Jorge Luis Pacheco

Hailing from Havana, Cuba, Jorge Luis Pacheco is one of the leading pianists and musicians of the new generation of jazz in Cuba. Winner of the Montreux Jazz Piano Solo Competition in Switzerland, Pacheco is a fiery young pianist with “flying hands.” His music is a confluence of Cuban jazz, Cuban and Afro Cuban music, American jazz, and classical music with a measure of contemporary pop and soul.

He has performed all over the world including prominent jazz clubs such as Dizzy’s Club at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City, theaters, and festivals such as the Blue Note Jazz Festival in New York, or The Piano Night in the House of Blues at the New Orleans Jazz Fest as well as the Sziget Festival in the City of Budapest, Hungary, or the Red Sea Jazz Festival in Israel, among others. He also performed at The Kennedy Center in Washington DC several times with his quartet and a solo piano concert as well as the legendary Apollo Theater where a lifetime achievement award was presented to Herbie Hancock.

He has collaborated with the likes of Wynton Marsalis and the JLCO, Arturo O’Farrill, and the legendary Lenny White as well as with Dave Weckl and Richie Goods in trio format; saxophonist Bill Evans, singer Haley Reinhart, Tommy Campbell, and some of the most important Cuban artists such as Alexander Abreu, Isaac Delgado, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Amadito Valdes and Tete Caturla (Buena Vista Social Club); Leo Brouwer, Pablo Milanes, Ruy Lopez Nussa, Javier Salva, Haydee Milanes, Descemer Bueno, and Bobby Carcases, among others. Jorge performed at Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he also gave a master class. Pacheco is a passionate, extravagant, exciting entertainer on stage and constantly captures the audience’s attention with his heartfelt performances and electric energy.

Pacheco was the 2017 winner of the JoJAzz Award in Havana and also won the Best Solo and Performance Award in the Jazz Competition “Made in New York” in New York City the same year with one of his own compositions “Con el Pache me Voy,” with some of the most recognized musicians in the world as a jury — Randy Brecker, the legendary Lenny White, and Mike Stern. Pacheco also has a master’s degree in composition from the Instituto Superior de Arte de La Habana.