Nazareth College Arts Center Series celebrates Latinx Heritage Month with Gina Chavez
The Nazareth College Arts Center opens the 2019-2020 series of touring performances with Latin-pop singer and songwriter Gina Chavez in the Jane and Laurence Glazer Music Performance Center on Saturday, October 5 at 8 p.m.
THE PERFORMANCE
Gina Chavez is blending the sounds of the Americas with tension and grace. A 12-time Austin Music Award winner, including 2019 Female Vocalist and 2015 Austin Musician of the Year, Gina Chavez explores the true meaning of "Americana" as she and her five-piece band take audiences on a high-energy journey through Latin America and beyond. She performs original, bilingual music that mixes cumbia, bossa nova, vintage pop, reggaeton, and folk.
Chavez's bilingual album, Up.Rooted, topped the Amazon and Latin iTunes charts following a feature on NPR's All Things Considered and her NPR Tiny Desk concert has more than 850,000 views. Her national TV debut is now airing on PBS stations throughout the U.S. Her Spanish-language anthem, "Siete-D," won the grand prize in the John Lennon International Songwriting Contest and recounts her experience volunteering in a gang-dominated suburb of San Salvador where she and her wife co-founded Niñas Arriba, a college fund for young Latinas. The fund celebrated its first two college graduates in 2016. Chavez is currently back in the States after returning from a 12-country tour as cultural ambassadors with the U.S. State Department.
"Gina Chavez is not only an amazing performer, but she is an activist as well" said Rita Mannelli, executive director of the Arts Center. "Her music explores longing, faith, beauty, and sacrifice, and we are pleased to bring her to Rochester during Latinx Heritage Month."
Chavez is currently touring her newest album Lightbeam, which explores the journey and hardships she and her wife have undergone to be able to publicly express their love for each other as Catholic Latinx women. Revered by critics, the album treads "slow-burn soul and uptempo R&B" (NPR).
TICKETS
Tickets to see Gina Chavez are $25-$40 and are available online at artscenter.naz.edu, by phone at (585) 389-2170, or in person at the Nazareth College Arts Center Box Office at 4245 East Avenue, Rochester, N.Y. 14618.
Regular box office hours are Monday-Friday, 11 a m.- 5 p.m. and 11 a.m. until curtain time on performance days.
For More Information
Michelle Shippers | Marketing & Publicity Manager | 585-389-2093 or mshippe0@naz.edu |
Nazareth University is an inclusive community of inspired learners, educators, and changemakers who for nearly 100 years have been driven by a bold commitment to action, empathy, equity, and leading innovation for the common good. Impact experiences are at the heart of a Nazareth education, preparing each student to discover within themselves the potential to cultivate positive change in their life's work, in any career field, and in a world that is constantly evolving and infinitely interconnected.
Our broad academic offerings present a range of study options typical of larger universities, yet achieved in our supportive campus culture. Nearly 2,100 undergrad and 600 graduate students enroll in degree and certificate programs and engage in collaborative, transformative learning experiences, preparing for the professions and society of today and tomorrow. In a learning community that purposefully integrates liberal arts and professional programs, Nazareth University graduates are able to launch a lifetime of impactful leadership in communities and workplaces near and far.
