Jazz on the Plaza: Arturo O’Farrill at Saint Peter’s Church – New York, NY

Jazz on the Plaza — New York City’s favorite community-based jazz festival — proudly welcomes the Arturo O’Farrill Group.

This week we welcome:

Arturo O’Farrill (piano)

Join us every Thursday throughout the summer during the lunch hour, 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m., through September 25, for an exciting line-up of jazz acts!

Each week over the course of the summer months, The Arts and Architecture Conservancy hosts a series of jazz concerts for the Midtown community. This historic program is made possible in partnership with BXP and Grand Central Partnership, and is presented in the outdoor plaza at 601 Lexington / Saint Peter’s Church.

These midday concerts are free of charge and open to the general public. Many people bring a lunch or purchase it from one of the several area vendors. While every effort is made to host Jazz on the Plaza outdoors, in the event of inclement weather the concert may be moved indoors to the Sanctuary of Saint Peter’s Church, where guests are asked not to bring food or opened beverages.

About Arturo O’Farrill

ARTURO O’FARRILL, pianist, composer, and educator, was born in Mexico and grew up in New York City. Arturo’s professional career began with the Carla Bley Band and continued as a solo performer with a wide spectrum of artists including Dizzy Gillespie, Lester Bowie, Wynton Marsalis, and Harry Belafonte.

In 2007, he founded the Afro Latin Jazz Alliance as a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the performance, education, and preservation of Afro Latin music. Learn more about ALJA here: http://www.afrolatinjazz.org

In December 2010 Arturo traveled with the original Chico O’Farrill Afro Cuban Jazz Orchestra to Cuba, returning his father’s musicians to his homeland. He continues to travel to Cuba regularly as an informal Cultural Ambassador, working with Cuban musicians, dancers, and students, bringing local musicians from Cuba to the US and American musicians to Cuba.

Arturo has performed with orchestras and bands including his own Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra and Arturo O’Farrill Sextet, as well as other Orchestras and intimate ensembles in the US, Europe, Russia, Australia, and South America.

An avid supporter of all the Arts, Arturo has performed with Ballet Hispanico and the Malpaso Dance Company, for whom he has written three ballets. In addition, the Alvin Ailey Dance Company is touring a ballet entitled “Open Door,” choreographed by Ron Brown to several of Arturo’s compositions and recordings. Ron Brown’s own Evidence Dance Company has commissioned Arturo to compose New Conversations, which premiered at Jacob’s Pillow in Becket, MA.

Arturo has received commissions from Meet the Composer, Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Philadelphia Music Project, The Apollo Theater, Symphony Space, the Bronx Museum of the Arts, the Young Peoples Chorus of New York, Columbia University and the New York State Council on the Arts.

Arturo’s well-reviewed and highly praised “Afro-Latin Jazz Suite” from the album CUBA: The Conversation Continues (Motéma) took the 2016 Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition and the 2016 Latin Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album. His powerful “Three Revolutions” from the album Familia-Tribute to Chico and Bebo was the 2018 Grammy Award (his sixth) winner for Best Instrumental Composition. Arturo’s current album “Four Questions” (ZOHO) is the first to embody all original compositions, including the title track, which features the brilliant orator Dr. Cornel West.