submitted by riveross@augsburg.edu
The Department of Languages and Cross-Cultural Studies and the Global Twin Cities Scholars Program wishes to thank professors Rafael Rodríguez and Kate Reinhardt for bringing jazz percussionist Jonathan Alarcón from Tegucigalpa, Honduras to our campus for a month to enrich and inform our music program, our Spanish classes, and Global Twin Cities AugSem about Garífuna Afroíndignous music and culture with hands-on experiential learning through Afro caribbean jazz workshops.
We are deeply grateful to Jonathan Alarcón, jazz percussionist whose presence on campus immersed our students in Spanish language and Honduran culture as he led master classes with the Augsburg Jazz band. We wish to thank Prof. Rafael Rodríguez, director of the jazz orchestra who organized Augaburg’s amazing evening of Latin American Salsa Night, featuring Jonathan’s percussion, and who coordinated master classes for Augsburg students to study with him in preparation for the concert.
Thank you to everyone in the Augsburg community who hosted and attended workshops, master classes, and concerts to hear and learn about Honduran Garifuna / Afro-Caribbean instruments and rhythms.
We wish Jonathan safe travels back to Honduras and extend our deepest thanks to Prof. Kate Reinhardt and Prof. Rafael Rodriguez for your extraordinary work to make this semester of Afroíndignous jazz music possible for our community.