XXI Dominican Republic Jazz Festival
Novembre 8 to 12 /2016
The twentieth edition of the Dominican Republic Jazz Festival this year, will be celebrated for five nights of the month of November. These free concerts will begin for the first time in Santo Domingo on Tuesday the 8th of November. Sponsored by the Dominican Ministry of Tourism, the shows will follow up on Wednesday the 9th in Santiago city, then hosted in Puerto Plata on Thursday the 10th, and last but not least, concluding on both Friday the 11th and Saturday the 12th in Cabarete.
Celebrating 20 years of one of the most important cultural events on the North Coast, this year the Festival is dedicated to women, promoting through every presentation the eradication of violence against women and encouraging gender equality. Every city and every stage will incorporate a prominent music and jazz woman artist.
Established shows for the opening of the DRJF 2016 in Santo Domingo will be the Berklee Global Jazz Institute next to North American pianist Joanne Brackeen, and in Santiago at Centro León we will te outstanding Israeli saxophone player Lihi Haruvi.
Santo Domingo press conference during the month of September will be reporting on the international artists and Dominican locals that will take part in this year’s program. Join us on the web and stay tuned on all the foregoing activities for the great celebration of the 20 years of jazz in the Dominican Republic.
October floods Jazz in Sosua
Fridays 14th, 21st, 28th of October, and Thursday 3rd of November, Pedro Clisante street in Sosua will be warming up for the DRJF 2016. Each night we’ll get to enjoy the artistic presentations that will make Sosua blossom of music and art.
In the goal of promoting and developing this touristic area through cultural aspects, the DRJF has organized weekly shows, which adhere to the objectives set out by the board of the festival: to promote gender equality and the eradication of violence against women.
“We want to make emphasis on our Sosua events, not only displaying this town as one of the most inclusive of the island for its beautiful beaches and aquatic sports, but also demonstrating the richness of its amazing luxury hotels, in its outstanding quantity of artists, in the magnificent Casa de Arte (House of Art) that holds up free programs in diverse disciplines, in its excellent artisans, in the immense variety of restaurants, in the magic of Cabarete, and in the people’s hospitality immersed in happiness.” mentioned Maria Elena Gratereau, director of the Dominican Republic Jazz Festival, who then added that all of this wouldn’t be possible if it wasn’t for the help of the Ministry of Tourism.
Itinerant exposition of 20 years of visual history
For the months of September, October and November, studio artist Adolfo Faringthon will be in charge of an itinerary exposition that will portray the history and graphic identity that has characterized the festival along its 20 years. The exposition will debut in September at the Sala de Exposiciones of the French Embassy in Santo Domingo, and will continue onto October at Casa de la Cultura in Puerto Plata, and will present in its final location Casa de Arte de Sosúa, from November till January 2017.
Faringthon, who has been managing for sixteen years all of the festival’s visual art, has already started working on the investigation and curatorship of this year’s project.
This exposition will feature the most complete collection of the 20th edition festival tee-shirts, the accreditation passes, the emblematic photographies, scenography sections of several editions, the full poster collection, original autographed pieces by artist Arturo Sandoval, Dave Valentin, and Giovanni Hidalgo, and more, as well as an 7 minute audiovisual presentation. The exposition will be held at Casa de Arte of Sosua from the month of November 2016 till January 2017.
Visits and learning in Fedujazz
In the month of June we had great musician friends visiting to share experiences , and they provided marvelous workshops to our FEDUJAZZ students. With great participation and enthusiasm from these little music pupils, we felt a fresh air of learning and happiness, in between improvisations, rhythm, and a musical atmosphere of new horizons and possibilities.
We would like to thank Marco Pignataro and Daniela Schächter for their visit to the Fedujazz students and for sharing a fun and fascinating Jazz class!
