Arturo O'Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra Lead First of Five Free Events Opening the Soraya 2021-22 Season! 

The Soraya celebrates both its 10th Anniversary and Opening Night of the 2021-22 Season with a free performance-Grammy Award winner Arturo O'Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra performing his cross-border collaboration Fandango at the Wall.

"It's a delight to welcome back Arturo O'Farrill and his ensemble to The Soraya for this special Opening Night performance which is a most welcome gift to our loyal audiences," said Thor Steingraber, Artistic and Executive Director of The Soraya. "Fandango at The Wall offers a powerful statement about music as the transcendent and unifying force in the world and continues to bring together people in celebration of music without borders. I can't imagine a better way to celebrate our reopening."

Tickets for Arturo O'Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra are free but reservations are required and are available at www.thesoraya.org and by calling 818-677-3000. The Soraya is located at 18111 Nordhoff Street, Northridge, CA 91330.

In his second appearance at The Soraya, Afro Latin jazz master Arturo O'Farrill pours his heart and soul into a message of unity and tearing down walls. The son of musicians from Cuba and Mexico, O'Farrill has dedicated his life and music to inclusion and collaboration. His consciousness-raising jam session at the U.S.-Mexico border has become legendary, and it became the basis for his 2018 album Fandango at the Wall and subsequent 2020 documentary film. For that project, he brought together the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra with more than 60 musicians and a host of guest artists that included Antonio Sanchez and Mandy Gonzalez. At The Soraya, O'Farrill and his Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra will be joined by Mexican American ensemble the Villalobos Brothers, the Conga Patria Son Jarocho Collective and other special guests.

In celebration of our return to live performances, The Soraya offers a special gift to the public unlike any other in Los Angeles-five free concerts-that says welcome back and thank you to its loyal audience. In addition to the October 16 Opening Night performance, the other free concerts to be presented throughout the Fall season include the LA Philharmonic's Conductor Laureate Esa-Pekka Salonen leading the Colburn School Orchestra, and the annual holiday celebration Nochebuenawith Ballet Folklorico de Los Angeles and Mariachi Garibaldi de Jaime Cuéller.

These are just five of the nearly 50 performances that will be presented during The Soraya's 2021-22 joy-filled season, one that offers a wide expanse of performing artists who connect with audiences and transcend the human experience.

"When you enter The Soraya's doors on October 16 you know you will have made it-safe and sound, across the threshold into a new era, rejoining a community that embraces artistic excellence and the global expression of our joyful humanity," said Thor Steingraber, The Soraya's Executive and Artistic Director. "Reopening The Soraya is more than lighting the lights and unlocking the doors. It's an invitation to open your hearts, minds, eyes, and ears."

2021-22 returning artists Include Esa-Pekka Salonen & the Colburn Orchestra, La Marisoul, Branford Marsalis, Stewart Copeland, Martha Graham Dance Company & Wild Up conducted by Christopher Rountree, Joshua Bell, Marco Beltrami, Vadym Kholodenko, Aida Cuevas, David Sedaris, John Eliot Gardiner, Megan Hilty, Joshua Henry, conductor Richard Kaufman, and The Soraya's new Artist-in-Residence Etienne Gara.

Returning artists for the 2021-22 Season include La Marisoul and Aida Cuevas performing their Linda Ronstadt program; Branford Marsalis; Stewart Copeland in a unique performance of music of The Police, Deranged for Orchestra; Martha Graham Dance Company performing its Graham's iconic Appalachian Spring with Wild Up conducted by Christopher Rountree; David Sedaris; YAMATO - the Drummers of Japan; and a Broadway evening with Megan Hilty (Broadway and Hollywood Wicked; NBC's Smash) and Joshua Henry (Broadway Carousel, Tour Aaron Burr Hamilton). Also, The Count Basie Orchestra celebrates Ella Fitzgerald.

The Soraya's new Artist-in-Residence, Etienne Gara, participates in two much anticipated programs: Delirium Musicum Chamber Orchestra with Gara performing works of two contemporary composers - Philip Glass and Max Richter, each in response to Vivaldi's beloved Four Seasons. In a second program, film composer Marco Beltrami transforms Bach's preludes also performed by Delirium Musicum.

