The Conservatory Big Band of Santo Domingo
The Conservatory Big Band of the National Conservatory of Music finds itself under the direction of Javier Vargas, a musician, composer, and musical arranger as well as professor in the National Conservatory of Music of Santo Domingo. Formed almost 26 years ago by the great dominican musicians Crispin Fernandez, the big band has served as a platform for various generations of musicians that present themselves on diverse stages throughout the Dominican Republic, granting these students and musicians real world experience. The Big Band Conservatory is composed of a brass section of five saxophones, four trombones and five trumpets, and complemented by a rhythm section that consists of drums, percussion, piano, bass and guitar.
Four years ago the concerts were only given in the conservatory. In 2014 the Dominican Republic Jazz Festival invited the big band for the first time. They return this year for the third time, where the festival celebrates its 20th year. Special guests this year will include esteemed Berklee professor Bernardo Hernandez as well as others.
Bernardo Hernandez
Hernandez started playing the Venezuelan cuatro at the age of 8, and then switched to harp and eventually moved onto the classical guitar at age 12. By the age of 15, he was working regularly for Venezuela’s most famous TV shows, and executing tours in the Caribbean and Latin America, which deemed invaluable at such a young age. In 1977, Bernardo moved to Spain to study classical guitar with José Tomás and Manuel Gutierrez, and in 1980 he moved to the United States and graduated from Berklee College of Music with a degree in Jazz Composition and Arranging.
Over the years, he has written arrangements and performed with artists as diverse as; Cachao Lopez, Gloria Estefan, Bebo and Chucho Valdes, Pete “El Conde” Rodriguez, Ruben Blades, Ismael Miranda, Tito Gómez, Giovanni Hidalgo, Larry Harlow, Soledad Bravo, Vicky Carr…
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Berklee Global Jazz Institute Student Group
The Berklee Global Jazz Institute (USA) is a performance program dedicated to fostering creativity and musicianship through various disciplines, providing a comprehensive contemporary music environment. Students are encouraged to explore their creativity to the highest level, advance the power of music as a tool for the betterment of society, and connect musical creative thinking with the natural environment…
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JoAnne Brackeen
The capacity audience is mesmerized by the tall, slim, elegant, vivacious lady seated at and in command of the 9′ grand piano. Who is this mysterious legend, known as “the Picasso of Jazz Piano?” Who is this “lady of the sea,” whose domains are always “water side”?
She is none other than JoAnne Brackeen, described as “a visionary of extraordinary depth” by Tony Bennett, and “a pianist-composer of phenomenal capacity” by the late Bill Evans. Brackeen is consistently ranked by critics and jazz magazines as one of the best jazz pianists in the world, along with Keith Jarrett, McCoy Tyner, and Chick Corea. Her writing is remarkable for its creativity, stylistic range, emotional depth, and whimsical spirit. Her storied career does indeed invite parallels to Picasso; like the great visual artist, she has consistently defied convention, remaking herself and her art many times over. Her playing is virtuosic and wholly unpredictable, dense and richly detailed, rhythmically advanced and consistently, effortlessly swinging. “Outrageous,” “charming,” “classic,” “awesome” and “phenomenal” are just some of the oft-repeated adjectives chosen by critics and fans to describe…
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Lihi Haruvi
Born and raised in Israel, Lihi Haruvi is making her mark in the scene as a saxophonist and composer. She has performed on the top stages and festivals around the world including the Newport Jazz Festival, the Cork Guinness Jazz Festival, the Panama Jazz Festival, the Beantown Jazz Festival, Birdland NY, Givatayim Theatre, Jordan Hall, the Berklee Performance Center, and many more. She has performed with and studied with some of the world’s greatest musicians, including Danilo Perez, Jerry Bergonzi, George Garzone, Ken Schaphorst, Joe Lovano, John Patitucci, Terri Lyne Carrington and Marco Pignataro. She also performed with….
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Patricia Pereyra
Patricia Pereyra es una cantante Dominicana de fusión.
Basándose en diferentes géneros, sus interpretaciones, Nunca exentas de histrionismo dramático, presentan una Mezcla de elementos que van desde el jazz, blues, rock, al World music y muchas otras tendencias musicales de La modernidad clásica.
