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Miami-based Tiempo Libre kicks off the WilliamsCenter for the Arts Sound Alternatives Series Friday, Sept. 15 at 8 p.m. with a performance of their critically acclaimed timbastyle, a dance-inducing mix of high-voltage Latin jazz and seductive rhythms.
Tickets for the performance are free for students, $4 for faculty and staff, and $18 for the public. They can be obtained by calling the WilliamsCenter box office at (610) 330-5009.
Other performers in the Sound Alternatives Series include Kartik Seshadri Tuesday, Oct. 3, $18; Acoustic Africa, featuring Habib Koité and Bamada Saturday, Nov. 11, $20; and Music from China Friday, Feb. 2, $20. A subscription to the Sound Alternatives Series costs $59, a savings of $17 compared to buying an individual ticket for each performance.
The Grammy-nominated Tiempo Libre is the first authentic all-Cuban timbaband in the United States. Its seven members are natives of Cuba and were schooled in different Latin conservatories. Formed in 2001, the band has an important mission: “to share the musical heritage in which they grew up with as wide an audience as possible, reinterpreting and reinvigorating traditional Cuban music with a youthful, modern sound and forging a new style born from the meeting of their Cuban roots and their new American experience.”
Performing sold out shows all over the world; Tiempo Libre brings the music from their most recent recording, Lo Que Esperabas (“What You’ve Been Waiting For”) to the WilliamsCenter stage. Lo Que Esperabas follows their Grammy-nominated album Arroz con Mango (“Rice and Mango”), a Cuban slang expression meaning something completely out of the ordinary, describing the band, their music, and their mission perfectly.
The 2006-2007 Performance Series at Lafayette College is supported in part by gifts from Friends of the Williams Center for the Arts; by provisions of the Josephine Chidsey Williams Endowment, the Alan and Wendy Pesky Artist-in-Residence Program, the James Bradley Fund, and the Ed Brunswick Jazz Fund; and by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, Pennsylvania Performing Arts on Tour; the F.M. Kirby Foundation, the Dexter and Dorothy Baker Foundation, and the New England Foundation for the Arts.