Omar Sosa Quarteto AfroCubano
BRIC House Ballroom
647 Fulton Street
(Enter on Rockwell Place)
Brooklyn
Cuban composer-pianist-bandleader Omar Sosa began studying percussion and marimba in a music conservatory at age 8, and piano as a teenager at the prestigious Escuela Nacional de Música followed by the Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana. Among his influences, Omar cites traditional Afro-Cuban music, European classical composers including Chopin, Bartok, and Satie; jazz greats Monk, Coltrane, Parker, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea; and the pioneering Cuban jazz group Irakere. Annually performing upwards of 100 concerts on six continents, Omar has appeared in major venues throughout the world, and received a lifetime achievement award from the Smithsonian Associates in Washington, DC in 2003 for his contribution to the development of Latin jazz in the United States. He will perform with his virtuosic Quarteto AfroCubano.