Before Arturo’s Performance at PS21 – there is a PATHWAYS Workshop:
Saturday June 15 from 2 to 3 pm
PS21 Pavilion Theater
Pursuing his passion for sharing the vital musical traditions of Afro-Latin jazz with a wide audience, O’Farrill will lead a percussion workshop for school-age children on Saturday before the the performance on the Pavilion Theater main stage.
To enroll in the workshop, contact clare@ps21chatham.org
ARTURO O’FARRILL
Arturo O’Farrill, pianist, composer, and educator, was born in Mexico and grew up in New York City. He played piano in the Carla Bley Band and performed as a soloist with Dizzy Gillespie, Lester Bowie, Wynton Marsalis, Harry Belafonte, and others. In 2007, he founded the non-profit Afro Latin Jazz Alliance to promote the performance, education, and preservation of Afro Latin music.
Arturo traveled to Cuba with the original Chico O’Farrill Afro Cuban Jazz Orchestra in 2010, the first time his father’s musicians had returned to the O’Farrill homeland, and he continues to travel to Cuba regularly as an informal cultural ambassador, working with Cuban musicians, dancers, and students, and bringing local musicians from Cuba to the US and American musicians to Cuba.
A Blue Note recording artist, Arturo has received commissions from Meet the Composer, Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Philadelphia Music Project, The Apollo Theater, and many others. His music has also been commissioned and adapted as scores for Ballet Hispanico, the Malpaso Dance Company, Evidence Dance Company, and the Alvin Ailey Dance Company.
