The Latin Jazz Youth Ensemble Annual Alumni Concert and Fundraiser

January 11, 2014
7:30 pm

The Latin Jazz Youth Ensemble returns to the Brava Theater Center for an alumni concert and fundraiser.

 BRAVA is pleased once again to begin the New Year with these exciting young musicans on our Mainstage! Don't miss this Latin jazz explosion and Bay Area treasure!

The Latin Jazz Youth Ensemble of San Francisco, or LJYE, is a performing group of talented musicians ages ten to 18. The group was founded by Musical Director John Calloway, a San Francisco Unified School District music educator and city Arts Commissioner; Managing Director Arturo Riera, and Co-Director Sylvia Ramirez,whose son Daniel Riera played flute in the original group. Their repertoire features Latin jazz classics and original compositions at a level that has landed them gigs at the San Jose Jazz Festival, the KCSM Jazz Festival, KGO Radio, Yerba Buena Gardens, SF Museum of Modern Art, Paramount's Great America and the world-renown jazz club, Yoshi’s. The LJYE has shared the stage with legendary performers such as the great Cuban bassist, Cachao; piano virtuoso Chuchito Valdes; Latin jazz heavyweights Poncho Sanchez and Clare Fischer; and the Grammy Award-winning Spanish Harlem Orchestra.
 
The LJYE mission is to preserve the traditions of Latin jazz and Afro-Cuban music by teaching it to youth and to create role models for aspiring student musicians.  The LJYE was chosen as one of the top youth bands in Northern California in the 2004 YouthQuake competition and won First Place (Youth Music) in Carnaval San Francisco in 2002, 2004, 2005 and 2006. The Ensemble is honored to be Youth Artists-in-Residence at San Francisco's Yerba Buena Gardens Festival since 2005.  The group has recorded two CDs, "LJYE Live at Yoshi's," (2004) and "Generaciones" (2010) featuring the great Cuban percussionist, Armando Peraza.

Many of the LJYE members are on the road to becoming professional musicians having displayed the passion, talent and dedication needed to make it in the performing world. Several students have won prestigious national awards including Downbeat Student Awards; ASCAP Young Composer Awards; and National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts Awards. 
 
What the critics are saying:
"Far from a kiddie show, this group of about 15 young musicians, who range in age from 10 to 18 years old, display a serious professionalism." - Mary Ellen Hunt, San Francisco Chronicle
"...an incubator for the future of Afro-Caribbean jazz and popular music in the SF Bay."- Jesse "Chuy" Varela, Latin Beat Magazine