Afro Latin Jazz Alliance: ¡Si Cuba! Festival

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

¡Si Cuba! Festival

A great mention from Hispanic Market Info, about Si Cuba Festival:

Running from March 31 through June 16 New York will be presenting the creativity and artistic minds of Cuba through, ¡Si Cuba! Festival! In celebration of Cuba’s creative arts, the festival will be showcasing the diversity of Cuban culture from the traditional to the modern. This unique festival includes screenings from “award-winning films; lively concerts of son, rumba, hip-hop, and more by musical legends and rising stars; intimate discussions with Cuban writers, musicians, and thinkers; dance performances, from the classical to contemporary; compelling visual art exhibitions; and more…”
Some artists and groups to look forward to include:
The return of two groups vital to Cuban traditions.
- April 16^th(Zankel Hall): The Septeto Nacional Ignacio Piñero
- May 5^th-7^th (Symphony Space) and May 8^th(Performing Arts Center at SUNY Purchase): Los Muñequitos de Matanzas, at May 5 to 7 and at the Performing Arts Center at SUNY Purchase on May 8. There you will see adored performers of Cuban rumba and guaguancó: unique combination of Afro-Cuban music for percussion, voices and dancers.
- June 4^th (Brooklyn Academy of Music) A rare Cuban tradition is represented by the Creole Choir of Cuba, which is compsed of descendants of Haitians who came to Cuba to escape slavery and their acculturation to the Cuban culture.
The festival will also be showcasing other Cuban musicians, such as Xiomara Laugart, a singer from Havana who is now a member of Yerba Buena, at the Jamaica Performing Arts Center on April 30, and the rapper Telmary Díaz at BAMCafé on April 23. The pianist Arturo O’Farrill, who leads the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, brings his Family Band to BAMCafé on April 30, and on May 14 at Symphony Space the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra will be the centerpiece of Wall to Wall Sonidos, a marathon of Latin music featuring the premiere of Mr. O’Farrill’s composition “A Still Small Voice.”
Please refer to website for more details: http://sicuba.org/en