PLEASE NOTE: THE BRIAN LYNCH & MARACA CONCERT HAS BEEN CANCELLED FOR SATURDAY, AUGUST 19th, 2023.
The series ramps up for what promises to be a busy fall season with three outstanding concerts beginning with: Spanish guitar master Javier Villafuerte; performing together for the first time, trumpet player Brian Lynch and Cuban flutist Orlando Maraca Valle; and, finally, a rambunctious dance-a-thon from Montreal-based Colombian musician Ramón Chicharrón
he International Latino Cultural Center of Chicago (ILCC) announced today the August concerts for their year-round Chicago Latino Music Series.
Concerts include a Spanish guitar recital featuring the works of such legendary Spanish composers as Isaac Albéniz and Enrique Granados by Javier Villafuerte at Instituto Cervantes (August 16); the return to the United States of Cuban flutist Orlando Maraca Valle in his first concert alongside Grammy® Award-winning trumpeter Brian Lynch (August 19 at Constellation); and an all-out party with Colombian artist Ramón Chicharrón, whose fusions of Caribbean rhythms and urban pop have made him one of the most popular live artists in the Montreal tropical music scene (August 30 at Martyrs).
For more information, visit latinoculturalcenter.org.
CHICAGO LATINO MUSIC SERIES AUGUST 2023 CALENDAR
JAVIER VILLAFUERTE
Co-produced with the Instituto Cervantes
When: Wednesday, August 16 At 7:00 PM
Where: Instituto Cervantes, 31 W. Ohio St.., Chicago
Admission: Suggested donation of $10
Born in Córdoba in 1978, Villafuerte is the director of the Guitar Orchestra “Guitarodia” of Córdoba and a member of the Orquesta de Plectro de Córdoba, with whom he has toured in Spain, France, Japan, Hungary and Portugal, has recorded several albums and has participated in the film Iberia by Carlos Saura. He has conducted the guitar orchestras of the Superior Conservatories of Córdoba and Málaga, and has composed several works for Plectrum Orchestra and Quintet with guitar, awarded at International Composition Festivals.
THE BRIAN LYNCH-MARACA VALLE SEXTET
When: Saturday, August 19. Doors open at 8 pm; show starts at 8:30 pm
Where: Constellation, 3111 N. Western Ave.
Admission: $40, general public; $35, ILCC members. Tickets go on sale in early August
After playing alongside acclaimed Cuban flutist and Irakere veteran Orlando Maraca Valle on his Latin Jazz All Stars and after Maraca’s appearance on trumpeter Brian Lynch’s Grammy® Award winning big band album The Omni-American Book Club, both musicians join forces on a brand new project for their first concert together in the United States. This will also be Maraca’s first ever trip to the United States post-pandemic.
A honored graduate of two of the jazz world’s most distinguished academies, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers and the Horace Silver Quintet, Brian Lynch received wide acclaim during his long tenures with Latin Jazz legend Eddie Palmieri and straight ahead master Phil Woods. He has been a valued collaborator with jazz artists such as Benny Golson, Toshiko Akiyoshi, and Charles McPherson; Latin music icons as diverse as Hector LaVoe and Lila Downs; and pop luminaries such as Prince. As a bandleader and recording artist he has released over 20 critically acclaimed CDs featuring his distinctive composing and arranging, and has toured the world at the helm of various ensembles reflecting the wide sweep of his music.
World-famous and versatile Cuban flutist Orlando Valle Maraca returns to the United States as a special guest of La Moderna Tradición Orchestra and Brian Lynch’s sextet. Winner of multiple Grammy and Cubadisco awards, in his 40-year professional career, Maraca has toured more than eighty countries with his groups and collaborating as a flutist, composer and arranger in multiple musical projects, from Irakere and Cubanismo to Wynton Marsalis, Brian Lynch and Al Di Meola and numerous other prominent World Music and Jazz artists. His musical repertoire ranges from the most typical of Cuban charanguera music to the most avant-garde form of jazz as witnessed once again by his recent collaborations with the Orquesta Aragón (2021), the Septeto Santiaguero and El Canario (2018) as well as with Brian Lynch (2020) and Ramón Valle (2018), all multi-award-winning artists. Taking advantage of the invitation from the National Flute Association to participate in their 51st convention in Phoenix, AZ, Maraca will offer 4 exclusive concerts in California before leaving for the Midwest to continue his tour.
RAMÓN CHICHARRÓN
When: Wednesday, August 30 At 8:00 PM
Where: Martyrs, 3855 N. Lincoln Ave.
Admission: $20, general public; $15, ILCC members
Born in Medellin, Colombia and a Montrealer for nearly 15 years, the multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriter Ramón Chicharrón promotes a heartfelt blend of genres and identities. With his distinctive voice, Ramón combines a seemingly endless supply of catchy hooks and singalong melodies with instrumentation inspired by Latin and Caribbean rhythms and contemporary urban pop. While his EP Merecumbé (2018) was composed in the Costa Rican jungle, the songs of his latest album, Pescador de Sueños, were composed between Montreal and Miami and represent a blend of identities, and the contrasts between the city and nature, tradition and modernism, dreams and reality. Since first performing in 2015, Ramón Chicharrón has become one of the most popular live artists in the Montreal tropical music scene and has been steadily gaining a foothold in the Canadian and international world music markets. Since beginning to tour in 2016, the group has performed at more than 100 events across Canada, the United States and Colombia.
ABOUT THE ILCC
The International Latino Cultural Center of Chicago is a Pan-Latino, nonprofit, multidisciplinary arts organization dedicated to developing, promoting, and increasing awareness of Latino cultures among Latinos and other communities by presenting a wide variety of art forms and education including film, music, dance, visual arts, comedy, theater and culinary arts.
The Center prides itself for its outstanding multidisciplinary local and international cultural programming which spans Latin America, Spain, Portugal, and the United States.
Born out of the Chicago Latino Film Festival, The International Latino Cultural Center of Chicago also produces other programs, including the Chicago Latino Music Series (formerly known as the Latino Music Festival), which is celebrating its 17th edition this year; Film in the Parks, also in its 17th season; the monthly Reel Film Club, already in its 15th year; and many others. All in all, the audience has grown from 500 people in 1985 for the first Chicago Latino Film Festival to more than 70,000 (Latinos and non-Latinos) who enjoy the year-round multidisciplinary cross-cultural exchanges offered by the Center.
