hope for the future. With the Shekhinah, the feminine aspect of the Divine, the work celebrates countless courageous Jewish women across the ages. This 45-minute opera reflects the modes, harmonies, styles, and instrumental sounds of each era. 

Our January concerts featured four vocalists accompanied by piano, clarinet, and shofar. In the captivating arias of Sarah, Beruriah, Gracia, and Lila, each vocalist tells her story. All join together in lively, inspiring quartets to chronicle more of Jewish women's history. 

Benefit to Commemorate January 27 

UN International Holocaust Remembrance Day

We honor lives saved, lives lost, and the courageous people who helped save those lives. Proceeds from the concerts go to the New Mexico Holocaust & Intolerance Museum. The museum gives trainings on bullying, antisemitism, upstanding, and more. It devotes 50% of its exhibits and educational outreach to non-Jewish genocides and atrocities, such as Japanese Internment Camps and horrors against Native Americans. 

Sponsored by HaMakom and Unitarian Universalist Santa Fe

We are very grateful to our sponsors HaMakom and UU Santa Fe and to their members for their support of these benefit concerts. All concerts at UU Santa Fe, 107 W Barcelona Rd, Santa Fe, NM 87505. See Sponsoring More Concerts at the top of the next column.

Donations Doubled with This Match Offer!

An anonymous donor matched donations up to $5,000! We are grateful to our Angel Donor, who made this event possible. Thank you to everyone for your kind generosity and charitable giving in support of this cause.

CheerLeader up to $50+

ChangeMaker $100+ 

TrailBlazer $250+ 

Visionary $500+ 1 ticket

First Chair $1,000+ 2 tickets and VIP seating

Conductor $2,500+ 4 tickets and VIP seating

Angel $5,000+ 6 tickets and VIP seating + stage recognition

Thank you to our fiscal sponsor Teatro Paraguas. All donations tax-deductible. 

Heritage of Composer and Librettist Valarie Morris 

Daughter and granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, Valarie's focus is to build bridges among Jews, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, and others. Valarie dedicates her music and artistic collaborations to social justice to help make a better world. She envisions a world in peace, with dignity and respect for all. 

Commission and Grant

When Tifereth Israel Synagogue commissioned Valarie Morris in 2004 to compose a new work for their 100th Anniversary, she took the opportunity to learn about Jewish women. After extensive research, she selected four remarkable women from different eras. Then she studied the eras' music to create Voices of Shekhinah: Four Illuminations, an opera for full orchestra. This work was funded in part by a grant from the Composer Assistance Program of the American Music Center. 

Ticket Information

Online (click dates below) or At the Door (cash or check)

$25 general • $20 students/seniors (or pay what can at door)

FREE under 18 or over 80

January 26 • Sunday matinee at 3:00 pm • HaMakom Sponsor 

January 27 • Monday night at 7:00 pm • UU Santa Fe Sponsor 

January 28 • Tuesday night at 7:00 pm • UU Santa Fe Sponsor 

For More Information

Listen to Richard Eeds' interview with Valarie.

Send email to concerts@sandscapepublications.com.

"Sunday’s performance of Voices of Shekhinah: Four Illuminations was a gift. It was a spiritually, educationally, emotionally remarkable beautiful service to the community. I was reluctant to leave, to break the spell. It was a profound experience." —Faith Garfield

If your organization would like to sponsor more concerts, please email concerts@sandscapepublications.com. A pre-concert talk is available.

Kehar Koslowsky as Sarah. Locally, Kehar's many performances include The Santa Fe Symphony, Chatter ABQ, Polyphony: Voices of New Mexico, New Mexico Bach Society, Zia Singers, New Mexico Gay Men’s Chorus, and Santa Fe Opera Guild. On the East Coast, her opera roles include Diana in Orpheus in the Underworld (Offenbach) with Janiec Opera Company; Desdemona in Otello (Rossini) with Maryland Opera Workshop; and Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier, Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Rossini), and Dorabella in Cosi Fan Tutte (Mozart) with Crittenden Opera Studio.

