Singer/songwriter Jean Rohe and her five-piece ensemble will present a performance/workshop entitled “The Portuguese Influence in American Popular Music” on Thursday, April 23 in the Center for the Arts Springer Concert Hall at the College of Staten Island from 2:30pm to 3:30pm. This event is free and open to the public. A reception, which will culminate Rohe’s artist residency at CSI, will follow the presentation.

Nate Chinen of The New York Times calls Rohe “…A confident young singer whose compositions tend toward a literate and imploring tone.” Rohe won second place in the Shure Vocal Competition at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland in July 2006 and was the Audience Choice awardee in that competition as well. She has sung in venues throughout New York City, including Birdland, Sweet Rhythm, Detour, Barbés, and the Cornelia Street Café, as well as in venues on the West Coast, and in Canada, Cuba, and Brazil. In addition to her work as leader, Rohe sings in David Moore’s Bing, and Ruth and Hector Morales’s Afrodita, as well as in the Afro-Cuban jazz ensemble Grupo Monte NY.

Versed in the rhythmic calculus of Brazilian jazz, bossa nova, and samba, Rohe, sings in the Spanish and Portuguese languages, as well as in English. She graduated from the New School Jazz program and its undergrad liberal arts division, Eugene Lang College. She teaches and performs music for young children at public schools on the Lower East Side through the Third Street Music School Settlement and at sites throughout the city.

The Campus Activity Board has generously sponsored Jean Rohe’s residency at the College of Staten Island. In addition, several campus bodies, including the American Studies Program, the Music Program, the History Department, The Verrazano School, The Women’s Center, and the Pluralism and Diversity Program have worked together to make this event possible.