First tour in Mexico of Brazilian singer-songwriter, Aiace.

Cultural Connections Latin America (CCLA) is pleased to announce the tour in Mexico of Aiace, a Brazilian singer-songwriter whose music blends Afro-Bahian culture with pop, jazz, and electronic elements. From Salvador, Bahia, Aiace and her quartet will share the joy of their music in Aguascalientes, Mexico City, Xalapa, and Zacatecas.

This tour has been made possible thanks to the collaborative work promoted by the CCLA network, an initiative that creates room for dialogue to strengthen professional ties, showcase contemporary Latin American music creation, and promote artistic mobility in the region. Its aim is to multiply business opportunities and support the professional development of the sector through the exchange of best practices and the creation of specific collaborative projects.

Aiace is a success story of the network, since partner proposed her for Conexión Sónica, a virtual festival promoted by the network during the pandemic to generate audiovisual content to disseminate Latin American music. This led to Aiace winning virtual support from Ibermúsicas to produce a docu-concert, a live session that combines an interview where she explains the origins of her music and the cultures in which it developed. The following year, the network helped obtain invitation letters, enabling her to apply for and secure international mobility support from the Ibermúsicas program, covering her airfare. These same alliances allowed for scheduling and producing Aiace’s first tour in Mexico.

From CCLA, we want to thank everyone who has joined this initiative and now all of you who help amplify her music and concerts. 

  • Here is Aiace’s docu-concert (available on YouTube)
  • Here are the details of her dates in Mexico:
    • Nov 7: Sótano Stallworth (Aguascalientes, Instituto de Cultura de Aguascalientes).
    • Nov 9: Zinco Jazz Club (Mexico City, Rodarte Management)
    • Nov 14: Festival Internacional de Jazz y Blues de Zacatecas (Zacatecas, Instituto Zacatecano de Cultura)
    • Nov 16: Cervecería La Brújula (Xalapa, Veracruz).

Participation in the International Seminar “Music and Business in Latin America”.

This Tuesday, November 5 will be the pre-launch of the Music and Business program, which will take place in the first quarter of 2025. For the event, a seminar will be organized in which Pablo Solís will participate, along with María Isabel de los Ríos and Eulícia Esteves in an international panel of experts in the Music Industry, Culture and Public Policies in Latin America.

Escola Música & Negócios is in charge of launching the Certification in Music Business, in Spanish, for all of Latin America, with the experience of certifying 5 thousand students in Brazil, together with the Genesis Institute PUC-Rio, of the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro.

The music industry in Latin America has experienced remarkable growth in terms of its revenues and the international recognition of its artists. According to the IFPI Global Music Report, recorded music revenues in Latin America will grow by 19.4% in 2023, a figure higher than the global growth rate.

This is the tenth consecutive year of revenue growth in the region. Much of this is due to the urban genre, which has established itself as the most representative genre in the region.

The International Music and Business seminar will be held on Tuesday, November 5, 2024 at the following time:

  • 5pm (Mexico)
  • 7pm (Colombia)
  • 8pm (Brazil)
+ Info / Register

Members of CCLA Achieve South American Tour for Miguel Zenón

Miguel Zenón, the acclaimed Puerto Rican saxophonist and winner of the 2024 Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album, will share his music in Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile thanks to the collaborative work between members of the Cultural Connections Latin America (CCLA).

This tour has been made possible through the networking efforts of Luis Ponte (AR), Luis Daniel Iturralde (BO), and Felipe Greene (CL), who collaborated to host Zenón Quartet  with Miguel on saxophone, Matt Penman on double bass, Luis Perdomo on piano, and Henry Cole on drums.

The band will arrive “where the land ends,” Chile, to headline the Chile Jazz Festival on October 17, 18, and 19 in the cities of Santiago, Viña del Mar, and Ovalle, respectively. They will then continue their tour to the “country of silver,” Argentina, where Zenón will give a masterclass on the 21st and perform two concerts at Café Berlín on October 22 and 23 in Buenos Aires. Finally, they will land in the “heart of the Altiplano,” Bolivia, offering a masterclass and a concert on October 25 as the closing event of NunaFest, the festival of Nuna Theater in La Paz.