Siendo participe en numerosas Ocasiones en distintos festivales musicales a nivel nacional Como internacional.
Patricia Pereyra ha recibido Diferentes reconocimientos y recientemente fue homenajeada En los premios Casandra 2011 con un Casandra especial por sus Aportes a la cultura musical de la Republica Dominicana…
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Sabrina Estepan
Oriunda de Santiago, es cantante popular con estudios en el Conservatorio Nacional de Musica, que ha incursionado en diferentes generos musicales, como son: jazz, pop, disco, merengue, rock alternativo y musica clasica. Ha presentado en varias ocasiones la produccion “Las Divas del Jazz”; donde canta piezas hechas famosas por Ella, Billie, Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughan y Nina Simone y “Cibao Jazziao”, proyecto musical donde las composiciones de destacados cibaenos como Juan Lockward, Rafael Solano o Manuel Sanchez Acosta surcan el universo del jazz, el blues, scat y las armonias abiertas en perfecta mezcla con las baladas, bolemengues y merengues iconicos de esos compositores…
Tia Fuller
When Mack Avenue recording artist, Tia Fuller picks up her sax to play, something amazing happens as the reverberations of her musical elixir fill the room. Balancing both worlds of performance and education, it is understood why this touring artist and full-time professor (at the Berklee School of Music), has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music from Spelman College in Atlanta, GA, (Magna Cum Laude) and Master’s degree in Jazz Pedagogy and Performance from the University of Colorado at Boulder (Summa Cum Laude), was selected to be a member of the all-female band touring with R&B star, Beyoncé. As part of the I AM..Sasha Fierce and Beyoncé Experience World Tour promoting the superstar’s CD’s, where Tia has played in various venues throughout the US, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. She is a featured soloist on the Beyoncé Experience DVD (Me, Myself and I), I AM Yours I DVD (Wynn Theatre) and also appeared on number of major television shows, such as The Oprah Winfrey Show, Today Show, Good Morning America, BET Awards, American Music Awards and Total Request Live, and the 2010 Grammy Awards. As well as having performed as the featured soloist with Beyonce for President Obama at the White House…
Enerolisa Núñez
La portadora de tradiciones de mayor trascendencia de la música folclórica dominicana actual. Una voz singular, alta y cargada de lamentos, carcajadas e ilusiones, que se fue convirtiendo durante el tiempo en un fenómeno sin precedentes en la historia musical del país.
Su carrera como cantadora se consagra en la década de los 90, siendo parte de una impactante fusión de salve y merengue…
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Terri Lyne Carrington
GRAMMY® award-winning drummer, composer and bandleader Terri Lyne Carrington was born in 1965 in Medford, Massachusetts. After an extensive touring career of over 20 years with luminaries like Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Al Jarreau, Stan Getz, David Sanborn, Joe Sample, Cassandra Wilson, Clark Terry, Dianne Reeves and more, she returned to her hometown where she was appointed professor at her alma mater, Berklee College of Music. Terri Lyne also received an honorary doctorate from Berklee College of Music in 2003.
After studying under full scholarship at Berklee, with the encouragement of her mentor, Jack DeJohnette, Carrington moved to New York in 1983. For 5 years she was a much in-demand musician, working with James Moody, Lester Bowie, Pharoah Sanders, and others. In the late ‘80s she relocated to Los Angeles, where she gained recognition on late night TV as the house drummer for the Arsenio Hall Show, then again in the late ‘90s as the drummer on the Quincy Jones…
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Esperanza Spalding
Four time Grammy Award winner Esperanza Spalding has, in the past decade of her illustrious career (which also involves having performed at the Oscars, the Grammys, the Nobel Prize ceremony, and several times at the White House), continually and brilliantly married genres, pushed boundaries, and created groundbreaking work. By anyone’s measure, Spalding’s accomplishments at 31 years of age have already eclipsed those of artists half a century older, yet it’s blatantly obvious that her artistic journey is a lifelong one that we’ve just begun to collectively comprehend.
