TORONTO, June 15 – Internationally known jazz and blues musician Manuel Obregón will receive an honorary doctor of laws degree tomorrow morning at York University. Following his acceptance speech, Obregón will perform a short piece from his repertoire.
Manuel Obregon
In the last 20 years, Obregón’s performances have showcased the symbiotic interrelation between music and the environment, incorporating visual images of the Costa Rican rainforest, ocean, and animal life, as well as the sounds of those environments as part of his piano works. He is also a producer and founder of the Papaya Orchestra, the first Central American orchestra that combines traditional instruments and rhythms with urban music and modern influences.
Obregón is also an environmentalist and public servant. In the field of politics, he served as Costa Rica’s minister of culture and youth from 2010 to 2014. Under his administration, he shifted the notion that culture was an expense to the idea that culture is an investment in people. He was able to connect cultural production in Costa Rica with the preservation of heritage and with environmental conservation.
In 2013, Obregón was the first Koerner Lecturer at the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University. He made several important visits to communities in Toronto, as well as to the Faculty’s rainforest project in Las Nubes, Costa Rica.
When: Tuesday, June 16, 2015 at 10:30am
Where: The Convocation Pavilion located at the Aviva Centre (formerly the Rexall Centre), 1 Shoreham Drive, at York University’s Keele campus (#8 on map).
The ceremony will be webcast at the following link, which will become live when it begins: http://www.yorku.ca/mygrad/livewebcast.
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Media contact:
Sandra McLean, Media Relations, 416-736-2100 ext. 22097, sandramc@yorku.ca