Dalia Melendez as Beruriah. Dalia's roles in musicals and plays include Titanic: The Musical (Yeston and Stone), Closer Than Ever (Shire), Players in the Game (Wasserman), and Those That Play the Clowns (Stewart). She performs with the Sangre de Cristo Chorale, The Santa Fe Symphony Chorus, and the Music Ministry at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi. A private vocal instructor and a certified Reiki Master Teacher, Dalia earned her Bachelor’s degree in Vocal Performance with a minor in Theater at Eastern New Mexico University.

Carmen Floréz-Mansi as Gracia. A native of New Mexico, Carmen  serves as Pastoral Director of Music at Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi. Since 1989, she has performed as a vocal artist, choral conductor, vocal instructor, and liturgy specialist across the Southwest, including appearances with the Santa Fe Desert Chorale, The Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, and The Santa Fe Opera. Winner of many distinguished awards, Carmen is also Founding Director of the Choral Arts Society at St. Michael’s High School, The Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, and their new Youth Choruses—Cantate, Anima, and Choral Scholars.

Haley Tarrant as Lila (and shofarist). A student at Eastern New Mexico University (ENMU), Haley is an accomplished vocalist and an aspiring educator. Her love for opera developed during two years of study with the Santa Fe Opera Young Voices program. In 2024, Haley was awarded the prestigious James E. Hesse Scholarship and performed with the Global Ambassador Choir in London and Paris. Her various musical experiences at ENMU include serving as understudy for the Giannetta role in the university’s spring opera production of L’elisir d’amore (Romani). 

Director and Pianist Will Varner. Will brings an amazing range of talents to our production. He is Director of the Santa Fe Men’s Camerata, played Mr. Price in Kinky Boots (Fierstein) with Tri-M Productions, and played piano for Santa Fe Playhouse's Gentlemen’s Guide to Love and Murder (Freedman). For Santa Fe Family Theater, he was Musical Director of You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown (Gesner). 

Will has performed in several Gilbert and Sullivan musicals and was Music Director for many other musicals, including Babes in Toyland and SpongeBob Squarepants: The Broadway Musical. He was also on stage in many musicals, including as Emcee in Cabaret. Will has led church choirs, children’s choirs, and handbell choirs, and served as Assistant Artistic Director for the Women’s Chorus of Dallas.

Josh Peterson, Clarinet (January 26). An Albuquerque-based clarinetist from Kansas, Josh holds a master’s degree from the University of New Mexico and a bachelor’s degree from Kansas State University, with primary professors Keith Lemons and Tod Kerstetter. Josh performs regularly with the El Paso Symphony Orchestra, the San Juan Symphony, and other orchestras in the Southwest. He is privileged to maintain a clarinet studio and teaches many lessons, sectionals, and masterclasses at schools and universities in New Mexico.

Sam McClung, Clarinet (January 27, 28). After moving to New Mexico in 2020 from Washington, Sam fell in love with the state’s classical music scene. After earning music performance degrees from Central Washington University and the University of New Mexico, he went on to win second clarinet and bass clarinet positions with the Albuquerque Philharmonic Orchestra and Santa Fe Pro Musica Orchestra. A man who wears many hats, Sam is General Manager, Music Librarian, and Marketing Manager of Pro Musica and the magical Marketing Specialist for our benefit!

Valarie Morris. Composing and performing music for over 30 years as a multi-instrumentalist, Valarie has over 370 titles from solos to orchestral works. Many of her works are available at SandscapeShop.com, where you can find this concert's music for Voices of Shekhinah: Four Illuminations. Her compositions have been performed across the U.S. and in other countries, and many festivals have selected her works for performance. 

Valarie Morris is also a writer of words in many genres and a producer of other benefit shows with music. This gives her the opportunity to do the work she loves with many types of artists and other creatives in Santa Fe.