Jeannette C. Piña, Promoter

Jeannette C. Piña is a jazz and arts promoter and the founder of www.southfloridajazzlist.com

After serving the United States as a Foreign Service Officer for 26 years, Jeannette Piña moved to Florida to work with her life’s passion – music, specifically, jazz. As a U.S. Diplomat, Piña managed U.S. Government operations in eight embassies, Canada, Peru, Brazil, Iraq, Spain, Vietnam, Mauritania, and Washington, D.C. She supervised multicultural workforces in challenging environments. She is multilingual in Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, and Vietnamese.

Jeannette has extensive experience in organization, management, event planning, and coordination of complex projects. In 2002, she organized Afro-Fest, a weeklong film festival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, that included seminars, conferences, a Director’s workshop, and a panel discussion on Public Media and the Role of Afro-Brazilians. Actor Morgan Freeman was the Guest of Honor.

Piña received the Meritorious Honor Award. She raised $50,000 to bring 12 teenage Brazilian dancers to perform at the Kennedy Center, with the National Symphony Orchestra in 2003, launching the professional careers of three dancers. All 12 are principal dancers with American or Brazilian companies, or teaching in their own schools.

For Jambalaya Jazz, Piña created the two-week festival with four jazz groups from New Orleans to Rio. She organized the six-day concert series with Brazilian and American jazz musicians and supervised a fundraiser brunch with six jazz groups, which netted $100,000 to support young Brazilian musicians. Jambalaya Jazz ran for two years and was a resounding success. Jeannette has been promoting jazz in South Florida since 2001, but the first program she promoted was Jambalaya Jazz, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2002. The most famous artists she promoted were Wolfman Jack, Alvin Batiste, Rebirth Brass Band, The Wild Magnolias, Morgan Freeman, and the Horizons Jazz Orchestra.

Piña agreed with many promoters that the most challenging thing about promoting and producing is funding. Although she has not produced or promoted women musicians, she has been a supporting member of Women in Jazz South Florida, Inc. since 2013. Jeannette is not a musician. She is a sole proprietor in her business, Pineapple Arts Management that has handled budgets up to $30,000.

Jeannette C. Piña, Jazz and Arts Promoter www.southfloridajazzlist.com Pineapple Arts Management heyjcp@gmail.com 703.477.6189

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