Cuban-born pianist Dayramir Gonzalez and his trio brought the house down during a performance in Philadelphia last July featuring music from his 2018 release, The Grand Concourse. The winner of three Cubadisco awards joins J. Michael Harrison in the WRTI Performance Studio on Friday, June 14th at 4 PM in advance of his highly anticipated return to@exuberance that evening.
Watch the live video here:
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The trio includes:
Dayramir Gonzalez, piano
Dean Torrey, bass
Jaun Chiavassa, drums
Dayramir graduated from the Berklee School of Music, summa cum laude and acknowledges the six-time Grammy-winning pianist Chucho Valdes as a mentor. He's the first Cuban National to receive Berklee's Presidential Scholarship. Dayramir has also headlined Carnegie Hall, and received the Wayne Shorter Award for Best Jazz Composer in 2013.
Raised in Havana, Cuba during extremely difficult economic times, Dayramir found inspiration in his trumpet-playing father. When Dayramir discovered an interest in piano at age eight, his father was sighted as providing a significant amount of motivation.
Dayramir's hard work was rewarded with acceptance into Cuba's celebrated National High School for the Arts. While there, Dayramir was asked to join a project lead by Cuban legend Giraldo Piloto. In 2005 he won first place in Havana's JoJazz festival in the composition category that included a record deal with Cuba's national label Colibri. Dayramir was accepted into Havana's prestigious Instituro Superior de Arte followed by a scholarship to Berklee College of Music in the United States.
Dayramir is the co-founder of The Art School of Contemporary Performance and Creativity, based in the Bronx. The school's curriculum is modeled after the musical programs he experienced in his native Cuba.
