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Berta Moreno
She has been touring as a leader of her quartet/ quintet in Europe for over 3 years, being awarded 1st prize at Zoetermeer Jazz Competition and 2nd prize nominated by the audience at Leidse Jazz Competition in The Netherlands in 2013. Berta has performed in some of the main jazz festivals around Europe, including NORTH SEA JAZZ Festival, and some of the main venues and theatres both in Europe and U.S. She has participated in TV and Radio programs, such as Omroep Zuidplas Radio, Virus 4 TV/radio program or RNE (National Radio of Spain), and appeared as a sideman on several CD's: "Síguelo" by Gerardo Rosales & Combo Mundial (Challenge Records), "Choros Limoneros" by Choros Limoneros (Thrilling Sound Productions) or "Blue Dahlia" by Dahlia Dumont. After moving to New York in 2014 she started working on her new project as a band- leader, composer and producer: “Berta Moreno Quintet” In her brief time in New York, Berta released her debut album "Little Steps" (2017) featuring GRAMMY award winners and nominees Steve Wilson (sax), Troy Roberts (sax) and Manuel Valera (piano); playing with this project in venues such as Fat Cat, ShapeShifter Lab, Club Bonafide... in New York, as well as touring in Europe "solding out" in legendary clubs like Bogui Jazz, Clamores or Jimmy Glass in Spain. At the same time she is playing with many different bands and projects in the City, and working as well as a Teaching Artist for the GRAMMY winner Arturo O'Farrill "Afro-Latin Jazz Alliance"
Awards
New York 2016 - Sidney Zolot Award for excellence in Music New York 2015 - BMI Evelyn Buckstein Scholarship Netherlands 2014 - VDB Stichting Scholarship Netherlands 2013- 1st Prize Zoetemeer Jazz Competition Netherlands 2013- 2nd Prize Audience Nomination Leidse Spain 2008 and 2009 - AIE Scholarship
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Simona Smirnova: Bird Language
by Giulia Bianchi
Simona Smirnova is a Lithuanian-born and New York-based vocalist, composer, and classically trained kanklės (a Lithuanian chordophone folk instrument belonging to the Baltic zither family) virtuoso. After obtaining her BA in jazz vocal performance from the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater, she moved to the USA to study contemporary writing and production at Berklee College of Music. There is an aura of mystique to Smirnova's Bird Language, a stunning blend of Baltic folklore, jazz, pop, and rock, ...
read moreBerta Moreno Afro-Jazz Soul Project: Tumaini
by Troy Dostert
Tenor saxophonist Berta Moreno released her promising debut, Little Steps, in 2017. It signaled her debt to forbears such as Wayne Shorter and Joe Henderson, and displayed an impressive command of bop language. Tumaini, her engaging follow-up, moves in a rather different direction. Time well-spent in Kenya gave Moreno a wider focus for her compositions, as she adroitly melds jazz, R&B and Afro-Latin idioms into an enjoyable musical synthesis. Tumaini" is a Swahili word for hope," and there ...
read moreBerta Moreno: Little Steps
by Troy Dostert
When first seeing the title of Berta Moreno's debut record, one might be tempted to interpret it as a self-effacing gesture. Perhaps the tenor saxophonist is acknowledging her debt to the giant steps of the master of the tenor, John Coltrane himself? Upon further investigation, however, Moreno makes clear in her notes to the album that the piece after which the record is named is really just a reference to the chromaticism behind the song's harmonic and melodic structure (as ...
read more "Berta Moreno - an expressive and highly engaging fresh voice on the scene as both a tenor saxophonist and composer." -Mike Holober- Pianist, composer/arranger, Artistic Director/Conductor of the Westchester Jazz Orchestra (WJO) and Associate Guest Conductor of the HR Big Band
"Berta Moreno is one of the best representatives outside our country of the fashionable 'Marca España', naturally in what she loves and dominates: jazz." -Emilio Martínez – DIARIO CRÍTICO- (Jan 7th 2016) http://bit.ly/2k7nINl
Primary Instrument
Saxophone, tenor
Location
New York City