BAE Celebrates Jazz Appreciation Month with Elio Villafranca
April 27 @ 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
FREE
Join us for an unforgettable afternoon of jazz with Bronx Arts Ensemble artists and the renowned Elio Villafranca at the University of Mount Saint Vincent!
The event will take place in Smith Hall, located on the 2nd floor of Founders Hall.
More details to come.
ELIO VILLAFRANCA, born in the Pinar del Río province of Cuba, Steinway Artist, Grammy Nominated, and 2014 Jalc Millennium Swing Award! recipient pianist and composer Elio Villafranca was classically trained in percussion and composition at the Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana, Cuba.
Since his arrival in the U.S. in mid 1995, Elio Villafranca is at the forefront of the latest generation of remarkable pianists, composers and bandleaders. His concert Letters to Mother Africa was selected by NYC Jazz Record as Best Concerts in 2016. In 2015, Mr. Villafranca was among the 5 pianists hand picked by Chick Corea to perform at the first Chick Corea Jazz Festival, curated by Chick him self at JALC. Elio Villafranca’s new album Caribbean Tinge (Motema), received a 2014 Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik Nomination by the German Records Critics Award, as well has been selected by JazzTimes and DownBeat magazines for a feature on their very competitive section Editor’s Pick. He also received a 2010 Grammy Nomination in the Best Latin Jazz Album of the Year category. In 2008 The Jazz Corner nominated Elio Villafranca as pianist of the year. That year, Mr. Villafranca was also honored by BMI with the BMI Jazz Guaranty Award and received the first NFA/Heineken Green Ribbon Master Artist Music Grant for the creation of his Concerto for Mariachi, for Afro-Cuban Percussion and Symphony Orchestra. Finally, his first album, Incantations/ Encantaciones, featuring Pat Martino, Terell Stafford, and Dafnis Prieto was ranked amongst the 50 best jazz albums of the year by JazzTimes magazine in 2003.
Over the years Elio Villafranca has recorded and performed nationally and internationally as a leader, featuring jazz master artists such as Pat Martino, Terell Stafford, Billy Hart, Paquito D’Rivera, Eric Alexander, and Lewis Nash, David Murray, and Wynton Marsalis among other. As a sideman Elio Villafranca has collaborated with leading jazz and Latin jazz artists including: Chick Corea, Jon Faddis, Billy Harper, Sonny Fortune, Giovanni Hidalgo, Miguel Zenón, and Johnny Pacheco among others.
This year, 2017 Elio Villafranca received The Sunshine Award, founded in 1989 to recognize excellence in the performing arts, education, science and sports of the various Caribbean countries, South America, Centro America, and Africa. He is based in New York City and he is a faculty member of Temple University, Philadelphia, The Juilliard School of Music, New York University, and Manhattan School of Music in NYC.
Google Map Location
Driving
From the West (New Jersey, Pennsylvania):
- Take the George Washington Bridge. Exit for Henry Hudson Parkway North. Northbound, take Exit 22, West 253rd Street. Turn right at the stop sign and bear right over the parkway to Riverdale Avenue. Follow Riverdale Avenue to 263rd Street. Turn left into the campus.
From the South (Brooklyn, Staten Island, Manhattan):
- Head north on Manhattan’s West Side Highway to the Henry Hudson Parkway North. Northbound, take Exit 22, West 253rd Street. Turn right at the stop sign and bear right over the parkway to Riverdale Avenue. Follow Riverdale Avenue to 263rd Street. Turn left into the campus.
From the East (Long Island, Queens):
- Take the Throgs Neck or Whitestone Bridge to the Cross Bronx Expressway. Exit at Rosedale Ave/Bronx River Parkway. Take the Bronx River Parkway North to the Mosholu Parkway. Turn right at the light and take the Mosholu to the Henry Hudson Parkway South. Take Exit 22, West 254th Street. Turn left at the stop sign and continue one block to Riverdale Avenue. Turn right and follow Riverdale Avenue to 263rd Street. Turn left into the campus.
- Or, take the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge (formerly the Triborough Bridge) to the Major Deegan Expressway to Exit 11, Van Cortlandt Park South. Bear right off the expressway to Broadway. Turn right on Broadway to 261st Street. Turn left on 261st Street to Riverdale Avenue. Turn right and follow Riverdale Avenue to 263rd Street. Turn left into the campus.
From the North (Upstate NY, New England):
- Take the NY State Thruway, the Taconic State Parkway, Sprain Brook Parkway, Bronx River, or Hutchinson River Parkway South to the Cross County Parkway West. Continue to the Saw Mill River Parkway South to the Henry Hudson Parkway South. Take Exit 22, West 254th Street. Turn left at the stop sign and go one block to Riverdale Avenue. Turn right and proceed north on Riverdale Avenue to 263rd Street. Turn left into the campus.
Public Transportation
NYC Subway:
- A train (to Inwood – 207th Street), walk to Broadway and Isham Street, then take the Bx7 bus to Riverdale Avenue and 263rd Street.
- 1 train (to Van Cortlandt and 242nd Street), get off at 231st Street, then take the Bx7 or Bx10 bus to Riverdale Avenue and 263rd Street.
MTA Bus – Local and Express Routes:
- Local Bronx Buses: Bx7 and Bx10 pick-up and drop-off at the campus gate (Riverdale Avenue at 263rd Street).
- Manhattan/Riverdale Express Buses: BxM1 and BxM2 pick-up at Riverdale Avenue and 261st Street and drop-off at the campus gate (Riverdale Avenue and 263rd Street).
- View NYC Subway and Bus Schedules.
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Council and District 11 Councilmember Eric Dinowitz and NYC Department of Cultural Affairs’ FY2025 Cultural Development Fund (CDF).
