# Brenda Navarrete 

**Date of birth:** May 3, 1990

**Categories:** Arts, Music, female composer, arranger, Dance, Singer, Musician

Brenda Navarrete. She is a Cuban jazz artist, singer, percussionist, composer, and dancer, who has been part of groups such as the community folkloric project Alafia, the Jazz Band, Obiní Batá, and Interactivo. She graduated from the Amadeo Roldán Conservatory in Havana, Cuba in 2009.

With a solid foundation of Latin jazz and Afro-Cuban influences, Brenda has extended her wings to contemporary world music. An uncompromising professional who infuses passion, unusual skills, musical originality, and relentless energy into every project and performance.

Since her beginnings at the Manuel Saumell Primary School of Music at age 9, Brenda Navarrete set her sights on percussion and a musical career. She graduated from the Amadeo Roldán Conservatory of Music of Cuba in 2009, obtaining accreditations as an instrumentalist, essayist, and percussion instructor.

In 2010, Brenda Navarrete won a national competition during the prestigious Fiesta del Tambor de Cuba, winning first prize in the Bata drums category, as well as for best performance by a female artist.

Working with a great number of renowned artists, including the Afro-Cuban percussion group Obini Bata, jazz musician Joaquín Betancourt, Alain Pérez, Munir Hossn, and as a singer for the acclaimed international band Interactivo, directed by Roberto Carcasses, Brenda has made her mark as an accomplished singer, percussionist, composer, and arranger.

Her percussion skills first earned her an artist endorsement contract in 2013 with the Canadian company Sabian, joining their roster of some of the most talented percussionists in the world. In March 2016, she was supported by Gon Bops, one of the oldest and most respected Latin instrument manufacturers in the world.

Brenda's curriculum includes collaborations with the musical elite of Cuba. She has played on recordings of many notable Cuban artists, recently featured on Bata and vocals on Contumbao, an album by Cuban-Canadian pianist and composer Hilario Duran.

In March 2017, she signed a recording contract with Alma Record, based in Toronto, and the percussionist's first phonogram is a "sui generis" proposal in which Cuban rhythms of African origin dialogue with jazz, son, and rumba. The album offers a contemporary vision of genres and musical styles that transcend time without neglecting the exquisiteness and legitimacy of pure and authentic sound.