Last Friday I went to the Spanish Orchestra with several other Rose Scholars at Bailey Hall. I thought the music was very dynamic and active, like the Latin music I have heard before. It was interesting that the pianist spoke Spanish occasionally and many of the audience responded him. More just than great instrument performance, there were three amazing singers and one of them recently joined the Orchestra, according to the introduction. I also saw people randomly start to dance with the music on the hallway and I enjoyed the joyful and beautiful music.

In my free time I also listen to some Latin music and I like Shakira’s music very much. In fact, I just went to see Zootopia tonight and Shakira did an amazing theme song for it! I hope to learn more about Spanish music and their culture. Look forward to more opportunities about music!

All through I school I  played in jazz bands, and this was something that actually took up a ton of my time – so when I got to Cornell I decided I was no longer going to pursue it. I had lost touch with the genre, and had never really been bothered by it. I signed up for the Spanish Harlem Orchestra event thinking that it would be a string orchestra – I had never heard of this band or their music. But as soon as I stepped into Bailey and saw the setup on stage, I was hit with a wave of familiarity – I knew they were a jazz band even before they hit their (very impressive) first note. Their pieces were intriguing, and even gave some latin takes on American jazz classics. It was an immersive experiences, surrounded by Latin sounds, Spanish lyrics, the distinctive beat of the bongos and the steady clicks of claves and the cowbell. They played a mamba and a cha cha and swing dancers danced in the aisles – the music was certainly dance worthy.

This event was a very pleasant surprise and their efforts to preserve that Spanish Harlem sound are admirable. Not many young people today get interested in jazz, especially such a remote subculture of the genre, but they really made it come to life.

Friday night I attended the Spanish Harlem Orchestra’s performance in Bailey Hall. I was really looking forward to this event because I had never attended a live performance of an orchestra, especially one so well known. Immediately after the music started, couples and people around the hall begun to dance, and I can certainly understand why! The salsa music was extremely infectious. I think everyone in the room, was swaying in some way to the music.

Listening to the orchestra preform was incredible, they were very interactive with the audience, and enthusiastic. You could tell they were very passionate about what they do. While sitting there listening to this performance and watching people dance, I felt like i was transported into another culture entirely, and welcomed into it. I hope I have another opportunity to attend a performance as incredible as this one.

If you haven’t been to a live performance before, I would certainly recommend it. There is nothing like hearing the full sounds from each instrument all at once. Recordings cannot even begin to capture the richness of the music and passion given off by each member as they play.

A fair amount of the Rose Scholars events I go to are concerts at Bailey. Firstly, they’re usually at a time of the week that I can go to. They’re also great because the program will give us tickets to go see some amazing performances. But above all, I love going because music is one of the most important aspects of my life.

The previous musical performances I had seen at Bailey were lovely classical programs. As a pianist myself, I really enjoyed hearing the familiar pieces played by professionals. However, there’s a certain atmosphere at classical concerts. It’s a more serious, sedate sort of event, in which everyone is there to enjoy the music but you feel like if you cough everyone will glare at you. The music itself is so calming and beautiful that just by sitting in your chair you begin to doze a little in that warm hall, letting the music surround you like a warm blanket.

Last night’s concert couldn’t have been more different. The Spanish Harlem Orchestra came on stage and, from the first note of their opening song, I felt the music hit me like a wave of sound. The salsa flowed through the room, filling everyone with its toe-tapping, head-bobbing delightful melodies. This concert was really fantastic because not only did people really enjoy the performance in their seats, but all around the aisles and balconies there were also people dancing and having a great time.

While dance and the atmosphere are such an integral part of the salsa experience, the music itself is no easy feat to perform either. The complexity of the rhythms is such that I was surprised anyone could understand the sheet music they were playing, much less perform it with such gusto. As often is the case with salsa, the rhythm syncopates and jumps around off beat, until it suddenly snaps on beat, somehow continuously keeping perfect time while meandering everywhere. The orchestra’s jazz-influenced sounds added depth to their traditional salsa ensembles, with ballads and instrumental tracks rounding out the solid setlist they brought to the stage. When the three vocalists hit those chords with perfect, resounding harmonies, or when the bass player’s pizzicato echoed in the hall, I felt chills with how much I enjoyed the music.

This was the most fun I’ve had at a concert this year, and I’m so glad I got to be a part of such a fantastic experience.

The Spanish Harlem Orchestra, vividly rhythmic and sensationally jazzy, released last night some incredible musical vibrations ripple through the crowd of swaying bodies and tapping feet. It was a sensuous and tempting concert that few couples could withstand the dynamic and lively beats. The presentation of such a buoyant form in a concert hall (that lured one euphorically into salsa, merengue, and bolero) teased us all, so that even the elderly could not resist the natural movements of their body, standing up elbow-wide greeting the beats. Salsa-jazz connoisseurs could do little but break the confines of their cushioned seats and turn the aisles of Bailey Hall into the dance floor we all longed for. There was one striking comment that the pianist declared: this music in its historically, culturally, and rhythmically rich complexity deserves to exist in a concert hall just as this, just as any other esteemed classic hit. And it very much does, but it does even more. This music calls for more than pure spectatorship, but an engagement with its very core from the body of the instrument into the body of the viewer-dancer, so that the viewing area becomes an extension of the stage itself, and there is nothing more rewarding, generous, and beautiful than to invite the onstage experience into the experience of your listeners.