top of page
las-mariquitas-cmon-everybody-october-28-2023-christopher-rivera-42.jpg

Mobéy Lola Irizarry performing with Las Mariquitas at C'mon Everybody (picture credit: Christopher Rivera)

Mobéy Lola Irizarry (they/she) is a genderqueer cultural worker, composer, poet, painter, improviser, multi-instrumentalist, and transdisciplinary performance artist. Based in Brooklyn, they hail from the Puerto Rican diaspora in Hartford, CT, and are a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation. She makes within the lineages of decolonial uprisings, collections of tiny mirrors at queer clubs, and the precolonial languages of the drum and the braid. Lola is the creative director and percussion section leader for  Las Mariquitas, NYC’s only Queer and Trans-centered Salsa band. They also play in the experimental performance trio Dendarry Bakery and in the Latin Rock group AVATAREDEN. They are a musician, dancer, practitioner, innovator, and eternal student in the Salsa, Bomba, Plena, and experimental music/performance traditions. Lola has performed across Turtle Island and Borikén. Their work has been featured in Rolling Stone, Playbill, and Aislin Magazine. 

 

Irizarry plays congas, bongos, maracas, barril, violin, guitar, composes, produces, and sings. She has performed and collaborated with Samira Mendoza, Gladstone Deluxe, AANI, Sara Ramirez, Justine Lee Hooper, Combo Chimbita, Xenia Rubinos, Pink Navel, Samora La Perdida, STEFA*, BombaYo, Chispa, Carolina Oliveros, Bulla en el Barrio, Bomberxs, the New York Theatre Ballet, Arthur Aviles, and many more artists. They have performed in venues such as Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Three Dollar Bill, and the Denver Art Museum. They compose for podcasts, theater, musical theater, installations, and film. 

 

Irizarry holds degrees in Technology in Music and Related Arts (TIMARA) from Oberlin Conservatory, and Comparative American Studies from Oberlin College. They have received grants and residencies from the Native Arts and Culture Fund, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, the New York Council for the Arts, EMERGENYC, the Clemente Soto-Vélez Center, C’mon Everybody, En Garde Arts, CEPA, and Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Irizarry has given guest lectures and workshops at Carnegie Mellon University, Oberlin College, and the Clemente Soto-Vélez Center.

 

They teach percussion, song-writing, and music production. Reach out to them if you’d like lessons!

​

Contact for bookings, commissions, lessons, and all other inquiries: mobeyirizarry@gmail.com .

Feel free to join their email list below.

 This is a near-comprehensive list of Irizarry's artistic work:

 

In process:

  • Las Mariquitas’, creative director, composer, percussionist of first Queer Trans Salsa band   (as seen in Rolling Stone)

    • In residence at C’mon Everybody (2022-23)

    • In residence at the Clemente Soto-Vélez Center (2023)

    • NYSCA Award Recipient (2024) 

    • Collaborated with Sara Ramirez for Breaking the Binary Theatre Festival

  • “Spanglish Sh!t” co-composer of original musical by Samora La Perdida, 

    • Residency at En Garde Arts (February 2023)

    • Ground Floor Residency at Berkeley Repertory Theatre (July 2023)

    • NYSCA Award Recipient (2024)

    • Baryshnikov Arts Residency (2024)

  • “Stolen Sh*t” (2023) original solo performance piece 

    • In residency development at Brooklyn Arts Exchange (Summer 2023)

    • Performed at Denver Art Museum (February 2024) 

  • “A god’s house”, music director, composer, performer for play by Irisdelia Garcia

​
 

Creative and Performance Experience

  • CHANT DOWN (Fall 2023) ensemble member of Carolina Oliveros, Camila Falquez, and Luis Rincon Alba’s performance installation at Hannah Traore Gallery 

  • Performed in collaboration with Combo Chimbita, Bulla en el Barrio, Xenia Rubinos, Conjunto Soto

  • “Seka’s Dream”, original solo album (Panapen Records, Funnybone Records, 2023) 

  • Creative director, founder, composer, arranger, and percussion section leader for Las Mariquitas, a Queer and Trans-centered Salsa band (congas, bongos, auxiliary percussion, vocals)

    • Established “Salserx Futurism” Residency at Cmon Everybody in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn

  • 2022-2023 Recipient of Native Arts and Culture Fund LIFT grant 

    • Project: “Trenzxs”, an exploration of creating a visual language for music, distinct from western classical music notation, based in lineages of Afro-Indigenous Caribbean and diasporic artistic traditions (Graffiti, Bomba, Plena, Salsa)

  • Member and Composer of experimental performance trio Dendarry Bakery (Irizarry, Gladstone Butler, Samira Mendoza) (2021-present) (Congas, Bongos, Vocals) 

    • “Letters To My Father”, commissioned music score for Arthur Aviles’ original dance piece for the New York Theatre Ballet (NYTB.) 

    • Debuted “¡Time Out!” 10.8.22 at Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (BAAD)

    • Debuting “You Will Be Played” 11.9.22 for JACK Radical Acts Festival

  • Composed and performed Bongo accompaniment for Arthur Aviles’ “Homage: The Untitled Series” at BAAD 10.28.22

  • Participant in Metropolis Ensemble’s Biophony Festival (2022)

  • Member of AVATAREDEN (a trans Latinx band) (2022) (Congas, Bongos, Vocals)

  • 2022 EmergeNYC Cohort Member

  • Member of BombaYo (a Bomba music ensemble) (2021-2022) 

  • Create variety of visual art works often as graphic music scores

  • “Ithánali (I Know)” (2021) - Produced short film to accompany Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate’s piece. Commissioned by the Department of Musicology at Carnegie Mellon University.

  • “Kimimaro”; “Blueprint”; (2020) two Bebé Machete singles

  • “New Noun: Trukutá” (2020), an hour long performance featuring pieces for live instrumentation, multichannel audio, and video

    • “Vrum” (2020) a piece for bassoon trio and multichannel audiovisual fixed media

    • “VEO VEOH” (2020) a piece for multichannel audiovisual fixed media in collaboration with Jai Geller

  • “There Is Not a Metaphor That Can Contain” album by Bebé Machete (composer, producer, 2019, released by Funnybone Records).

  • Junior Recital (2018), an hour long performance featuring a mix of fixed media audio and video, live solo performance, and performance with FOGATA

  • FOGATA, Salsa and Reggaeton band (Co-arranger, violinist, vocalist, 2017-present)

  • “Awkward Moments Series III” (co-collaborator, 2017), installation led by Mimi Xu at Oberlin College

  • “equis.” album by Xango/Suave (composer, producer, 2017, released by Pretty Records)

  • “Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom” (2016) Theater Production at Oberlin College in Oberlin, OH; built instrument and coded processing units in Max MSP, performed live

  • “1320” EP by Xango/Suave (composer, producer, 2016)

  • “Piña Agria” (composer, violinist, 2016) - a piece for string quartet and fixed media

​

Work Experience:

  • Musician, Composer, and multimedia artist (2015-present)

  • Freelance audio engineer, composer, sound designer for podcasts such as “Queer Noise”, “Finding Frances”, and “CUIR: Historias Disidentes” (2021-present)

  • Audio and Lighting Designer at C’mon Everybody, performance venue in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn. Working primarily with Drag artists (2021-2023);  Sound Engineer (2015-2023)

  • Global Wordsmiths Spanish Interpreter (2020-2021)

bottom of page