Carnegie Hall Kicks Off Season-Long NUESTROS SONIDOS Festival During Latin Heritage Month

This fall, Carnegie Hall is delighted to join the nationwide Latin Heritage Month celebration as it kicks off Nuestros sonidos—a season-long festival shining a light on Latin culture in the US—with three concerts featuring world renowned Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel leading the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

On Tuesday, October 8, the orchestra opens the Hall's 2024–2025 season with a program that includes baritone Gustavo Castillo in Ginastera's Estancia, and more. The following night's concert on October 9 includes the New York premiere of a new work for cello and orchestra (co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall) by Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz—holder of Carnegie Hall's Debs Composer's Chair for the 2024–2025 season—as well as Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Op. 61 with narration in Spanish by internationally renowned actress María Valverde. On the final performance of the orchestra's series on October 10, Mexican singer-songwriter Natalia Lafourcade—winner of 18 Latin GRAMMY Awards and four GRAMMY Awards—joins as special guest.

Ahead of the Nuestros sonidos festival kickoff, Carnegie Hall Citywide—the Hall's free concert series with events across all five boroughs of New York City—presents GRAMMY Award–nominated Afro-Cuban singer and composer Daymé Arocena on Friday September 20 in Madison Square Park. Arocena creatively confronts traditional notions of Latin pop by blending Afro-Caribbean beats, modern pop, and neo-soul vocals with endless range. This concert is the culmination of the Procession of Angels for Radical Love and Unity, a collaborative initiative by Madison Square Park Conservancy and Harlem Art Park, conceived by artist María Magdalena Campos-Pons.

On Saturday, September 21, Carnegie Hall presents a free, interactive festival prelude event, Family Day: Baila! Canta! Celebra! The open house, recommended for families with children ages 3–10, features live music, dance, and fun musical activities in both English and Spanish in the Hall's Resnick Education Wing.

Nuestros sonidos festival concerts throughout the 2024–2025 season feature musical styles that range from salsa, bachata, and Latin jazz to reggaeton, hip-hop, classical, and much more. The festival's offerings highlight the game-changing contributions and constant evolution of Latin music from the 1930s to today, with a special focus on genres that have developed and thrived in the US, including vital contributions from the Caribbean.

Additional festival highlights at Carnegie Hall throughout the season include:

• Soprano Lisette Oropesa—one of the most in-demand lyric coloratura artists today—is joined by pianist Ken Noda for an evening of songs that features works by Cuban composers such as Joaquín Nin, Ernesto Lecuona, Eduardo Sánchez de Fuentes, Jorge Anckermann, and Gonzalo Roig (October 23, Zankel Hall).
• The “Queen of Reggaeton” Ivy Queen—Billboard's 2023 Women in Music Icon, who first emerged on the music scene in the 1990s with a powerful ethos of empowerment and self-determination—makes her Carnegie Hall debut in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage on November 20. The output of this pioneering singer, rapper, songwriter, and actress spans not only reggaeton, but also salsa, bachata, hip hop, and more.
• One of the most exciting rising artists in Latin music today, Bogotá's colorful Monsieur Periné makes their Zankel Hall debut on February 22 with a program featuring an upbeat, swinging blend of Latin American and European flavors. These Colombian stars won the Latin GRAMMY 2023 Award for Best Alternative Album. Their smart, irresistible sound has struck a chord with diverse audiences worldwide.
• Colombia's legendary Grupo Niche makes its Carnegie Hall debut on April 17 in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage. Based in Cali, Colombia, often called the "Salsa Capital of the World,'' this band has been creating genuine classics since the late 1970s. Songs like “Cali Pachanguero,” “Una Aventura,” and “Gotas de Lluvia” are enduring staples on today's concert stages, and the group's most recent successes—including Latin GRAMMY Awards for Best Salsa Album (2020 and 2023) and Best Latin Tropical Album (2021)—show their remarkable evolution and vitality.
• Additional performances in Zankel Hall include GRAMMY Award-winning, genre-crossing group Quetzal from East Los Angeles grounded in Chicano traditions, in a program that traces the history of Mexican music in the United States (November 15); Chilean jazz vocalist and Latin GRAMMY Award nominee Claudia Acuña in a program of treasures from the Latin American songbook in the intimate Zankel Hall Center Stage (February 7); a double bill with celebrated vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth and Mexico's Tambuco Percussion Ensemble, including a new work by Gabriela Ortiz, as well as music by Leopoldo Novoa, Jorge Camiruaga, and Mario Lavista (January 25); American Composers Orchestra, under the baton of Tito Muñoz, in a program featuring music from various parts of Latin America highlighting its influence on jazz and classical music in the US, including a world premiere by Colombian harpist and composer Edmar Castañeda as well as a new work by Brazilian composer and singer Clarice Assad with interludes by Brazilian percussion ensemble Harlem Samba (March 6). Celebrated Mexican pianist and composer Arturo O'Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra round out the Zankel Hall programming with a special performance featuring genre-blending Afro-Cuban jazz singer Daymé Arocena; Cuban rapper, poet, and singer Telmary; and internationally renowned Haitian songstress and dancer Emeline Michel. (April 11) and GRAMMY Award-winning Cuban sensations Cimafunk and La Tribu conclude the Nuestros sonidos concerts in Zankel Hall (May 22).
• Cuban-American soprano Elena Villalón performs a program with esteemed pianist Craig Terry that includes songs by Cuban composer Ernesto Lecuona and Mexican composer María Grever (November 13, Weill Recital Hall); Nicaraguan-American soprano Gabriella Reyes' performs a recital with pianist Andrés Sarre featuring works for voice and piano by various Latin American composers, including Alberto Ginastera, Silvestre Revueltas, Carlos Guastavino, Ernani Braga, as well as arrangements of traditional Nicaraguan folk songs (April 29, Weill Recital Hall).
• 2024–2025 Debs Composer's Chair Gabriela Ortiz curates an Up Close performance (January 27, Weill Music Room) with Ensemble Connect—a two-year postgraduate fellowship program for stellar young professional musicians—featuring the world premiere of a new work by Carolina Noguera (commissioned by Carnegie Hall).

