San Juan Jazz Hero
A tireless champion of Puerto Rican music and musicians, Brenda Hopkins Miranda is a pianist, composer, educator, and scholar who has played an essential role enriching the island’s cultural scene. Born and raised in San Juan, she has long connected Puerto Rico’s musical heritage to far-flung traditions, embracing flamenco, jazz, rock, pop, Brazilian, Afro-Caribbean, and European classical music as well as multicultural fusions of all kinds.
As a scholar Ms. Hopkins Miranda has published specialized essays on music in various magazines and newspapers. As an educator she directed the Music Program of the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña (ICP) from 2003 to 2006, and went on to create and direct the online creative education program Viviendo la Creatividad (Living Creativity), which she’s maintained since 2009.
Also in 2009 she began a three-year stint as a professor of musical ensembles at the Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico. Over the years Brenda has traveled widely to offer workshops on creativity, improvisation, piano execution, composition, and other topics at different institutions, and since 2009 as a professor in the Department of Popular Music of the Inter-American University, Metropolitan Campus in San Juan.
As a leader and recording artist, Brenda has released several independent albums featuring her original music, including 1998’s Boricua on Board, 1999’s Bohemia, and 2014’s Aeropiano, which was named by Fundación Nacional para la Cultura Popular as one of the best albums of the year.
She’s performed with her own group across the Caribbean and the Americas, and has toured with international artists such as Ricardo Montaner, Gilberto Santa Rosa, Marco Antonio Muñiz, Glenn Monroig, and Ednita Nazario, among others. Brenda has also performed or recorded with musicians such as Bob Moses, Bernie Williams, George Russell, William Cepeda, Henry Cole, and Paoli Mejías. With all of her various endeavors, Brenda has earned distinction as a Jazz Hero.
—Wilbert Sostre
