Concerts & Events

Presented in partnership with the Chicago Park District, this Future Folk Festival concert will feature Alejandro Salazar and the Afro Cuban Exchange with YAW.

Future Folk Festival draws inspiration from the definition of folk music provided by Folk Alliance International: “Folk is the music of the people, reflective of any community where they are from.”

Old Town School of Folk Music doesn't limit folk to any one genre or group of instruments, we prioritize connecting innovative, new, and global folk artists with diverse audiences. Providing a wide variety of music-related experiences with the purpose of strengthening Chicago's African American, Caribbean, Latinx, African, Asian, and Indigenous communities.

RSVP for the full series of Future Folk Festival events:

Future Folk Festival: Night 2

Future Folk Festival: Night 3

For more details follow Old Town School of Folk Music's Music Moves page at www.instagram.com/musicmoveschi

Alejandro Salazar and the Afro Cuban Exchange

Alejandro Salazar emphasizes love, peace, and unity to audiences through unique performances, education, and the cultural study of Afro-Cuban and Black-American Music. Chicago's own rising star, Alejandro Salazar, is deeply rooted in the tradition, yet he likes to explore new ways to help people groove and dance more to his infectious swing feel.

Alejandro Salazar, named a 2025 Luminarts Fellow, has had the pleasure of playing at clubs, venues, and festivals all over Chicago and the world like The Chicago Jazz Festival, Hyde Park Jazz Festival, Jazz a la Villette (Paris), Primavera Sound Barcelona, Munch Museum (Oslo), Bourse de Commerce (Paris), Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, The Jazz Showcase, Andy's Jazz Club, DuSable Museum, The Green Mill, Constellation, and Dorian's to name a few.

Ensemble:
Alejandro Salazar - Drums
Aaron Kaufman-Levine - Saxophone
Adrian Ruiz - Piano
Freddy Quintero - Bass
Javier Quintana - Congas

YAW

Yaw Agyeman is an interdisciplinary performing artist born in Chicago. He works primarily as a musician/sound designer but also has an extensive theater background (actor) and makes work as a photographer. Yaw's work addresses language and sound as cultural currency. He is also interested in the documents and legacies of families, particularly his own. Most recently, Yaw researched the archives of the Stony Island Arts Bank as a Mellon Fellow and produced a 7-inch vinyl record titled Agoro—a sonic document born from that archival exploration.
He is also a vocalist in the band, ‘Black Monks', led by internationally known artist Theaster Gates.

Ensemble:
Justin Dillard: Hammond, vocoder, percussion
Larry Brown Jr: guitar
Chris Paquette: percussion
Nycee Butler: vocals