Dave Valentin returns to Colorado Springs for Winter Jazz Spectacular

Grammy-award winning superstar jazz flutist Dave Valentin again returns to Colorado Springs on January 28th at the Antlers Hilton Hotel at 8 pm for a performance that will benefit Pikes Peak Community Foundation’s Fund for the Arts, FutureSelf, and the Colorado Springs Conservatory. The brilliant artist has performed to sold-out audiences in Colorado Springs and almost 10,000 fans in some 20 appearances since 1988.

He has performed at Colorado Springs venues including Sky Sox Stadium, The Pikes Peak Center, the Fine Arts Center and last year before more than 600 appreciative fans at the Antlers Hilton Hotel. Valentin is a longtime friend of Fred Whitacre, the former President and General Manager of the Sky Sox baseball team and renowned sports and music marketing prodigy.

The Fund for the Arts, The Colorado Springs Conservatory, and FutureSelf, in conjunction with whitacreWORKS, are presenting the concert, which will be held at the Antlers Hilton Hotel, 4 Cascade Ave., Saturday, Jan 28, at 8 pm. Tickets are available through Pikes Peak Community Foundation, www.ppcf.org or 389-1253 ext. 110. The “Meet the Artist Reception” at 6:30 pm is $50 per ticket and includes the 8 pm concert.

Tickets for the 8 pm concert only can be purchased separately for $25. Event promoters are looking for a record crowd once again.

Sponsors to date include: Gold Class: Petritz Foundation, Gay and Lesbian Fund for Colorado, The Fine Arts Center, Adelphia, The Antlers Hilton, The Gazette, and whitacreWORKS. Bronze Class: CHEF’S Catalog, Huntley, Thatcher, Ellsworth, LTD, Mike Moran, Ray and Patty Deeny, and XPEDEX. Event Sponsors: Booz Allen Hamilton, ABC Bank.

Valentin’s top selling albums have won him critical acclaim, while his electrifying performances with the flute have won acclaim from fans in reader’s surveys conducted by major jazz enthusiasts’ publications. The recent history of contemporary jazz and Latin music has produced few instrumentalists as singularly talented, artistically accomplished, or as popular as this remarkable musician, composer, arranger and bandleader. For more than two decades, the native New Yorker has defined the role of the flute in Latin jazz. The renowned artist’s distinctive style moves from traditional jazz to full-our fusion in Latin and traditional jazz forms.

Currently tabbed as the world’s number one-ranked jazz flutist, he has made 18 albums and received several Grammy nominations. In 2002, he won a Grammy for his work on “The Gathering,” as part of the Caribbean Jazz Project. The artist’s latest work entitled, “World on a String”, was released this year. He has been voted “Best Jazz Flutist” in JazzIs Magazine for the past seven years.

Valentin was born in the South Bronx in 1952 to Puerto Rican parents from the city of Mayaguez. The jazz virtuoso studied percussion at New York City’s High School of Music and art before taking up the flute at the age of 16, when he began private lessons with master jazz and classical flutist, Hubert Laws. His early training and professional work with the leading bands of the day quickly established the young musician as a rising star.

He has a program that he delivers to the Bronx Schools which includes an anti-drug video, Bronx Bad Boys, named after his single in the most recent album, “Dos Amigos.”

After the video, he takes time to do a question-and-answer session period. He has found that children identify him as a role model and can relate his success to their own hopes and dreams. His advice to kids? “As my father told me, ‘It doesn’t matter what you decide to do, do your best. If you want to repair cars, be the best mechanic there is.’ “

The three organizations benefiting from the performance are non-profit organizations that focus on the arts within the region. FutureSelf is dedicated to working with at risk youth through art. The Colorado Springs Conservatory seeks to provide aspiring young performing artists with the skills and acute perception necessary to sustain a career in the arts. The Fund for the Arts of the Pikes Peak Community Foundation fosters sustainability and growth for arts organizations and artists in the Pikes Peak Region by increasing financial support and building awareness of the significance of the arts and artists in the community

 

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