Latin-American jazz artist Pavel Polanco-Saffadit will perform at Giffels Auditorium at 8 p.m. Thursday, March 30. The concert is free and open to the public. Polanco-Saffadit is a pianist and singer-songwriter, and he will be joined by U of A faculty members Fernando Valencia, percussion, and Garrett Jones, bass, as well as U of A graduate student Juan Santos. This concert is presented by the Music Department and the Multicultural Center.

Polanco-Saffadit is known for his energetic, fiery performances, much in the vein of the modern pyrotechnicians of today's Latin jazz world. Polanco-Saffadit is an internationally-known Dominican pianist and Chicago Music Awards Nominee.

He studied at the U of A, Eastern Kentucky University and University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has performed in North America, South America and the Caribbean, Asia and Europe. He has shared the stage with legends such as Peter Erskine, Dave Valentin, Max Weinberg, Sergio George, Roscoe Mitchell, Gunther Schuller, Richard Davis, Michael Spiro and Pavel Nuñez, just to mention a few. He has also performed with The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, The Carmel Symphony Orchestra and The Anderson Symphony Orchestra.

Polanco-Saffadit with his group "Pavel & Direct Contact" released their first album, The Other Side (2016). Since then, he has produced four recordings with AireBorn Records: Rush Hour (2017), D'la Calle (2018), Americanisao (2019) and Día Bonito (2021), along with the single "You" (2020).

The concert will feature jazz classics such as Sabor a Mi and I Will Survive, as well as original songs written by Polanco-Saffadit.