From Arturo O'Farrill: 

"Fandango at the Wall is the concert version of the Fandango Fronterizo gathering, which takes place at the border of Mexico and the United States, in which musicians and dancers gather from all over the world and celebrate by playing, dancing, singing, and improvising poetry across the actual fencing that separates our two nations. It's mind-blowing artivism that utilizes the elements of division and xenophobia to celebrate unity and the pueblo. In these difficult times, The New School is taking a stand for humanity and understanding by presenting the documentary, music from the film with its GRAMMY award-winning musicians, and hosting a panel that will examine the rhetoric around border politics. It will be a celebration of humanity and the power of expression, art, and community as an answer to isolation and divisiveness. We hope many can join us."

Fandango At The Wall

A Concert and Film 

Arturo O'Farrill and The Afro Latin Jazz Octet

The Conga Patria Son Jarocho Collective

The New School Studio Orchestra

4:00pm Film Screening and Panel: The Auditorium, 66 West 12th St. at The New School

7:30pm Concert: Tishman Auditorium at The New School, 63 Fifth Avenue

Presented by The New School's College of Performing Arts and the New School for Social Research

New York, NY — Led by The New School's Arturo O'Farrill, with performances by The Afro Latin Jazz Octet, The New School Studio Orchestra, and The Conga Patria Son Jarocho Collective, FANDANGO AT THE WALL presents a powerful and timely affirmation about breaking down walls. Now, this movement manifests in a three-part event in New York City, with a live Fandango, a film screening and panel discussion.

The album was released to critical acclaim in 2018, praised by publications including The New York Times, Downbeat, NPR, and The Nation. Today it takes on urgent new relevance in the current fractured political moment.

The album and 2020 HBO film follow O'Farrill and producer Kabir Sehgal to the U.S.-Mexico border, where they seek to record an album. The project brings together brilliant voices from a variety of cultural and musical traditions to tear down a variety of walls that isolate us—physical, musical, or cultural. The piece was inspired by Jorge Francisco Castillo, a retired librarian who has organized the Fandango Fronterizo Festival for the past decade. The annual event gathers son jarocho musicians on both sides of the border wall between Tijuana and San Diego for a celebratory jam session. In O’Farrill’s reimagination, his esteemed Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra and Castillo’s son jarocho musicians came together at the border, joined by a more than 60 gifted musicians representing both sides of that divide.

"The College of Performing Arts could not be more proud to co-present this celebration of Fandango at the Wall, led by our deservedly celebrated faculty member, Arturo O'Farrill. The project is an awe-inspiring demonstration of music's unique power to bring human beings together in the face of political divisiveness, and to challenge nativism and xenophobia through artistry and collaboration. I am so grateful to Arturo, The Conga Patria Son Jarocho Collective, and The Afro Latin Jazz Octet for embodying something we intend all of our students to learn: that artists, by engaging thoughtfully with the most urgent crises of their time, have the power to help build a better world for their children and their children's children," says Stephen Brown-Fried, newly named Executive Dean of The New School’s College of Performing Arts.

"From its inception, The New School for Social Research has prized the power of the arts to inspire political hope, especially in dark times. As democracy in the U.S. faces deep existential threats, NSSR and our Henry H. Arnhold Forum on Global Challenges are proud to co-present Fandango at the Wall. In joyful and defiant rhythm and dance, this cross-border project carries important implications for scholarship on migration, borders, Mexico-U.S. relations, and human rights.” says Alex Aleinikoff, Executive Dean of The New School for Social Research.

Program:

Arturo O'Farrill and Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra's Fandango at the Wall (2018)

Artists:

Arturo O'Farrill and The Afro Latin Jazz Octet

The Conga Patria Son Jarocho Collective

The New School Studio Orchestra

Schedule:

Thursday, October 30 at 4:00pm 

Film Screening, followed by a moderated panel with Arturo O’Farrill, pianist, composer & New School Professor of Music; Jorge Francisco Castillo, founder of the Fandango Fronterizo Festival; Patricio Hidalgo, Director of Conga Patria Son Jarocho Collective; Alexandra Délano Alonso, Professor of Politics and Global Studies; and moderator Achilles Kallergis, Assistant Professor and Director of the Project on Cities and Migration at the Zolberg Institute on Migration and Mobility.

