Sandra Mirabal Jean Claude

Line up

• Jakob Klaasse (piano )
• Sandra Mirabal Jean Claude (vocals & clarinet)

• country:
  Cuba
• region:
  Caribbean
• style(s):
  Ethnic Traditional
• label:
  basta
• type:
  Band, Solist
• gender:
  female
• instrumentation:
  instrumental, vocal
• artist submitted by:
  Jazzconexion

Like her mother Martha Jean Claude, Sandra Mirabal Jean Claude is a daughter of two islands: Born in Port au Prince, Haiti grown up in La Habana, Cuba, nurtured by the Haitian vocal tradition and Cuban classic & popular music.

The spring of 2008 will see the release of the 2nd cd of Sandra Mirabal Jean-Claude and Jakob Klaasse, called 'CADENCIA (Songs from Cuba and Haiti)', also on the Dutch label Basta (www.bastamusic.com). This cd will feature Sandra and Jakob singing and playing Haitian and Cuban songs. Songs which her mother Martha Jean-Claude wrote or sung 'Invitacion al vodu', 'C'est bon', 'Choucoune' a.o., and Cuban classics, as 'Drume negrita', 'La comparsa'. Sandra sings in Creol and Spanish. Most tracks feature two of Holland's Cuban musicians, Liber Torriente and Marcos Betancourt. Together with Dutch musicians, some of them from the Antilles and Surinam.

Sandra Mirabal is the first Cuban female clarinetist that graduated summa cum laude. She played first clarinet in the Orquesta Nacional de Opera y Ballet de Cuba and solo clarinet in the National Wind Orchestra of Cuba. She formed part of the Clarinet Quintet of Havana. During ten years she was singer and clarinetist in the group Makandal, the group founded by her mother, the Haitian singer Martha Jean-Claude. With Makandal, a group that fed on the rich sources of Haitian and Cuban folklore, she toured extensively through the world. Since 1999 Sandra lives in the Netherlands. Together with pianist Jakob Klaasse she recorded a cd 'Danzas and Contradanzas from 19th century Cuba', released on the Dutch label Basta. This cd was nominated in 2005 for an Edison, a prestigious Dutch music award.

Sandra was a clarinet teacher and gave masterclasses at Havana's Conservatorium Amadeo Rold an in Cuba. She also gave masterclasses at the Universidad Autonoma in Mexico and L'Ecole Sante Trinite in Haiti and taught the clarinet at Bayamo's Music School (Oriente), the Escuela Fernando Carnicer and the Guillermo Tomas-school in Guanabacoa. From 1996 to 1999 she was a teacher of the clarinet, music theory and singing at the 'Taller de Musicos' music academy in Madrid, Spain. There she also founded and conducted choirs.
Performances abroad

New York, USA: Madison Square Gardens - Montreal, Canada: Maison d' Haiti, Place des Arts - Mexico City, Mexico: Festival de Oposicion and the Festival de musica Cubana (with the Clarinet Quintet of Havana) - Madrid, Spain: first clarinet in Sergio Vitier's Cuban group - Panama City, Panama: Solidarity Concert for Haiti - Port au Prince, Haiti: Concert at the occasion of Jean Beltran Aristide's Presidential inauguration - Japan: Solo clarinetist of the Conjunto Folklorico Nacional de Cuba - Lisbon, Portugal: Festival de Chevere (1998)

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