Melodious Ceremonia celebrates album release with concerts in Santa Fe, Albuquerque

Award-winning as solo artists, Keely Mackey-Gonzales and Elizabeth Marie Berry want people to feel positive energy, find hope and lean into interconnectedness in their debut album together.

The duo performs as Melodious Ceremonia, a band providing healing music through ceremony.

“We’re not alone, you know?” Berry, known as Eli del Puerto on stage, said. “We have to connect with ourselves, and you’ll feel this through the music, but also connecting our hearts as a community.”

Commemorating the duo’s first album, “Cosmic Task,” AMP Concerts will host the pair at San Miguel Chapel in Santa Fe on Thursday, July 24, followed by a performanceat Fusion in Albuquerqueon Sunday, July 27. CDs of “Cosmic Task” will be for sale with a Melodious Ceremonia meet-and-greet after the concerts.

Creating an immersive concert experience, Berry and Mackey-Gonzales engage with the audience through their nine-song set. Both artists will have three solo songs, along with three duo songs.

“We’re incorporating both of us into the performance aspect,” Berry said. “Keely plays on my songs, I sing to her songs and there’s dance involved. There’s constant interaction with all of our music.”

Both educators, Mackey-Gonzales and Berry met almost three years ago at the New Mexico Music Awards. From there, Berry said they began discussing how they could combine their teaching skills and desire to bring communities together in a positive way.

With so many things in common, the pair agreed: Collaboration came easy.

“We operate very similarly. We also get along really well because we travel together, spend a lot of time together,” Mackey-Gonzales said. “All of this helps build the foundation of what is the intention and the meaning behind the album.”

Mackey-Gonzales, known as Celloquacious, is a cellist who composes and plays on electroacoustic cello or six-string electric cello while looping chords live.

Berry says she explores pop-music elements through lyrical writing and layering her vocals.

Rooted in classic traditions, Melodious Ceremonia elevates through experimental sounds, and together they aim to awaken and inspire, according to AMP.

“The cool part about our collaboration is Keely, she creates these beautiful soundscapes that complement my voice,” Berry said. “We have a really beautiful dance between the music that we’re doing together.”

Mackey-Gonzales said if nothing else, she hopes guests can feel the positive energy they work to bring in their music. Connecting with themselves and others, especially in these times, Berry added, can bring a new sense of hope.

“That’s their own cosmic task, is finding what’s their own joy and re-centering on that,” Mackey-Gonzales said.