Spalding is, as a composer, bassist and vocalist, expansive, iterative, shape-shifting, open, and progressively innovative. A voracious and magnetic performer, she is attentively studious towards what the process of playing live–whether sharing a stage with her own revolving ensembles, Herbie Hancock, Stevie Wonder, Janelle Monae or Prince–presents to the structure of a song…
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Patricia Zarate
Chilean saxophonist Patricia Zarate has worked and studied in the music industry jazz studies, music therapy and ethnomusicology; has taught private saxophone Instruction as a Teaching Assistant at Howard University in Washington DC, and Ethnomusicology at University of Maryland. Has published music therapy articles in the Journal of Medicine of Chile, Journal of Pediatrics of Chile, Medical Journal of Panama, worked as music therapy intern at the New Hampshire Psychiatric Hospital, and in January of 2013 founded the 1st Latin American Music Therapy Symposium in Panama City. Has performed as a professional saxophonist with a variety of bands in diverse settings in USA, Latin America, Asia, Africa and Europe and in places such as Havana Jazz Festival, San Salvador Jazz Festival, Paris Conservatory, Lincoln Center (NYC), among others, and currently works as Outreach Coordinator (and is a member of the Advisory Board) for the Berklee Global Jazz Institute (at Berklee College of Music). Zarate has studied at Berklee College of Music, New York University, University of Maryland, Howard University, and Harvard University. She has presented her research about “Music as a Tool for Social Change” in USA, Latin America, and…
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Ingrid Jensen
Born in Vancouver and raised in Nanaimo, British Columbia, Ingrid Jensen has been hailed as one of the most gifted trumpeters of her generation. After graduating from Berklee College of Music in 1989, she recorded three highly acclaimed CDs for the ENJA record label, soon becoming one of the most in-demand trumpet players in the global jazz scene. After a teaching stint in Europe in her early twenties (as the youngest professor in the history of the Bruckner Conservatory in Linz, Austria), Ingrid settled in New York City in the mid-1990s where she joined the innovative jazz orchestras of Maria Schneider and Darcy James Argue.
More recently, Ingrid has been performing with the Grammy- winning Terri-Lyne Carrington and her Mosaic Project. Ingrid is a featured soloist on the Christine Jensen Jazz Orchestra’s JUNO award winning album Treelines (2011), and its successor, Habitat (2013). She has performed with a multi-generational cast of jazz legends ranging from Clark Terry to Esperanza Spalding…
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Linda Oh
Born in Malaysia, raised in, Perth, Western Australia, Linda began playing piano, bassoon and at fifteen dabbled on electric bass playing jazz in high school bands while playing a lot of Red Hot Chili Peppers. Linda studied at the W.A Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) where she graduated with first-class honors.
Linda completed her Masters at the Manhattan School of Music in 2008 studying with Jay Anderson, John Riley, Phil Markowitz, Dave Liebman and Rodney Jones. She now teaches the precollege division there and is involved in jazz videoconference master-classes for high-schools around the US. As an active teacher she was also involved in creating a series of lessons for the up and coming BassGuru app for iPad and iPhone.
Linda has performed with the musicians such as Joe Lovano, Steve Wilson, Vijay Iyer, Dave Douglas, Kenny Barron, Geri Allen, Fabian Almazan, and Terri Lyne Carrington…
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Geri Allen
Geri Allen is the quintessence of what a present-day mainstream jazz pianist should be. Well-versed in a variety of modern jazz styles from bop to free, Allen steers a middle course in her own music, speaking in a cultivated and moderately distinctive voice, respectful of, but not overly impressed with, the doctrine of conservatism that often rules the mainstream scene. There is little conceptually that separates her from her most obvious models — Keith Jarret, Herbie Hancock, and Bill Evans primary among them — yet Allen plays with a spontaneity and melodic gift that greatly transcend rote imitation. Her improvisational style is at various times both spacious and dense, rubato and swinging, blithe and percussive. It’s a genuinely expressive, personal voice; her music is an amalgam — honestly conceived, intelligently accessible, and well within the bounds of what is popularly expected from a jazz musician of her generation…
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