Grammy-winning Latin jazz pianist and composer Zaccai Curtis is scheduled to perform at the Thomas S. Gates Community Center at College of the Atlantic. The event is open to the entire Mount Desert Island community, with donations welcome at the door. Curtis, an acclaimed recording artist and producer, recently received the 2025 Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album for his work on Cubop Lives!. His upcoming performance is described as “music meant to move you forward and help carry you wherever you need to go.”
Curtis leads his own musical groups, the Zaccai Curtis Quintet and Sonido Solar. In 2026, he released his new album, Sonoluminescence Vol. 1. His contributions extend beyond performing; he is also a respected producer, having worked on the Grammy-nominated album Entre Colegas by Andy González in 2016. Alongside his brother, Luques, Curtis co-founded the record label TRRcollective, a platform designed as a collaborative space for musicians to produce and release their own compositions.
Throughout his career, Curtis has performed with a range of renowned artists. His collaborations include work with Christian Scott, Donald Harrison, Cindy Blackman Santana, Eddie Palmieri, Brian Lynch, The Mambo Legends, and Avery Sharpe. A Connecticut native, Curtis moved to New York City in 2005, where he has maintained an active presence in the music scene. He is also recognized as a Yamaha artist.
In addition to his performance and production endeavors, Curtis is an established educator. He teaches at the University of Hartford’s Jackie McLean Jazz Studies Division and Western Connecticut State University. His commitment to music education is further demonstrated through his authorship of two instructional books, Art of the Guajeo and Theory of the Common Voicing. These resources are designed to support students in their studies of jazz and Latin Jazz.
Curtis is a prolific composer and arranger, creating music for his own groups as well as for other artists, including Little Johnny Rivero, Steve Kroon, and Sonido Solar. His talent in composition has been recognized with three ASCAP Young Jazz Composer Awards. His quartet was twice selected by the US State Department for the American Music Abroad (Jazz Ambassadors) program, through which they toured South Asia in 2006.
Further accolades include the 2007 Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism’s Artist Fellowship for original composition. In 2017, Curtis was awarded the Chamber Music America’s New Jazz Works grant, recognizing his innovative contributions to jazz. His growing prominence in the field was noted in 2020 when he was named Rising Star in the DownBeat Critics Poll.