The Soraya offers a sneak-peak at the 2021-22 Crescendo series, a wide ranging eleven classical music concerts including Esa-Pekka Salonen & the Colburn Orchestra performing Shostakovich and Bruckner; the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra with Vasily Petrenko in a program of Britten, Elgar and the Grieg Piano Concerto with piano soloist Olga Kern; the LA Jewish Symphony with violinist Lindsay Deutsch in a program inspired by the Violins of Hope; pianist Vadym Kholodenko; Russian National Orchestra playing the Tchaikovsky Fourth; Academy of St Marin in the Fields with Joshua Bell in its eighth Soraya performance; the St. Lawrence String Quartet; and Sir John Gardiner conducting a Baroque program of Haydn and Mozart. Tickets for the Crescendo series go on sale in September.

This Season, audiences will have the opportunity to deepen their engagement with The Soraya by purchasing Memberships starting at just $10 per month which ensures a variety of ticketing, discount, and special events benefits throughout the year. The Soraya offers a home where diverse artists and audiences gather and create a thriving performing arts center that uplifts the spirits and forges a future for the greater LA community. Becoming a member will amplify patrons' access to benefits and more at thesoraya.org.

The Soraya's Safe and Sound pledge: We offer the basics of human bonding, a return to days when a community wasn't a herd, when social wasn't only social distance, and when your health and welfare included joy and celebration. At The Soraya, you can be Safe and enjoy the Sound!

The Soraya will offer performance-goers a variety of seating options to choose from including a fully vaccinated section, a socially distanced seating section, and some outdoor seating options. Our Fall season will be performed at 75% capacity to ensure we provide a variety of seating choices for our patrons. Masks will be required for all unvaccinated patrons.

Any updates and recommended guidance from our public health experts; further information and updates will be posted here.

About Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts (The Soraya)
The 2021-22 Season marks the 10th Anniversary for the celebrated Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts (The Soraya) located on the vibrant and diverse campus of California State University in the heart of Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley.

Under the leadership of Executive and Artistic Director Thor Steingraber, The Soraya continues its vigorous commitment to innovating, exceling, and amplifying access by offering a wide variety of performances that reflect LA's many distinctive communities and featuring new and original work from the Los Angeles region as well as artists from around the world. In 2020, The Soraya's online programs garnered attention from around the globe and from media such as The New York Times.

After enduring a year without live performances, the 2021-22 season will offer a joy-filled reunion featuring a vibrant program of nearly 50 classical and popular music, dance, theater, family, and international events that will further establish The Soraya as one of the top arts companies in Southern California that uplifts and inspires its audiences.

The Soraya's 10th anniversary gift to the community - five FREE concerts including the long-awaited Opening Night, a victory lap from conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, and ALL holiday programming including two performances of Nochebuena. Members at any level secure guaranteed seating to all Free concerts. Non-member reservations (limit 4 per household) will be taken on a first come-first-served basis starting August 24 at thesoraya.org.

SAT | OCT 16 | 8PM | FREE
Arturo O'Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra
Fandango at the Wall
with Special Guests the Villalobos Brothers and the Conga Patria Son Jarocho Collective
In his second appearance at The Soraya, Afro Latin jazz master Arturo O'Farrill and special guests pour their heart and soul into a message of unity and breaking down walls - real and imagined.

SAT | NOV 13 | 8PM | FREE
The Colburn Orchestra
Esa-Pekka Salonen, Conductor
Shostakovich Violin Concerto No. 1
Bruckner Symphony No. 6

SAT | DEC 4 | 3PM | FREE
Disney's FANTASIA Live in Concert
Richard Kaufman, Conductor
Disney's 1940 film in brilliant, restored color, accompanied by the CSUN orchestra conducted by Richard Kaufman

FRI | DEC 10 | 8PM | FREE
SAT | DEC 11 | 3PM | FREE
Nochebuena, Ballet Folklorico de Los Angeles, and Mariachi Garibaldi de Jaime Cuéller
In what has become a popular holiday tradition at The Soraya, the lively Nochebuena celebration returns live on stage with favorite Artists that are part of The Soraya family.

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