Saxophonist Erica von Kleist Travels To Cuba With Horns To Havana Group

New York, NY: Saxophonist-flautist, Erica von Kleist traveled from New York City today to Havana, Cuba with the Horns to Havana not-for-profit organization to conduct workshops and perform at four Cuban music academies. Horns to Havana's lyrical cultural exchange between the American jazz community and Cuban music students based on music with deeply shared African as well as European roots.

Horns to Havana delivered a full planeload of musical instruments and nearly another planeload of jazz musicians, luthiers and brass, percussion and woodwind repair technicians to four Cuban music academies for the workshops, clinics and performances scheduled September 4-11. This September 2011 trip to Havana will be Erica's second time to teach and perform in Cuba.

Erica and the Horns to Havana musicians began the workshops and clinics on September 7 at the Guillermo Tomas Conservatory in Guanabaco. She conducted a class specifically for flute students at Guillermo Tomas. The group continued on September 8 to the Cultural Boarding House Complex for Students in Centro Habana and that afternoon met with students of the Amadeo Roldan Conservatory.

On Friday, September 9th, the Horns to Havana musicians will meet with students of the National School of Arts. Erica's visit to Cuba will conclude on Saturday, September 10 with a performance at the Avenida Hall for the conservatory students and musicians.

About Erica von Kleist

Saxophonist and flautist, Erica von Kleist has begun to make her mark in the New York jazz scene as one of the most in-demand musicians in the city performing and recording with Wynton Marsalis, Chris Potter, Sean Jones, Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, DIVA and the Grammy® Award-winning Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra.

Erica has been commissioned to write for the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, The Juilliard School and the Afro- Latin Jazz Orchestra. Currently a member of Darcy James Argue's Secret Society, as well as a regular orchestra member at The Addams Family on Broadway, and can be heard on the original Broadway cast recording.

As a leader Erica has released three self-produced recordings including her 2010 release,Erica von Kleist & No Exceptions. In 2009, Erica received the prestigious Martin E. Segal Award and was voted a “Rising Star" on flute in DownBeat Magazine Critic's Poll and is a two-time winner of the ASCAP Young Jazz Composers Award.

Erica von Kleist currently endorses RS Berkeley Virtuoso Series saxophones.

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Erica Von Kleist Has New Jazz CD And Book

By OWEN McNALLY, Special to The CourantThe Hartford Courant

Surrounded in her compact, cozy Brooklynapartment by floor-to-ceiling boxes packed with her just published music theory book for kids, Erica von Kleist, who grew up in West Hartford, is celebrating a double triumph in her already successful music career.

Simultaneously, the alto saxophonist and flutist, whom critics have called one of the hottest young musician-composers on the New Yorkjazz scene, has released a new CD, "Erica von Kleist & No Exceptions," and, in an entirely new venture, her first book, "A Cool Approach to Jazz Theory."

"I just had a couple of e-mail orders come in this morning and had a picture taken forFacebook of me climbing up and down the ladder over stacks of boxes to fill orders," von Kleist says of the physical and promotional side of her quite substantial but readily accessible book.

Full on: http://www.courant.com/entertainment/hc-von-kleist-0703-20110703,0,5135904.story

Erica is featured on alto flute and soprano sax....

Erica's a West Hartford native who moved to New York in 2000 to study at the Manhattan School of Music. She finished her studies at Juilliard after they launched their jazz program, earning the first Bachelor's Degree in jazz in the history of the school. Since 2003, she's been a member of the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra under the direction of Arturo O'Farrill. She plays flute in Chris Potter's Tentet, and is featured on last year's Song for Anyone. In 2006, Erica released her first album as a leader with her band, Project E, and she will soon begin recording for her next project. She also paints!
Photo:> Dani Gurgel

Erica has been a Secret Society co-conspirator ever since our first gig back in May 2005. In addition to being a kickass improvising saxophonist, Erica is like a scarily good flutist. A lot of jazz saxophonists can double on flute well enough to get by in most casual situations, but Erica is actually serious about the instrument. This means I can write real flute parts for her in Secret Society, which is awesome.

Erica is featured on alto flute and soprano sax on "Chrysalis" (click to listen; right/ctrl-click to download). She is sad that she almost never gets to play her main horn in this band, so one of the new pieces I'm working on will be an alto sax feature for her.

Darcy James Argue's Secret Society is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. Contributions in behalf of Darcy James Argue's Secret Society may be made payable to Fractured Atlas and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.