Kennedy Center’s Arts Across America featuring Felipe Salles

Monday, October 26, 2020 4:00 p.m. ET
Live online via our Facebook page and the Kennedy Center's Facebook, YouTube and website

As part of its current “Arts Across America” online performance series, the Kennedy Center presents “Revisiting The New Immigrant Experience” on Monday, October 26 at 4 p.m. Selected by the UMass Fine Arts Center, composer, multi-reed player and conductor, Felipe Salles, will revisit his multimedia orchestral jazz work The New Immigrant Experience in an intimate duo setting with pianist Nando Michelin, playing and talking about how the themes and ideas in the piece were inspired by the 700,000 “Dreamers ” currently protected by DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. 

The New Immigrant Experience, which was created through a grant from the John Simon Guggenheim foundation, was originally written for the 18-piece Felipe Salles Interconnections Ensemble. The powerful multi-media work 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.

The Kennedy Center is the nation’s designated cultural art center. It is its responsibility to showcase artists from communities and regions across the country. In this extraordinary time of uncertainty due to a global pandemic, and as the nation faces its history of systemic racism and oppression, this promise to celebrate all who contribute to culture of the U.S. becomes paramount to addressing inequity and ensuring the livelihood of our artists and art forms. Through “Arts Across America,” they seek to offer a platform to exemplify togetherness through the arts and utilize their digital platforms to connect and uplift the stories and art of communities from across the country, while also providing support to artists.