Afro-Andean Funk

Event Description 

Afro-Andean Funk is a New York–based, two-time Latin Grammy–nominated six-piece fusing Latin, funk, and electronica into a high-energy, groove-centered live show, sung in Spanish, English, and Quechua. 

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About Afro-Andean Funk

Afro-Andean Funk is a New York–based, two-time Latin Grammy–nominated ensemble led by Peruvian vocalist Araceli Poma and bassist-producer Matt Geraghty. Rooted in Afro-Peruvian rhythm and Andean melody — two traditions born of oceans crossed and mountains climbed, that recognized each other in the encounter — the band performs original music in Spanish, English, and Quechua, pushed through cajón, electric bass, drums, keyboards, and horns into a sound that is at once ancient and alive.

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Araceli Poma was born in the Andes of Peru and was raised by her grandmother Mamá Nieves — a community healer whose prayers and songs were the first music she ever knew. That inheritance lives in everything she does. Through her voice she carries Quechua — the most widely spoken Indigenous language in South America, a tongue that survived conquest, colonization, and forced silence — into contemporary stages around the world.

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Matt Geraghty is a bassist, composer, and producer whose documentary work in Peru, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Brazil has traced the rhythms of the African diaspora across the Americas — a journey that found its home in this project.

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In 2025, Afro-Andean Funk performed at the China Shanghai International Arts Festival. The band has also appeared at Lincoln Center, Bryant Park, the Chautauqua Amphitheater, SunFest, and Canada's Kultrún Festival. The ensemble's album Todo Migra — "everything migrates" — out October 8, 2026, weaves electronica and Latin alternative textures into the band's Afro-Peruvian and Andean foundation: a meditation on migration, of people, of languages, of sound.

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The full ensemble includes Misha Tsiganov (piano and keyboards, Russia), Sean Nowell (saxophone and flute, USA), Harvey Wirht (drums, Suriname), and Hector Ferreyra (Afro-Peruvian percussion, Peru).

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At its core, Afro-Andean Funk is a celebration — a high-energy, multilingual show that uplifts Indigenous voices, honors Afro-Peruvian tradition, and reminds audiences that the rhythms connecting us are older and stronger than the borders between us.