Zenón received the Grammy for Best Latin Jazz Album of 2024 for “El Arte del Bolero II,” a work where he shares credits with Luis Perdomo on piano. This is his first award from this academy, after several nominations, undoubtedly a well-deserved recognition of the legacy and career of one of the most relevant jazz musicians today.

Daniel, Felipe, and Luis are founding partners of the CCLA network and have been great allies since its inception. From the coordination of CCLA we want to congratulate them on the achievement that this tour represents.

Successful Completion of “Connections Without Borders”

On Sunday, August 25, 2024, Conexiones Culturales de Latinoamérica, in collaboration with Western Arts Alliance and Noroeste Movimiento, hosted a binational performing arts gathering that brought together professionals from Mexico and the United States. The event took place at the Tijuana State Center for the Arts, where 100 professionals from both sides of the border gathered to exchange ideas, share projects, and explore collaboration opportunities in a region divided by a border wall.

The gathering brought together a diverse group of participants, including artists, academics, presenters, and representatives from festivals and cultural venues. Mexican organizations in attendance included Fundación Ópera Tijuana A.C., Incendio Producciones, Tijuana Hace Teatro, Ramona, Lux Boreal, Conjunto Santander de Artes Escénicas, and Bloodlust Wine Bar. From the American side, there were representatives from Live Nation, Grand Performances, LA Phil, Yerba Buena Gardens Festivals, San Diego State University, Stanford Live, Western States Arts Federation, among others.

This event was held as a pre-conference activity for the annual Western Arts Alliance conference, a member-driven organization that brings together performing arts professionals from across the western United States. The conference took place in San Diego, California, from August 26 to 29.

The binational gathering in Tijuana laid the groundwork for future collaborations and provided a platform for exchanging information that enhanced mutual understanding between the cultural ecosystems of both countries. At the close of the event, commitments were made to maintain ongoing communication, fostering the development of future collaborative projects.

Conexiones Culturales de Latinoamérica is thrilled with the success of this gathering and will continue working towards the continuity and growth of alliances and collaborative projects between Mexico, Latin America, the United States, and Canada.

Check out the full event agenda here.

Lanzamiento del Festival Conexión Sónica

La red Conexiones Cultural de Latinoamérica presenta del 20 al 26 de septiembre de 2021 su primer proyecto colaborativo: Conexión Sónica. Este festival virtual mostrará 7 propuestas musicales de América Latina que fusionan la herencia cultural ancestral de la región con expresiones contemporáneas. 

Para esta primera edición, se mostrarán proyectos contemporáneos de Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Panamá y Paraguay. Se presentarán videos inéditos en formato de docu-conciertos, donde además de la música, los intérpretes hablarán sobre los orígenes de los instrumentos y los contextos sociales donde se desarrollan estas músicas. La transmisión será gratuita y se difundirá simultáneamente por los canales de comunicación de los socios de la red Conexiones Culturales de Latinoamérica (CCLA). 

Conexión Sónica hace un viaje que conecta la tradición musical de diferentes pueblos de América Latina con las expresiones musicales contemporáneas. El proyecto se alimenta de la riqueza y vigencia de los instrumentos tradicionales que en nuestra región han sido utilizados en la historia musical por pueblos indígenas antes de la era colonial y por las comunidades africanas que por la fuerza llegaron a nuestras costas. Más allá de la fusión de géneros musicales, Conexión Sónica apunta a la fusión de temporalidades, de periodos históricos, de diálogos culturales intergeneracionales.

En los conciertos de Conexión Sónica vemos a las guitarras eléctricas, los beats electrónicos y los bajos profundos, encontrarse con la tambora, las zampoñas y el charango. En las entrevistas de la serie, son los propios músicos quienes nos indican la naturaleza de esos vínculos. Esos que llamamos instrumentos tradicionales son recipientes de un legado histórico que se actualiza y se transforma, son elementos que queremos destacar como parte de la construcción de las identidades nacionales y de la enorme diversidad de las comunidades en América Latina. Son el vehículo que nos lleva a viajar a las raíces culturales pero también a las salas de conciertos y las pistas de baile.

Este proyecto es resultado del diálogo y trabajo colectivo, construido a partir de la red CCLA, y cuenta con el apoyo del programa Ibermúsicas.