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Cascada de Flores: a Musical Altar for our Muertitos

  • Ashkenaz Music & Dance Community Center 1317 San Pablo Avenue Berkeley, CA, 94702 United States (map)

Doors at 6:30pm ~ Dance lesson at 7pm ~ Performance at 8pm

Dance lesson led by Maestro Claudio Vega and Maestra Lolis García!

Come join us for a Halloweekend celebration for Dia de los Muertos, where we will be honoring our loved ones who have passed with a musical altar and performance by Cascada de Flores.

Jorge & Arwen will be joined by Lolis García & Kyla Danysh as well as master son jarocho musician Claudio Vega, to build a musical altar with stories, songs, dances and you.

A bilingual and participatory concert that explores the meaning of Day of the Dead (Día de Muertos) with song, dance, tradition, personal stories and a large variety of musical instruments. You are invited to dance and sing with Cascada de Flores on a musical journey sharing Días de Muertos traditions from Mexico as well as gorgeous songs by Jorge Liceaga, and poetry by all.

Dance lesson led by Maestro Claudio Vega and Maestra Lolis García!!

Cascada de Flores

The core members of Cascada de Flores have been re-imagining Mexican tradition for years. After falling for Mexican music as a young woman, Arwen Lawrence toured with Grammy-winning L.A. mariachi heavyweights, Los Camperos de Nati Cano, an apprenticeship that honed her skills and deepened her love for Mexico's musical language. With them, she recorded and performed in venues such as the Teatro Degollado in Guadalajara and Lincoln Center of New York. Nati always nudged her towards what she already did naturally: to sing with heart.

Jorge Liceaga grew up in Mexico City, buying his first guitar with the money he'd earned shining shoes. Self taught, he was later mentored by local legend Leonardo 'El León' Salas, a transplant from Yucatan, who taught Jorge to 'guasanguearla' (play with that special Yucatecan swing). Jorge followed his sister and found himself amongst local masters of artistic communication: The flamencos of Gitanerías. From them he received a raw and complicated education, which contributed to his special sensitivity as accompanist.

The pair founded Cascada de Flores in San Francisco, CA in 1999. They began by journeying into the hidden corners of Mexico, seeking the real stories of that hugely diverse country. Inspired by the fact that even as deep as its diversity goes, Mexico has a continuous love affair with foreign cultural phenomenon and incorporates them as if they were its own, the ensemble spends 14 years swimming in a magical place somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean sea where rancheras, boleros, sones and guarachas from México, Cuba, Puerto Rico and Colombia meet.