Al-Bustan Seeds of Culture Presents Percussionist Rolando Morales-Matos in Concert: Revisiting Hybridity: Latin & Arab Rhythms

posted on: May 12, 2014

Join virtuoso Latin, jazz, and classical percussionist Rolando Morales-Matos and Al-Bustan Takht Ensemble for an evening of music that exploring Arab & Latin rhythms.

Master percussionist and teaching artist Hafez Kotain will lead this percussive conversation that crosses cultures and continents.

As part of his residency, Mr. Morales-Matos will lead a workshop at Moffet Elementary in Kensington. The Moffet Elementary drummers will open the culminating performance Trinity Center for Urban Life in Center City Philadelphia.

Rolando Morales-Matos was born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico and began his musical training at the prestigious Escuela Libre de Musica. He received his B.F.A in music from Carnegie Mellon University, his M.A. from Duquesne University, and a Certificate of Professional Studies from Temple University.
Rolando is a percussionist and assistant conductor with Disney’s Lion King and performs and records regularly in New York City with various Latin jazz groups and chamber orchestras. He has recorded film soundtracks and is a member of Ron Carter Foursight Jazz Quartet, an extra percussionist with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Mr. Morales-Matos teaches at the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music, Temple University, New Jersey City University, and the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York City.

Al-Bustan Seeds of Culture is a non-profit organization dedicated to presenting and teaching Arab culture through arts and language. The 2014 Concert Series is made possible with the support of the William Penn Foundation, the Doris Duke
Foundation for Islamic Art’s Building Bridges Program, and the Samuel S. Fels Fund.