Kadencia!

Perkinson Center for the Arts and Education, Virginia

Kadencia is a 13-piece orchestra dedicated to conserving and promoting Afro-Puerto Rican music.Founded in Puerto Rico by singer-songwriter Maurice Sanabria-Ortiz and percussionist Roberto Candelario, Kadencia was reborn in late 2018, with the help of percussionists Maurice “Tito” Sanabria and Santos Ramirez, and now calls Richmond, Virginia its home base. The band delivers heavy-hitting original music and uses Bomba, Plena, and Salsa to promulgate Puerto Rican culture, educate audiences on the Island’s native musical expressions, and make audiences move in ways they never knew possible.  

These rhythms are native to Puerto Rico and they were forged out of a necessity to communicate through song everything that is good and bad about our history, culture, and daily life. Music is one of the primary channels used by our people, whether in the mountains or “barrios”, to express social and economic injustice. Bomba and Plena are also conduits of joy that make people sing and dance like there is no tomorrow.