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Tag: Carnaval de Barranquilla en Miami

Carnaval de Barranquilla en Miami

Among the buzz of an adoring crowd, Joe Arroyo says he liked it

One expected to see Joe Arroyo in the dressing room back-slapping the students and posing for pictures. He had just shared the stage with them, sat through a tremendous performance of his most famous songs, and received a letter of gratitude signed by all of them.

But he wasn’t around. He also didn’t go back to his front row seat. The crowd may be been too much.

The bus was waiting to take the Berklee crew back to the hotel. Energy was high from the performance. Some of the students were visited in Miami by family and friends. There was a South Beach night to visit before an early morning flight back to Boston. The bus was filling up and it looked like Arroyo had left the building without saying goodbye.

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Baby it’s cold outside, but Berklee heats Miami’s Gusman Center

Read the first post from Miami.

It’s unusual to be shivering in Miami, but the locals keep telling us this February has been an unusually cool month.  Orchestra members spent most of their day indoors, including trumpet player Andrew Koskela and professor Bernardo Hernandez, rehearsing for three hours at the Gusman, then retreating to a dressing area upstairs to wait for show time. A stack of Little Caesar’s pizzas was delivered, and, later, Krispy Kreme donuts.

Between rehearsal and showtime, the singers sat in a hallway under, well, Floridian orange light for a quick take of Arroyo’s “A Mi Dios Todo Le Debo.” From left in the video: Luis Figueroa, Michelle Walter, Romulo Lander, Jose R. Mellado, and Leonardo Tatis.

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It’s a family affair: A sister and two Berklee brothers produce Miami’s Colombian carnaval

Here in Miami, it’s clear that Yolanda Ossa-Eslait is in charge. But, without her brothers’ connections, the 2010 Carnaval de Barranquilla en Miami wouldn’t have had an 18-piece Berklee orchestra performing as the centerpiece of a multi-day, city-wide event. (Learn more about the trip.)

Brothers Marino, Berklee class of 2009, and Juan, a current student, wanted to show the people in Miami that Latin music is just as hot 1,500 miles north, and arranged a trip south for a group led by professor Bernando Hernandez.

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