|
contents | world | |||||||||||||
| Berklee Flamenco plays the Monterey Jazz Festival Berklee Flamenco – five top scholarship students from the pioneering Boston music college - will perform a compelling program of flamenco, jazz, Middle Eastern, and North African styles at the 54th Annual Monterey Jazz Festival, in Monterey, California. The group is directed by Javier Limon, Professor of Mediterranean Music at both Berklee, and at Berklee Valencia, the college's new Spanish campus, which is opening this fall. The Monterey Jazz Festival takes place September 16, 17 and 18. Berklee Flamenco will perform on Friday, September 16, at 9:30 pm on the Garden Stage, and again on Saturday the 17th, at 5:00 pm, in the intimate Coffee House Gallery. The group will be joined by the winner of the full-tuition, 2011 Jimmy Lyons Scholarship to Berklee, trombonist Calvin Barthel of Albany, California. The first college to offer studies rooted in jazz and popular styles, Berklee is a place where musicians from around the planet cross-pollinate genre, culture, instrumentation, and vibe to create new, compelling forms and sounds. Now, in the spirit of our new campus on the Mediterranean, the college offers Berklee Flamenco to the audiences of the Monterey Jazz Festival. Berklee Flamenco Pianist Ariadna Castellanos Rivas was born in Madrid in 1983, and began her music studies at age six. When she was 17 she won a full scholarship to study classical piano at the Guildhall School of Music in London, where she graduated after four years. Throughout her music education she has been close to flamenco music, so after graduation she returned to Spain to work with famous flamenco figures such Jorge Pardo, Jesus del Rosario, Agustin Carbonell "El Bola, " and toured the world with flamenco dance companies like Los Vivancos 7. After four years of work on exploring new paths for piano in flamenco, the production company Casa Limón signed her for her first album, due this year. In 2009, after an impromptu audition in Madrid with Berklee faculty, she won the all expenses paid Presidential Scholarship to Berklee, where she is concentrating on her skills specific to improvisation and jazz. In May of 2010, at the college's commencement exercises, Ariadna was chosen to lead the tribute performance for flamenco legend Paco de Lucía, who was in attendance. She is a dual major at Berklee, in both Professional Music and Performance. Ali Amr is a Palestinian musician born in 1991 in Morocco; he moved to Ramallah, in the West Bank at the age of six. The following year he began to play the qanun. Playing qanun and singing, Ali is a three-time, first prize winner for best Arabic Music performer in the Marcel Khalife Music Competition and has performed frequently at various cultural sites in cities in and around the Middle East. He studied at the Edward Said Conservatory in Ramallah, and has toured widely with Maqamat, the conservatory's performing ensemble, and Yalalan, an independent, privately formed music ensemble. Ali has performed with Maqamat in Sweden, Norway, Dubai, Germany, Holland, and the United States. In 2006, he completed a three-month tour of the United States with ensembles from his school, performing at the United Nations in New York, at San Antonio's Alamodome, and in 13 other states. In 2007, he performed for the President of the Palestinian Authority, and the Princess of Jordan. Ali is a Professional Music major at Berklee, studying on a scholarship he won in audition in Tel Aviv. Flutist Enrique "Kalani" Trinidad was born in Dallas, Texas in 1987 and moved to Puerto Rico at the age of four. He began on his musical path by listening to his father, pianist Richard Trinidad, to the recordings of Chick Corea, and through studies of the compositions of Antonio Carlos Jobim. Kalani has won the Yamaha Young Performing Artist Award, the National Flute Association Jazz Master Class Award, and special artistic recognition from the government of Puerto Rico. He has had the good fortune to work with jazz musicians like Mario Rivera, Justo Almario, John Benitez, Nestor Torres, Dave Valentin, Humberto Ramirez, Cachao, Paquito D'Rivera, Alex Acuña, Eddie Palmieri and Julito Alvarado, among others. In 2007, after an audition at Berklee's annual program in San Juan, Kalani was awarded the all expenses paid, Presidential Scholarship to Berklee, where he is a dual major in Music Business/ Management and Professional Music. Growing up in a musical family, Israeli bassist Noam Wiesenberg, was exposed to varied genres of music from an early age. After playing the cello for 10 years, Noam picked up the double bass, and he soon became an in-demand bassist and arranger across the Israeli music scene. Noam has been a recipient of America-Israel Cultural Foundation scholarships for a full 10 years (1998-2008). By winning 2nd prize in the "Israeli Jazz Player of the Year" competition, Noam participated in the annual International Assn. Schools of Jazz convention, held in Riga, Latvia. In August 2008, he moved to Boston to study on scholarship at Berklee. While there, he was chosen to represent the college at festivals and venues as varied as the Washington DC Jazz Festival, the Blue Note jazz club, and the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, in San Francisco. He graduated Magna Cum Laude in Jazz Performance in May 2010. Noam has performed/recorded with many acclaimed artists, including: Billy Hart, Jeff "Tain" Watts, Rodney Green, Francisco Mela, Seamus Blake, Myron Walden, Will Vinson, Avishai Cohen (Trumpet), Daniel Zamir, Eli Degibri, Matisyahu, Julian Lage, Mark O'Connor, Andy Statman, Zohar Fresco, and many more. Percussionist Sergio Martinez was born in Madrid in 1977. He began his Afro-Latin percussion studies at age 15 with Mestre Rubem Dantas of the Paco de Lucía Sextet, Luis Dulzaides, and Rogerio Da Souza. Soon he added courses in Hindu percussion with Ramesh Shotham, and embraced Latin jazz, playing in the Taller de Musicos Big Band in Madrid. He later developed an interest in flamenco, and began to accompany top flamenco and jazz artists, in such venues as Teatro Real de Madrid, the Liceo in Barcelona, the Sydney Opera House, and the Paris Opera, to name a few. In a diverse career, Sergio has worked with artists and ensembles as varied as: in classical music, the National Orchestra of Spain; in jazz, Jeff Ballard, Dave Liebman, and Antonio Sanchez; and in flamenco, Enrique Morente, Diego el Cigala, and Jorge Pardo, to name a very few. Sergio decided to audition for, and won a scholarship at Berklee's annual visit to the Panama Jazz Festival. In January 2011, he began studies in the Berklee Global Jazz Institute, the college's international jazz academy, whose artistic director is the celebrated Panamanian jazz pianist and composer Danilo Pérez. write your comments about the article :: © 2011 Jazz News :: home page |