Venue: Moss Arts Center at Virginia Tech, Blacksburg
Organizations: Chucho Valdés
Date: Saturday, May 10, 2025
Time: 7:30 - 9:00 PM
Event Types: Music, Arts & Theatre
Cost:
Adult Tickets (based on seat location):
• Category A: $85.00
• Category B: $65.00
• Category C: $40.00
Students with ID and Youth 18 & Under: $10.00
• Category A: $85.00
• Category B: $65.00
• Category C: $40.00
Students with ID and Youth 18 & Under: $10.00
Description:
The Moss Arts Center at Virginia Tech presents Chucho Valdés and Irakere 50 Concert in their final performance of the 2024/2025 season on Saturday, May 10, 2025.
World-famous pianist, composer, and arranger Chucho Valdés leads a tribute to 50 years of Irakere, his band that revolutionized Afro-Latin jazz with its bold fusion of Afro-Cuban ritual music, Cuban popular music, jazz, rock, and a splash of classical music.
Valdés, a seven-time Grammy and six-time Latin Grammy winner and recipient of a Latin Recording Academy Lifetime Achievement Award, offers a vivid retrospective of his work with Irakere. Featuring a nine-piece ensemble, Irakere 50 is a new iteration of the legendary ensemble, with brilliant performers hand-picked from the next generation of Cuban musicians.
The tribute is also a celebration of Valdés, Irakere's founder. To offer a vivid retrospective of his work with Irakere, Valdés will lead a nine-piece ensemble.
Cuban pianist, composer, and arranger Chucho Valdés is the most influential figure in modern Afro-Cuban jazz. In a career spanning more than 60 years, both as a solo artist and bandleader, Mr. Valdés has distilled elements of the Afro-Cuban music tradition, jazz, classical music, rock, and more, into a deeply personal style.
Winner of seven GRAMMY® and six Latin GRAMMY® Awards, Mr. Valdés received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Latin Academy of Recording Arts & Science. He was also inducted into the Latin Songwriters Hall of Fame.
In 2024, Mr. Valdés celebrated Irakere 50, a tribute to the Cuban band that, with its bold fusion of Afro-Cuban ritual music, Cuban popular music, jazz, rock, and a splash of classical music, marked a before and after in Latin jazz. The historic concert at the Arsht Center in Miami reunited Mr. Valdés with two Irakere mainstays: reedman and composer Paquito D’Rivera and trumpeter and composer Arturo Sandoval.
Born in a family of musicians in Quivicán, Havana province, Cuba, on October 9, 1941, Dionisio Jesús “Chucho” Valdés Rodríguez has distilled elements of the Afro-Cuban music tradition, jazz, classical music, and rock into an organic, deeply personal style.
Links:
• https://chucho-valdes.com/
• https://www.facebook.com/valdes.chucho
• https://www.youtube.com/@ChuchoValdesoficial
• https://www.instagram.com/chuchovaldesmusic
Adults tickets range from $40.00-$85.00 and tickets for Virginia Tech student tickets with ID and youth ages 18 & under are $10.00 each.
To purchase tickets online, visit: https://tickets.artscenter.vt.edu/online/mapSelect.asp?doWork::WSmap::loadMap=Load&createBO::WSmap=1&BOparam::WSmap::loadMap::performance_ids=34047F12-EC45-4CB2-9C33-C976DE9950DE.
This performance will last approximately 90 minutes with no intermission.
The Moss Arts Center at Virginia Tech is located at 330 Turner Street NW in Blacksburg, VA.
For more information, visit: https://artscenter.vt.edu/performances/chucho-valdes-irakere-50.html or https://www.facebook.com/artscenteratvt or https://www.instagram.com/artscenteratvt/ or call 540-231-5300.
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