Music News: Grammy Winner Arturo O'Farrill At PS 217 Tuesday & DeCoster Release Party Wednesday Night

Arturo O’Farrill. (Photo: Arturo O’Farrill)

Are you out and about this afternoon? Will you be voting at PS 217?

Come see Arturo O’Farrill, winner of the 2016 Grammy Award for best Instrumental Composition, at PS 217 at 3:30 this afternoon.

(PS 217 is located at 1100 Newkirk Avenue, between Coney Island Avenue and Westminster Road.)

O’Farrill and The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra performed his award winning composition, The Afro Latin Jazz Suite, on their most recent release, Cuba: The Conversation Continues, which was recorded in Cuba. This is O’Farrill’s third Grammy award.

(O’Farrill appears in a recent Ditmas Park Corner article about local saxophonist Roy Nathanson.)

PS 217 is one of three NYC schools where the Afro Latin Jazz Academy of Music provides intensive, small group instruction on violin, trumpet, saxophone, guitar, percussion and keyboard. The Academy is brought to PS 217 through funding from the NYC Council, and Council member Mathieu Eugene will be there today to celebrate and present a citation to O’Farrill.

O’Farrill is the founder of the Afro Latin Jazz Alliance, a not-for-profit dedicated to the performance, education, and preservation of Afro Latin music. PS 217 students will meet O’Farrill today and perform for him, showing the progress they have made through his program.

PS 217 is one of the largest and most diverse elementary schools in NYC, with more than 30 different languages spoken by its families. “The arts are a universal language” states Principal Franca Conti. “It’s very exciting to see our children from all over the world being exposed to this vibrant genre of music.”

Ditmas Park Band DeCoster At Manhattan’s Bitter End On Wednesday

Ditmas Park rock band DeCoster will be hosting a release party for their new CD, Walking In The Sun, at 8pm this Wednesday. The party is at the Bitter End, located at 147 Bleecker Street in Manhattan.

Ditmas Park band DeCoster playing in front of Bar Chord on Cortelyou Road. (Photo: DeCoster)

The front man for DeCoster is the classically trained guitarist Paul DeCoster, who writes music and lyrics with an 80’s pop rocky feel, punctuated by the earthy Afro/Latin beats of percussionist Rich Kulsar.

Tickets will be available at the door tonight for $5. Come on out to support your neighbors and fellow artists!