by Dr. Ceylon Mitchell II | Feb 28, 2024
Join us for an evening celebrating the iconic Cuban charanga Orquesta Aragón, one of the most beloved Cuban music groups and global ambassadors. The beautiful polyrhythms of Afro-Cuban music and balletic European contradanzas meet in hits such as “El Bodeguero” and “Pare Cochero.” Richard Egües, nicknamed la flauta magica, is famous for his distinctive flute playing and catchy songwriting for the group during the danzón and cha-cha-cha craze of the 1940s/1950s. This performance pays homage to his innovations and influence to this day.
Flutist Ceylon Mitchell leads Raíces Negras, a modern Cuban charanga ensemble full of award-winning musicians, providing sonorous melodies and rhythmic grooves that will move your body! With polyphonic percussion and harmonious vocals, this dynamic and unique flute-led ensemble celebrates traditional Cuban forms and Latin Jazz with classics as well as commissions in a fun, improvisatory style. ¡A Gozar!
• Sarah Taylor Cook, lead vocals/pregón
• Jeannette Lewis, flute, vocals/coro
• Taisha Estrada, vocals/coro
• Christine Kharazian, violin
• Amyr Joyner, violin
• Erin Murphy Snedecor, cello
• Ellington Carthan, piano
• Michael Bowie, bass
• Fran Vielma, congas
• Dominique Patrick Noel, timbales
• Bruno Lucini, drum set, guïro, claves
by Dr. Ceylon Mitchell II | Jan 26, 2024
Join us for an evening celebrating the iconic Cuban charanga Orquesta Aragón, one of the most beloved Cuban music groups and global ambassadors. The beautiful polyrhythms of Afro-Cuban music and balletic European contradanzas meet in hits such as “El Bodeguero” and “Pare Cochero.” Richard Egües, nicknamed la flauta magica, is famous for his distinctive flute playing and catchy songwriting for the group during the danzón and cha-cha-cha craze of the 1940s/1950s. This performance pays homage to his innovations and influence to this day.
Flutist Ceylon Mitchell leads Raíces Negras, a modern Cuban charanga ensemble full of award-winning musicians, providing sonorous melodies and rhythmic grooves that will move your body! With polyphonic percussion and harmonious vocals, this dynamic and unique flute-led ensemble celebrates traditional Cuban forms and Latin Jazz with classics as well as commissions in a fun, improvisatory style. ¡A Gozar!
by Dr. Ceylon Mitchell II | Mar 21, 2023
Dr. Ceylon Mitchell, Flute
Dr. Elizabeth Hill, Piano
Erin Murphy Snedecor, Cello
Paquito D’Rivera, Invitación al Danzón
Leo Brouwer, Sonata
Tania León, del Caribe, soy!
Leo Brouwer, La región más transparente
Tania León, Ritual
Leo Brouwer, El Cazador de Historias
Paquito D’Rivera, The Cape Cod Files
by Dr. Ceylon Mitchell II | Mar 21, 2023
A celebration of the vibrant LatinX culture of the Lower East Side and the musical talents the area has nurtured, from the classical virtuoso pianist Teresa Carreño to the tango master Astor Piazzola and salsa superstar Celia Cruz.
Cuban-born Tania Leon is a Pulitzer Prize-winning composer whose music is known for its rich textures and infectious and complex rhythms, Del Caribe, soy! is dedicated to flutist Nestor Torres, and builds on his improvisatory fragments, mixing in bird calls, whistles, fragments of Latin melodies, atonal piano effects and gestures that characterize music of the Caribbean.
Featuring traditional tonality and Baroque era forms, avant-garde and aleatoric techniques, and Afro-Cuban strains, Brouwer’s stages of composition represent an eclectic sound universe. Throughout his output, his music is a kind of musical cartography and allegory of Latin America, with its most emblematic landscapes, characters, and cultures. Passages with controlled indeterminacy and extended techniques in the musical forces create fascinating textures and colorful soundscapes connected to ancient and modern Latin American literature and culture.
by Dr. Ceylon Mitchell II | Mar 21, 2023
Joshua Jenkins has been playing the piano since he was seven years old and began performing in public at the age of twelve. A proud alum of the Duke Ellington School of the Arts, he holds a Bachelor of Music from Temple University, where he also majored in Spanish. Alongside fellow Ellington students, he performed on stage at the Kennedy Center and Strathmore Music Center with such artists as Ledisi, Patti LaBelle, and Sting. While studying in Philadelphia, he gave various classical solo and chamber recitals and worked with several jazz ensembles.
An ever-growing multi-instrumentalist, Joshua studied pipe organ for several years under the tutelage of organist Clyde T. Parker, having performed numerous times on this instrument at People’s Congregational Church in Washington, DC. Joshua was the Jazz Ensemble Director of CAAPA (the Coalition for African Americans in the Performing Arts) from 2018 to 2020. He has a keen interest in Afro-Cuban drumming and has visited Cuba several times to conduct research and take lessons.
Supported in part by Daniel & Sarah Gallagher♪, HelenLouise Pettis♪, and Tina & Arthur Lazerow
♪Strathmore graciously thanks our Artist in Residence Champions for their multi-year commitment and above-and-beyond support to the AIR program.
Learn more about the AIR program and the Class of 2023.
