Gloria Estefan will open the University of Miami Frost School of Music’s 30th annual music series, Festival Miami. The seven-time Grammy winner will open the month-long music festival, performing her jazz influenced album “The Standards.”
Festival Miami will begin October 1 at 8:00 p.m. at UM’s Maurice Gusman Concert Hall.
The opening performance isn’t the only place Estefan is showcasing her new album.
Estefan has also teamed up with PBS for a concert series based on her new album of standards — a collection of Estefan’s favorite songs including the Billie Holiday classic “Good Morning Heartache,” her adaptation of Chaplin’s “Smile” to her wedding song, “El Dia Que Me Quieras,” translated into English for the first time as “The Day You Say You Love Me.”
The PBS special will also show some complimentary behind-the-scenes video footage of the studio recording process of “The Standards.”
The special will air in August and will feature the same songs that Estefan is set to perform at the opening to Festival Miami’s music series.
This concert is featured as part of the Festival Miami’s Music of the Americas series which — over the last 29 years — has provided a annual series that blends diverse music with educational opportunities. The festival offers 20-30 concerts each season and provides people of all ages the chance to be enriched by live musical performances.
The festival’s concert series features the Frost School’s widely known artist-faculty and student ensembles, and an educational mission that includes children’s concerts, master classes, lectures, forums and concerts that highlight historically significant events.
Gloria Estefan’s ‘The Standards’ and Festival Miami
“I grew up listening to Frank Sinatra, Johnny Mathis, Henry Mancini and great romance recording artists in Cuba,” said Estefan in a statement. “This genre is right up my alley, since music is always a catharsis to me.”
She said that she wanted to get enough life under her belt before she was to do a standards album “since there are so many torch songs requiring life experience to deliver them with proper credibility.”
The concept started after a trustee dinner at the UM’s Frost School of Music, where Shelly Berg serves as dean.
“We sat at the piano just for fun and he asked me to sing a song” Estefan said.
The songstress said that the album “brings everything full circle” for her.
She added that the tracks were all chosen “by my heart and what I feel.” The list of standards that she brought to Berg “spoke to [her] personally and made [Estefan] cry.”
“From the first moment of going through songs with Gloria, I got that goose bump feeling that told me this was going to be a very special and important recording,” said Berg, who arranged, orchestrated and co-produced the album. “The artistry and heart that Gloria brings to ‘The Standards’ will resonate with people across a spectrum of generations and cultures. With this recording she has given us a beautiful gift.”
Tickets to Gloria Estefan’s Festival Miami opening performance start at $60 and go on sale August 1. Tickets to Festival Miami’s concert series start at $15 and some are offered free. For more information and a full schedule of the concert series, visit www.festivalmiami.com
Originally published on VOXXI as Gloria Estefan to perform ‘The Standards’ at UM’s Festival Miami