In it’s forth year, the YVCC Latin Music Cel­e­bra­tion has grown into a major out­reach event for YVCC Music and The Sea­sons. Dur­ing the 2009 event, we had over 1,400 edu­ca­tion par­tic­i­pants dur­ing the three day fes­ti­val. Our goal is to present a pos­i­tive, hands-on mul­ti­cul­tural enrich­ment to the stu­dents and com­mu­nity of the Yakima Val­ley. We accom­plish this in two ways:
1. Hands-on clin­ics that give the stu­dent a chance of not only learn­ing about the music and cul­ture but to also give them a chance to per­form along side with  YVCC col­lege stu­dents and our guest artists.
2. Per­for­mance Clin­ics: This presents the music in a con­cert set­ting with the guest artists and the direc­tor a chance to explain the influences and ingre­di­ents to the music that is per­formed. It is also a chance to show­case YVCC stu­dents orig­i­nal com­po­si­tions.
Dur­ing the 3^rd Annual Cel­e­bra­tion in 2009 we had a vari­ety of hands-on clin­ics includ­ing:
• Brazil­ian Drum­ming
• Afro-Cuban Drum­ming
• Latin Jazz Impro­vi­sa­tion
• Re-Mixing a Salsa Tune using Garage­Band
• Latin Vocal Music
• Rhythm Sec­tion Tech­niques of a Salsa Band

Click here to see pic­tures from the 2010 Latin Music Celebration

“To me it was an honor par­tic­i­pat­ing in the YVCC Latin Music Cel­e­bra­tion Con­cert. Not just per­form­ing along with the YVCC Salsa Band, but watch­ing them play was amaz­ing know­ing that there is so much tal­ent in the com­mu­nity makes me proud.”
– Gabrela Ramirez
Top­pen­ish High School Student

About David

David Blink is the direc­tor of Instru­men­tal Music and Jazz Stud­ies at Yakima Val­ley Com­mu­nity Col­lege. Cur­rently he directs the award win­ning YVCC Salsa Band and World Drum­ming Ensem­ble. He also teaches courses in Music The­ory, Aural Skills, His­tory of Jazz and Rock and Roll Courses.  Mr. Blink has is the Direc­tor of Edu­ca­tion at The Sea­sons Per­for­mance Hall in Yakima, WA where he coor­di­nates out­reach efforts all across the Yakima Val­ley. He has also served as fes­ti­val direc­tor for the YVCC Latin Music Cel­e­bra­tion and the 2009 NYC Latin Jazz Sum­mit. Mr. Blink is also an active trum­pet player and com­poser.  As a com­poser, his works have been per­formed at the Edin­burgh Fringe Fes­ti­val (Scot­land), Inter­na­tional New Music Fes­ti­val (Las Vegas, NV), Soci­ety of Com­posers Inc. Regional Con­fer­ence (Ellens­burg, WA), and for a com­mer­cial aired dur­ing the 2004 Super Bowl. His “Build­ing Bridges” tune is included in the clas­sic “Latin Real Book” (Sher Publishing).