This concert just ahead of Valentine’s Day is a celebration of all the tender and world-shaking things that love can be in people’s lives … while also acknowledging that sometimes, love can be the absolute worst. Mocktails and light refreshments will be served, good cheer and camaraderie are welcomed.
Doors will open at 5 p.m. with the concert beginning at 6 p.m. To purchase tickets, click here.
About the artists:
Jennifer Perez holds a Master of Music from The University of New Mexico and enjoys a career as a concert soloist and ensemble singer. She has performed with the Oregon Bach Festival, Boulder Bach Festival, Dallas Choral Festival, Highland Park Chorale, and as a soloist for the Bergamo International Culture Festival in Italy. In addition to her travels, she loves participating in the rich musical community of New Mexico, appearing regularly with the Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Severall Friends, Polyphony: Voices of New Mexico, Chatter, and the Sangre de Cristo Chorale, to name a few. Perez lives in Santa Fe, where she serves in the Parish Choir for the Church of the Holy Faith, and as a guest radio host for Classical 95.5 KHFM Santa Fe/Albuquerque.
Tjett Gerdom is originally from Iowa and has a degree in Music Education from Cornell College. Since moving to New Mexico, he has been a featured soloist with the New Mexico Performing Arts Society, Polyphony: Voices of New Mexico, the Santa Fe Community Orchestra, Santa Fe Music Works, Coro de Cámara, the Los Alamos Symphony Orchestra, the Los Alamos Oratorio Society, the Los Alamos & Taos Choral Societies, and has thrice performed at Opera on the Rocks at Bandelier National Monument. In addition to singing, Gerdom has conducted the Los Alamos Symphony Orchestra, the Los Alamos Choral Society, and the Los Alamos Oratorio Society. Gerdom’s musical career has granted him the privilege of making music in many fantastic and historic places, including; St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice, at Mardi Gras in New Orleans, the Pantheon in Rome, Symphony Hall in Chicago, Wells Cathedral, a Barnes & Noble, the great Cathedral in Salzburg, and at Carnival in Nice, France.
Gabriel Merrill-Steskal is a multifaceted pianist and musician dedicated to performance, teaching, and scholarship. Merrill-Steskal holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in Piano Performance from the University of Michigan, where he studied piano with Logan Skelton and fortepiano with Matthew Bengtson. His recent musical activities are wide-ranging and varied, including commissioning and premiering new pieces for fortepiano by Michael Kropf and Chenghao Li, engraving and recording a new critical edition of Jospeha Auernhammer’s violin sonata on period instruments with Anna Okada, and appearing with the Ann Arbor Symphony as a soloist performing Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto. He has won awards in international competitions on both piano and fortepiano (including the Seattle International Piano Competition, Los Angeles International Liszt Competition, and SFZP International Fortepiano Competition) and recently was a fellow at the Gilmore piano festival and Pianofest in the Hamptons. He has also recorded for Blue Griffin Records as part of an upcoming album of new piano music by William Horne. In addition to his performance activities as a soloist and chamber musician, Merrill-Steskal is an active teacher and scholar. He is Assistant Professor of Piano and Industry at New Mexico Highlands University, where he teaches piano, music history, music theory, and other courses. He is also an experienced fortepianist interested in 18th and 19th century performance practice, and was recently the Visiting Artistic Researcher at the Cornell Center for Historical Keyboards, presenting original lecture-recitals on historical pianos throughout Spring 2025. His most recent research projects include studying prolongational aspects of folk-based pitch structures in Bartók’s music, and examining characteristics of embellished repeats in Mozart and Chopin. Aside from all things piano, he enjoys spending time outside running and rock climbing.
Direct questions to Info@LAAC-FLAC.org.