Dafnis Prieto
Dafnis Prieto, drummer, composer, and educator, is a Grammy and Latin Grammy Winner and recipient of a 2011 MacArthur Fellowship (the “genius grant”). He has electrified audiences with his dazzling technical abilities and rhythmically adventurous and groundbreaking compositions. A classically trained musician who absorbed from an early age the multifaceted percussive traditions of his native Cuba, Prieto transposes elements from his Afro-Cuban musical heritage onto a jazz drum kit, incorporating the layered rhythmic patterns of rumba and son. As a composer, Prieto melds modern jazz harmonies, Cuban folklore, clave rhythms, and other Latin and African traditions as well as European classical influences, to create works of great stylistic diversity that evoke a broad spectrum of moods. Through his leadership of numerous ensembles, nine acclaimed albums, and other projects involving dance, film, and opera, he is expanding Latin jazz with a bold new energy and sound.