Jazz Festival

Arturo O’Farrill, pianist, composer, and educator, was born in Mexico and grew up in New York City. Arturo’s professional career began with the Carla Bley Band and continued as a solo performer with a wide spectrum of artists including Dizzy Gillespie, Lester Bowie, Wynton Marsalis, and Harry Belafonte.

In 2007, he founded the Afro Latin Jazz Alliance as a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the performance, education, and preservation of Afro Latin music. Learn more about ALJA here: http://www.afrolatinjazz.org

In December 2010 Arturo traveled with the original Chico O’Farrill Afro Cuban Jazz Orchestra to Cuba, returning his father’s musicians to his homeland.  He continues to travel to Cuba regularly as an informal Cultural Ambassador, working with Cuban musicians, dancers, and students, bringing local musicians from Cuba to the US and American musicians to Cuba.

Arturo has performed with orchestras and bands including his own Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra and Arturo O’Farrill Sextet, as well as other Orchestras and intimate ensembles in the US, Europe, Russia, Australia, and South America.

An avid supporter of all the Arts, Arturo has performed with Ballet Hispanico and the Malpaso Dance Company, for whom he has written three ballets. In addition, the Alvin Ailey Dance Company has in its repertoire a ballet entitled “Open Door,” choreographed by Ron Brown to several of Arturo’s compositions and recordings. Ron Brown’s own Evidence Dance Company commissioned Arturo to compose New Conversations, which premiered in the Summer of 2018 at Jacob’s Pillow in Becket, MA.

Arturo has received commissions from Meet the Composer, Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Philadelphia Music Project, The Apollo Theater, Symphony Space, the Bronx Museum of the Arts, the Young Peoples Chorus of New York, Columbia University and the New York State Council on the Arts.

Arturo’s well-reviewed and highly praised “Afro-Latin Jazz Suite” from the album CUBA: The Conversation Continues (Motéma) took the 2016 Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition and the 2016 Latin Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album. His powerful “Three Revolutions” from the album Familia-Tribute to Chico and Bebo was the 2018 Grammy Award (his sixth) winner for Best Instrumental Composition. Arturo’s album “Four Questions” (ZOHO) is the first to embody all original compositions, including the title track, which features the brilliant orator Dr. Cornel West. This album won a Grammy in 2021. Most recently, in February of 2023, Arturo was awarded his eighth Grammy for the album “Fandango at the Wall in New York.”

Arturo was Artist in Residence for The Greene Space in New York City, for which he created a four-concert series including a newly commissioned composition. The series title was “Radical Acts and Musical Deviancy.”

In 2020 Arturo’s weekly concerts with the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, dubbed “Virtual Birdland,” top the list of 10 Best Quarantine Concerts in the New York Times.

Arturo is Professor of Global Jazz Studies and Assistant Dean for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), has been honored as a Steinway Artist for many years, and is a Blue Note Records Recording Artist.

To learn more about Arturo O’Farrill, please visit his website.  

Dabin Ryu is an award-winning jazz pianist and composer based in New York City, originally hailing from Seoul, South Korea. She boasts an impressive educational background, having graduated from renowned institutions such as Berklee College of Music with a Bachelor of Music (BM) degree, followed by earning her Master of Music (MM) from the Manhattan School of Music. Currently, she continues her musical pursuits as a participant in the Artist Diploma program at the prestigious Juilliard School. Throughout her illustrious career, Dabin has had the privilege of collaborating with world-renowned artists, including Ralph Peterson, David Virelles, Billy Harper, Jonathan Blake, Godwin Louis, Neal Smith, Rodney Jones, and Jaleel Shaw, among others. Her versatility and skill as a pianist have led her to lead her own band and contribute to various projects such as Ralph Peterson’s Next Gen Big Band, The SNJO, and Happi Medium, to name a few. Notably, Dabin shines as both a bandleader and composer, showcasing her talents in guiding musical ensembles and crafting original compositions. Her leadership has been exemplified through tours, most notably with the Dabin Ryu Quintet during their successful 2019 tour in Seoul, South Korea. Dabin’s contributions to the jazz community and her dedication to her craft continue to leave an indelible mark on the world of music.

