Renowned Jazz Pianist Arturo O'Farrill To Serve As The Greene Space's 2019 Artist-in-Residence

The Jerome L. Greene Performance Space, the live event space and broadcast studio of WNYC and WQXR, today announced that Grammy Award-Winning composer and jazz pianist Arturo O'Farrill will serve as its 2019 Artist-in-Residence.

The Greene Space's Artist-in-Residence program supports artists, curators, and collectives who are remaking culture in New York, presenting world premiere works, and providing audiences with access to live performances and insights into their passions and processes. During the span of his four-month residency, O'Farrill will present "Radical Acts & Musical Deviancy" - a series of conversations and transcultural, genre-defying musical performances featuring experiments in jazz, Afrobeat, Latin fusion, and genres that defy labels.

The event series kicks off on Monday, January 22 with an evening celebrating Afrobeat - a musical genre combining West African musical influences with the sounds and rhythms of American funk and jazz. Joining O'Farrill will be special guests, including singer-songwriter Wunmi, guitarist Bryan Vargas, vocalist and percussionist Tosin, and members of the Afro Latin Jazz Ensemble.

· The second installment on February 7 will explore piano solos, duets, and battles as O'Farrill navigates the tricky waters of playing alone and with musicians who are both friend and foe.

· For the third installment on March 12, O'Farrill will highlight the music of resistance and the sounds of social justice. The evening will feature performances of "The Offense of the Drum," which utilizes percussion instruments from all over the world to explore liberation and oppression, as well as "40 Acres and a Burro," "Three Revolutions," and selections from the "Little Tiny Walls Suite" - a project that interrogates immigration and identity.

· The fourth and final concert on April 24 will feature members of the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra performing a world premiere commissioned by The Greene Space in celebration of its 10th anniversary. The brand-new genre-bending composition is inspired by Arturo's political activism and meant to smash the concept of high and low culture in music, challenging the idea that classical and jazz music are elite or that folkloric or commercially driven music is of lower artistic merit.

"The Greene Space's residency hands the mic to ambitious New York City artists whose practice is to work with the audience, creating something new together in real time," said Jennifer Sendrow, Executive Producer, The Greene Space. "Arturo's music moves your feet and your heart, inspiring us to join him in joyfully imagining a more beautiful, equitable world and fighting to make it real. We can't wait to share more of his brilliant work as a composer, performer, and activist with audiences here in The Greene Space."

"The Greene Space is an awesome place to play. The piano, the intimacy, the street view, the hosts and staff are all the ingredients one needs for this spot to be what it is, a cultural treasure," said O'Farrill. "To be asked to be artist in residence is a huge honor and a chance to stretch artistically and do things that are impossible anywhere else. This is what artists need - venues that are driven by progress, vision, and fearlessness. I am very focused on using this opportunity to fuse my art, my conscience, and the huge respect that I have for the intelligence and integrity of the WNYC/WQXR listening audience."

"Arturo's expansive musical vision is not only dynamic and compelling, but it also serves to build bridges - between musical styles and genres and also between artists and audiences. His music has an almost uncontainable spirit," said Christina McInerney, President and CEO of The Jerome L. Greene Foundation.

O'Farrill is founder and artist director of the Afro Latin Jazz Alliance, a non-profit organization created to develop new audiences and advance the performance and educational aspects of big band Latin jazz. Born in Mexico and raised in New York City, he is the son of the late, great composer Chico O'Farrill and was educated at the Manhattan School of Music and the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College. He played piano in Carla Bley's Big Band from 1979 through 1983 and earned a reputation as a soloist in groups led by Dizzy Gillespie, Steve Turre, Freddy Cole, Lester Bowie, Wynton Marsalis and Harry Belafonte.

The Greene Space's first Artist-In-Residence was Dessa - rapper, composer, essayist, and author of the critically acclaimed memoir My Own Devices.

All performances begin at 7pm and will be available for live streaming at thegreenspace.org.

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