Alex Torres and His Latin Orchestra: Spicy Sounds for a Hot Summer Night in the Vanderbilt’s Spanish Courtyard

Advance Ticket Purchases Strongly Suggested – A Sellout is Expected  

Latin music, dancing and romance will fill the elegant courtyard of the Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum when Alex Torres and His Latin Orchestra perform on Friday, August 6. The grounds and courtyard of the landmark Spanish-Revival mansion open at 5:00 p.m. Club-style Latin dance lessons will be offered from 6:00 to 7:00 with professional instructors Rico and Carmen. The performance will be from 7:00 to 10:00.

The orchestra, which has performed four times to sold-out audiences at the Vanderbilt, has played a spicy mix of salsa, merengue and Latin jazz throughout North and South America and has released nine critically-acclaimed CDs, including "25 to Life" in 2005, which celebrates the band's 25th anniversary.

Guests are encouraged to bring picnic dinners and enjoy them under the stars as the music and dancing start. Advance tickets are $25; at the gate $30. Tables will be reserved for groups of eight or more. Dance lessons are $5 per person. Children under 8 are free.

In the event of rain, the event will be moved to the Vanderbilt's large white celebration tent on the mansion lawn, with spectacular views of Northport Harbor.

To purchase tickets, please call the Vanderbilt at 631-854-5579. Tickets also may be purchased on the Vanderbilt website: www.vanderbiltmuseum.org. Visa, Master Card and American Express are accepted.

Formed in 1980 in Amsterdam, New York, this 11-piece orchestra is led by the Bronx-born bassist Alex Torres. The accomplished musicians play an original blend of Afro-Caribbean rhythms—such as salsa, merengue, cha-cha, bomba, plena and Latin jazz—and have performed in hundreds of festivals and performing-arts centers and won numerous state and regional awards.

Torres and his musicians have performed for President Bill and Hillary Clinton and at the inauguration of New York governors George Pataki and Eliot Spitzer. The orchestra has shared the stage and billings with such major acts as Tito Puente, Arturo Sandoval, Ray Barretto, Branford Marsalis, and the Count Basie and Woody Herman orchestras.

The events are part of an exciting summer of programming that marks the centennial celebration of the Vanderbilt's beginnings on the Gold Coast of Long Island and the Vanderbilt's 60 years as a Suffolk County museum. William K. Vanderbilt II purchased the land for his landmark Eagle's Nest estate on May 27, 1910.