NewsSubscribe

As part of its current “Arts Across America” online performance series, the Kennedy Center presents UMass Department of Music & Dance professor Felipe Salles in a performance titled “Revisiting The New Immigrant Experience” on Monday, October 26 at 4 p.m.

The Kennedy Center launched “Arts Across America” to spotlight community arts leaders, unique regional arts styles, and organizations and artists focused on social justice. The 20-week program supported by Facebook began in August and features performances every weekday afternoon at 4 p.m. ET through December 11, 2020 on Facebook, YouTube and the Kennedy Center website. Mondays are dedicated to highlighting artists like Salles who are based in New England and Northeast region.

A composer, multi-reed player and conductor, Salles was selected by the UMass Fine Arts Center to represent the university by performing music from his multimedia orchestral jazz work, "The New Immigrant Experience." The concert will take place in a duo setting with pianist Nando Michelin, and will include insights into the creation of this ambitious work. More information and performance links can be found at the fineartscenter.com event page.

Created through a grant from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, "The New Immigrant Experience" was originally written for the 18-piece Felipe Salles Interconnections Ensemble. The powerful multi-media work was inspired by the 700,000 “Dreamers” currently protected by DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. The piece, which was premiered at the historic UMass Old Chapel, combined music and interviews with nine Dreamers about growing up undocumented, encounters which heavily influenced Salles’ musical vision. A recording of the work released this year received 4.5 stars out of 5 from DownBeat magazine, and was also featured on a NPR’s Alt-Latino program in February.
 

A native of São Paulo, Brazil, Salles is Associate Professor of Jazz and African-American Music Studies at UMass Amherst. He has worked and recorded with prominent jazz artists including Randy Brecker, David Liebman, and Lionel Loueke, and has toured extensively in Europe, the Americas, India and Australia. Salles’ awards include a 2018 Guggenheim Foundation Composition Fellowship, a 2015 NALAC Arts Grant, a 2009-2010 French American Jazz Exchange Grant, and a 2005-2006 CMA New Works grant, among others. His music has been performed by some of the top ensembles in the world, including The Metropole Orchestra, UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra, Cayuga Chamber Orchestra, among others. Salles has released seven critically acclaimed recordings as a leader of The Felipe Salles Group and The Felipe Salles’ Interconnections Ensemble, including "The New Immigrant Experience" released in March 2020.

More information and the full archive of Arts Across America performances can be found at www.kennedy-center.org/digitalstage/arts-across-america/.