Location: The Auditorium, 66 West 12th Street / The New School

Thursday, October 30 at 7:30pm

Live concert

Location: Tishman Auditorium / The New School, 63 Fifth Avenue

Arturo O'Farrill

arturoofarrill.com

Arturo O’Farrill—pianist, composer, Professor of Music at The New School, and Steinway Artist—was born in Mexico and grew up in New York City. His professional career began with the Carla Bley Band and continued as a solo performer with a wide spectrum of artists including Dizzy Gillespie, Lester Bowie, Wynton Marsalis, and Harry Belafonte. In 2007, he founded the Afro Latin Jazz Alliance, now known as Belongó as a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the performance, education, and preservation of Afro Latin music. An avid supporter of all the Arts, Arturo has performed with Ballet Hispanico, Ron Brown’s EVIDENCE Dance company, and the Malpaso Dance Company, for whom he has written several ballets. Arturo’s well-reviewed and highly praised “Afro-Latin Jazz Suite” from the album CUBA: The Conversation Continues took the 2016 Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition as well as the 2016 Latin Grammy for Best Latin Jazz Recording. In addition, his composition “Three Revolutions” from the album Familia-Tribute to Chico and Bebo also received the Best Instrumental Composition Grammy in 2018. Arturo’s album, “Fandango at the Wall in New York” won yet another Grammy award in 2023.

The College of Performing Arts at The New School

newschool.edu/performing-arts

The College of Performing Arts at The New School was formed in 2015 and draws together the Mannes School of Music, the School of Jazz and Contemporary Music, and the School of Drama. With each school contributing its unique culture of creative excellence, the College of Performing Arts is a hub for vigorous training, cross-disciplinary collaboration, bold experimentation, innovative education, and world-class performances.

The 1,000 students at the College of Performing Arts are actors, performers, writers, improvisers, creative technologists, entrepreneurs, composers, arts managers, and multidisciplinary artists who believe in the transformative power of the arts for all people. Students and faculty collaborate with colleagues across The New School in a wide array of disciplines, from the visual arts and fashion design, to the social sciences, public policy, advocacy, and more.

The curriculum at the College of Performing Arts is dynamic, inclusive, and responsive to the changing arts and culture landscape. New degrees and coursework, like the new graduate degrees for Performer-Composers and Artist Entrepreneurs are designed to challenge highly skilled artists to experiment, innovate, and engage with the past, present, and future of their artforms. New York City’s Greenwich Village provides the backdrop for the College of Performing Arts, which is housed at Arnhold Hall on West 13th Street and the historic Westbeth Artists Community on Bank Street.

Offering rigorous programs in the social sciences, humanities, and related disciplines, The New School for Social Research fosters an intellectual environment that challenges orthodoxy, produces groundbreaking scholarship, and advances public debate and policy. With 110+ full-time faculty members, our 13 departments and programs offer master's and doctoral degrees to more than 1,000 graduate students from 70 countries. Our interdisciplinary centers and institutes provide further opportunities for deep inquiry and innovative collaborations, particularly at the intersection of social theory, policy, and design. We welcome everyone interested in challenging the status quo and creating a more just world.

The Henry H. Arnhold Forum on Global Challenges at The New School fosters the interdisciplinary thinking needed to understand the scope of today’s most pressing issues and develop policy solutions for them. It brings together scholars from different disciplines and sponsors conferences and events on issues such as climate change, threats to democracy, and global inequality, encouraging an interdisciplinary approach to global challenges and a cross-pollination of ideas in graduate student training.

Founded in 1919, The New School was established to advance academic freedom, tolerance, and experimentation. A century later, The New School remains at the forefront of innovation in higher education, inspiring approximately 9,000 undergraduate and graduate students to challenge the status quo in design and the social sciences, liberal arts, management, the arts, and media. The university welcomes thousands of adult learners annually for continuing education courses and public programs that encourage open discourse and social engagement. Through our online learning portals, research institutes, and international partnerships, The New School maintains a global presence.

For more information on Arturo O'Farrill, please contact Chris Taillie at Shore Fire Media, 718-522-7171