Yosvany Terry

Yosvany Terry is a saxophonist, chekere player, and composer who has been central to the Afro-Cuban strain of contemporary jazz in New York. Born in 1972 into a celebrated musical family in Camaguey, Cuba, he learned first from his father, the violinist and chekere master Don Pancho Terry, who led the charanga group Maravilla de Florida, before training at the Amadeo Roldan Conservatory and the National School of Arts (ENA) in Havana. His music draws deeply on Arara and other Afro-Cuban ritual traditions, most notably on New Throned King (2014), which earned a Grammy nomination. He received the Doris Duke Artist Award in 2015 and has performed and recorded with figures ranging from Chucho Valdes and Silvio Rodriguez to a generation of New York jazz musicians. Since 2015 he has directed the Jazz Ensembles at Harvard University, where he serves on the music faculty.