Carnegie Hall has invited a Curatorial Council of four Latin music experts to help share their passion and knowledge, working with the Hall's programming team to create this extraordinary celebration. Members of the Curatorial Council are: Marisol Berríos-Miranda—a Puerto Rican ethnomusicologist and Affiliate Professor of Music and Lecturer in the Honors Program at the University of Washington, Seattle; Leila Cobo—a Fulbright scholar who is Billboard's Chief Content Officer for Latin/Español; Josh Kun—a cultural historian, author, curator, and MacArthur Fellow; and Dr. Chris Washburne—a GRAMMY Award-winning musician and Professor of Music at Columbia University, Chair of the Music Department. In this video, the festival's Curatorial Council discusses the history of Latin music in the United States and at Carnegie Hall.

Free concerts are presented in New York City neighborhoods as part of the Carnegie Hall Citywide free concert series; Well-Being Concerts featuring Camila Meza (November 17) and Magos Herrera (May 4), hosted bilingually in Spanish and English, are presented in the Weill Music Room of Carnegie Hall's Resnick Education Wing, plus a performance by pianist Omar Sosa and kora player Seckou Keita, along with percussionist Gustavo Ovalles (February 1) is offered in Zankel Hall Center Stage, hosted by Krista Tippett, host of the popular podcast On Being; and online concerts and exclusive content streaming on Carnegie Hall+ round out the Hall's programming.

In spring 2025, the Nuestro sonidos celebration will further extend beyond the walls of Carnegie Hall to include public events hosted by leading cultural institutions in New York and beyond, offering an expansive exploration that includes visual art exhibitions, dance performances, film screenings, and more.

Among the festival partner organizations are: 1580 Enterprises, Abrams ComicArts/Megascope, Afrofuturism Art and STEM, American Composers Orchestra, Americas Society, Belongó, Black Speculative Arts Movement, Blacknuss Network, Bronx Music Hall, The Children's Art Carnival, Department of Music and The Center of Jazz Studies at Columbia University, Dieselfunk Studios, Flushing Town Hall, Harlem Stage, Hispanic Star, Jazzmobile, The Juilliard School, Museum of Jewish Heritage-A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Sawdust, New York City Center, New York Film Academy, New-York Historical Society, Renegade Performance Group, Roho Artes Studios, SambaSalsa Entertainment, Society of Illustrators, WQXR/New York Public Radio, Writers Read, YCC Productions, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, and Ysolstar.

For the most up-to-date information on performances at Carnegie Hall and partner institutions, visit carnegiehall.org/NuestrosSonidos over the coming months.