Singer Gina Chavez, a 12-time Austin Music Award winner, including 2019 Austin Female Vocalist of the Year, will perform at Penn State Harrisburg at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 4, in the Mukund S. Kulkarni Theatre (SEC Building).
With her signature style of Latin folk-pop, Chavez takes audiences on a passionate journey through the Americas, mixing elements of indie-folk, cumbia, blues and Latin pop. The event is part of the Mukund S. Kulkarni Cultural Series.
Chavez’s bilingual album "Up.Rooted” (2015) topped the Amazon and Latin iTunes charts following a national feature on NPR’s "All Things Considered" and a Tiny Desk concert that has more than 850,000 views.
Chavez and her band have toured 12 countries as cultural ambassadors with the U.S. State Department, most recently in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. Her Spanish language anthem, "Siete-D,” won Chavez the grand prize in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest. The song recounts her experience volunteering in a gang-dominated suburb of San Salvador, where she and her partner (now wife) Jodi Granado founded Niñas Arriba, a college fund benefiting young Latinas.
Following the concert, audience members may join Chavez and her band at the “Fiesta for All” under the tent at the east side of the SEC Building. Free Latin-inspired foods and beverages will be served. Tickets for the show are $15, with $5 tickets for Penn State Harrisburg students. Tickets and information can be found at harrisburg.psu.edu/boxoffice.
