Border CrosSing

Border CrosSing started with an unsatisfied audience member. Ahmed Anzaldúa El Samkary, a Mexican-Egyptian who adores choral music, wasn’t finding much that spoke to his cultural identity in concerts. A few times, he felt that his culture was being disrespected. Once, he heard a solemn religious motet from 17th century Mexico performed as an upbeat dance number –– with added marimba and djembe! Most of the time, the concert programs just didn’t contribute to cultural understanding. Almost all of the time, access was severely limited. He was often the only Mexican –– or Egyptian –– in the audience.

Ahmed founded Border CrosSing on the basis of these three concepts: respect, relevance, and access. As an organization, we envision a landscape where musicians, programs, and audiences reflect the racial and cultural composition of the Twin Cities. To do that, we partnered with Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in St. Paul to present our very first concert series, Puentes (Bridges).

In the long term, we hope that Puentes will become an established concert series, a part of the Latinx cultural calendar. The support we've received from parishioners at Our Lady of Guadalupe, from the Latinx community, and from the choral world here tells us we're onto something. Minnesota needs top-notch choral programming that celebrates the people, cultures, and languages of our homes, schools, and neighborhoods. We intend to deliver that to you.