ARTURO O’FARRILL
Pianist & Musical Director, Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra

Grammy Award winning pianist, composer and educator Arturo O’Farrill — leader of the “first family of Afro-Cuban Jazz” (New York Times) — was born in Mexico and grew up in New York City. Son of the late, great composer Chico O’Farrill, Arturo was educated at Manhattan School of Music, Brooklyn College Conservatory 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.

In 2002, O’Farrill established the GRAMMY Award winning Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra (ALJO), and in 2007, he founded the nonprofit Afro Latin Jazz Alliance (ALJA).

O’Farrill has recorded numerous CDs, and can be heard on the soundtracks of two critically acclaimed films, Calle 54 and Chico and Rita. O’Farrill latest Latin GRAMMY nomination is for Last Night at Birdland (ZOHO) featuring the Chico O’Farrill Afro Cuban Jazz Orchestra. In 2008, O’Farril won a GRAMMY Award for Best Latin Jazz Album album for Song for Chico, (Zoho). O’Farrill has received commissions from the Apollo Theater, Meet the Composer, the Big Apple Circus, the Philadelphia Music Project, Symphony Space, and the Bronx Museum of the Arts. He has also composed music for films, including, Hollywoodland and Salud.

Mr. O’Farrill is on the faculty of Brooklyn College’s Conservatory of Music and the Manhattan School of Music. He is a Steinway Artist and artist-in-residence at the Harlem School of the Arts and Casita Maria Center for Arts & Education. In addition, he is a member of the Board of Governors of the New York chapter of NARAS.
Link - http://www.elmuseo.org/event/aljoconcert/

Link - http://afrolatinjazz.org/