NO COVER 5:00pm Show
Multi-instrumentalist Coqui Calzadilla and pianist Rodrigo García are in town from Havana, Cuba, with a program of Afro-Cuban favorites and originals. Members of storied musical dynasties in Cuba, these dynamic musicians bring a modern take to the cultural milieu of the island.
Rodrigo García Ameneiro is a pianist, composer, and music producer who works in different musical genres and styles, searching for his unique musical language in which improvisation and sound play a fundamental role. He has performed as a soloist with orchestras such as the Amadeo Roldán Youth Symphony Orchestra, the Matanzas Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra of Cuba, and the Havana Chamber Orchestra. He has performed in venues in Cuba and around the world and has won awards in numerous competitions in Cuba, Mexico, the United States and Europe. Rodrigo visited Minnesota as a visiting artist with CAYO in 2022; he presented in schools and senior living facilities and premiered a chamber work of composer Jorge Amado in various venues around the Twin Cities. Learn more at cayomusic.org.
Alejandro (Coqui) Calzadilla is a Cuban clarinetist, saxophonist, teacher, composer, and arranger as well as a professor at the National School of Music in Havana. His musical interests move between classical music, jazz, and Cuban music, with his first album being a synthesis of these styles. He is the director of the Lomarriba Jazz Quartet and the Palomonte Clarinet Quartet. As a performer, he has appeared as a guest soloist with the Cuban National Symphony Orchestra, the Havana Chamber Orchestra, the "Música Eterna" Chamber Orchestra, and the Las Villas Symphony Orchestra. He has performed in productions of "Carmen La Cubana" and "Vamos Cuba” across Europe, Asia, and the Caribbean. He has also performed in concert halls in Argentina, Venezuela, and the United States. In 2023, he was awarded a scholarship sponsored by the Cuban Young Art Fund that allowed him to record his first album. In 2024, he was chosen by the Preservation Hall Foundation to be the first international artist in residence, connecting Cuban music and traditional New Orleans jazz. Coqui has been a teacher and performer with CAYO (Cuban American Youth Orchestra) since 2020, connecting jazz and classical music forms for students across the United States and Cuba. Learn more at cayomusic.org.
