HONORING PAQUITO D’RIVERA
Recipient of the 2023 Leonard Bernstein Lifetime Achievement Award
This year, Longy honors Paquito D’Rivera—saxophonist, clarinetist, bandleader, and author, celebrated worldwide both for his artistry in Latin jazz and his achievements as a classical composer.
Born in Havana, Cuba, D’Rivera’s groundbreaking work fuses jazz, rock, classical, and Afro-Caribbean music. He is a 15-time GRAMMY winner and collaborator with fellow legends Dizzy Gillespie, Gloria Estefan, Yo-Yo Ma, Chucho Valdés, and Wynton Marsalis.
Sharing Longy’s commitment to music as social change, D’Rivera champions the rights and liberties of artists around the world. His work as a composer and musician has empowered him to build bridges between audiences of different backgrounds in every corner of the world. He chronicles his adventures in his recent memoir, Restless Books’ Letters to Yeyito—one of four titles he has authored.
Paquito D’Rivera exemplifies the Longy ideal that artists can make a difference in the world.