Imani Rousselle is a Texas-born vocalist with a love for interpreting and delivering the message of lyric. Whether covering jazz standards or contemporary compositions, her voice invites you to follow along as she fills the spaces between the silence with carefully crafted sound. Imani’s musical journey started at Concord Missionary Baptist Church in Dallas, Tx in the lambs ministry choir. As soon as children were able to speak, they were able to join the choir and this is where Imani’s love for music began. As she moved through the different church choirs, church leaders heard something powerful in her voice and she was eventually invited to join the praise team that led the choir and congregation in worship. During this time, Imani also sang in school choirs as well as the Children’s Chorus of Greater Dallas where she developed an affinity for European classical vocal music. She soon began attending the prestigious Booker T Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts and became a leader in the choir while there. It was at Booker T. that jazz educator Kent Ellingson invited Imani to sing with the school’s award winning vocal jazz ensemble and thus began her exploration of jazz as a means of personal expression. 

After graduating, Imani left Texas to attend Columbia College Chicago where she obtained her Bachelor’s Degree in Voice as well as a double minor in environmental science and management. While in Chicago she was named a Luminarts Cultural Foundation Fellow. It was in Chicago where Imani met Jackson Shepard, a fellow CCC student, and soon after joined his band, Human Bloom. Human Bloom has since performed extensively and released singles and an album that have gained lots of traction in the experimental/pop-fusion listening spheres, and are set to be releasing more music later in 2025. In Chicago Imani performed at the legendary Jazz Showcase, The Green Mill, Buddy Guy’s, Sleeping Village, Subterranean and others, becoming a deeply rooted part of the Chicago music scene.

Imani is currently based in New York City, having graduated the Manhattan School of Music with a master’s degree in Jazz Voice in the spring of 2021. At MSM she was under the amazing tutelage of Stefon Harris, Jean Baylor, Buster Williams, Marc Carey, Jo Lawry, Theo Bleckman, Ingrid Jenson, and Damien Sneed. Since moving to New York just a few months before the global shutdown, Imani has been able to sing on stages such as the world famous Dizzy’s Jazz Club, Smalls Jazz Club, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Clements Place, The Schomburg Center in Harlem, The Joyce Theater, The Jazz Club and more. Rousselle’s talents have taken her across the globe, most recently as the feature vocalist in the tour of SW!NG OUT spearheaded by tap dance phenom Caleb Teicher, and in LaTasha Barnes’ Bessie winning production of The Jazz Continuum. She has also performed alongside great musicians including Stefon Harris, Casey Benjamin, Marc Carey, Jaleel Shaw, Cory Henry, Ben Williams, Roger Boykin, Jon Thomas, Jillian Grace, Gabby Garo, and Domo Branch. Imani is now working toward the completion of several music and interdisciplinary projects, and is excited to continue performing and sharing in a world with renewed fervor for connection and creation.

A Obed Calvaire, a native of Miami and of Haitian descent is a graduate with both a master and bachelor degree of music from one of America’s premiere private music conservatories in the nation, Manhattan School of Music. He received his bachelor’s degree in 2003, completing the undergraduate degree requirements in three years and receiving his master’s in 2005.

Mr. Calvaire has performed and recorded with artists such as Wynton Marsalis, Seal, Eddie Palmeri, Vanessa Williams, Dave Holland, David Foster, Mary J. Blige, Stefon Harris, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Peter Cincotti, Music Soulchild, Nellie McKay, Yellow Jackets, Joshua Redman, Steve Turre, and Lizz Wright to name a few. He has also performed with large ensembles such as the Village Vanguard Orchestra, Metropole Orchestra, The Clayton Brothers, The Mingus Big Band, RoyHargrove big band, and the Bob Mintzer Big Band.

Currently, Obed Calvaire can be found playing with the Jazz At Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, Dave Holland, Monty Alexander, Sean Jones, Yosvany Terry, Mike Stern among others.

Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Summer Jazz Academy is the premier high school program for advanced high school jazz students. This two-week program, designed and instructed by a select team of faculty, serves as a rigorous training institute for 42 of the most advanced and dedicated high school jazz students (grades 9–12). Students will apply by audition and participate in one of two big bands, perform in small combos, receive private lessons, and experience classes in aesthetics, culture, history, performance practice, and pedagogy. In addition to this educational component, the institute will also feature several public performances featuring the student combos, student big bands, along with the members of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra at Bard College during the summer of 2025.