Events

Música y Melaza David Sánchez in Conversation with Branford Marsalis

Photomontage by the Hemispheric Institute from photos provided by the artists

Wednesday, February 25, 2025 | 7:00 PM

16 Cooper Square

About
Bios

About

Join us for a groundbreaking conversation between GRAMMY Award-winning artist David Sánchez (Spring 2026 Artist in Residence) and the legendary Branford Marsalis. This event will kick off Sánchez’s residency at the Hemispheric Institute with a conversation about his life as an artist and a retrospective of his extensive career.

A GRAMMY and Latin GRAMMY Award-winning, multi-nominated artist from Puerto Rico, David Sánchez has looked to Black American music as a threshold onto broader Pan-African and Afro-diasporic sound worlds, moving from Caribbean roots toward expansive contemporary practices. As a saxophonist, percussionist, composer, educator, and performer, his work reflects a sustained engagement with lineage, listening, and experimentation.

The conversation will be led by multi award-winning saxophonist, band leader, composer and producer, Branford Marsalis, whose illustrious career has crossed stylistic boundaries while maintaining unwavering creative integrity. Marsalis produced Obsesión and Melaza, two of Sánchez’s most acclaimed albums. The conversation reflects their shared commitment to artistic rigor, curiosity, and the continual search for new forms of expression.

Bios

David Sánchez

David Sánchez is a GRAMMY Award-winning saxophonist, composer, and educator from Puerto Rico, recognized worldwide as one of the finest saxophonists and bandleaders of his generation. His music draws deeply from Afro-Caribbean and Pan-African traditions, which he blends seamlessly with jazz.

His acclaimed and multi-nominated recordings include Obsesión, Melaza, Coral, and Carib. Sánchez has performed and recorded with legends such as Dizzy Gillespie, Eddie Palmieri, Kenny Barron, Charlie Haden, Roy Hargrove, Roy Haynes, Pat Metheny, and Elvin Jones.

David Sánchez is a member of the prestigious SFJazz Collective, representing the SFJazz organization. A dedicated educator, he is an active faculty member in the RJAM program at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

His Spring 2026 Residency at the Hemispheric Institute will reflect on his career as an artist, with a special focus on his upcoming 2026 album, TAMBÓ. Sánchez has conceived TAMBÓ as a musical work and a living Pan-African archive, with music and rhythms stretching across the Atlantic and the Americas. During his residency, David will convene public conversations and listening sessions that foreground composition, musical history, performance and memory, and collective participation. The residency will culminate in a public album listening event.

Branford Marsalis

Branford Marsalis is a multi award-winning artist, with three GRAMMY Awards, a Tony and EMMY nomination for his work as a composer, and a citation by the National Endowment for the Arts as a Jazz Master. Marsalis has led the acclaimed Branford Marsalis Quartet for the last three decades and is a frequent soloist with classical ensembles around the world. His screen credits as a composer include original music composed for Rustin, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, and Mo Better Blues. He received an EMMY nomination for the original music he composed and produced for Tulsa Burning. His work on Broadway includes music for A Wonderful World, Children of a Lesser God, A Raisin in the Sun, The Mountaintop, and Fences, which garnered a Drama Desk Award and a Tony nomination. Marsalis is deeply committed to education and cultural leadership as Artistic Director of the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music in New Orleans.

Center for Ballet and the Arts Studio
16 Cooper Square
New York, NY 10003

This event will be in English.

This is an in-person event that requires registration. All non-NYU attendees must RSVP in advance. Video documentation will be made available on the Institute website following the event.

Mobility Access

The main entrance to the Hemispheric Institute at 20 Cooper Square and the ground floor event space at 16 Cooper Square is wheelchair accessible and there is elevator service to our space on the 5th floor.

Nearby ADA accessible subway stations include: B, C, D, and F at Broadway and Lafayette station. Q, N, R, W, 4, 5, and 6 trains at 14th Street station. Nearby ADA accessible bus stops include: M1, M3, M8, M101, M102, and M103 at the Astor Place stop.

Accessible Programming

All of our virtual and pre-recorded programming are equipped with automated closed-captioning.

Accessibility Inquiries

If you have additional accessibility needs, please message us, and we will make every effort to accommodate you.

Restrooms

The Hemispheric Institute at 20 Cooper Square and 16 Cooper Square, offers ADA accessible and gender neutral restrooms with changing tables.