Maite Hontelé & Ramón Valle

Maite Hontelé
It is not an easy task for a European musician to be adopted by the cradle of La8n American music, but the Latinos are clear: Maite Hontelé is a true artist, even though she comes from Europe.
The Dutch trumpet player, composer and band leader proves it right with her music, recorded on five albums full of salsa, Cuban son, cha- cha-cha, ‘urban’ salsa, Mozambique, Latin jazz, changuï and rumba. It is not surprising that she has been nominated twice for a La8n Grammy Award, has worked with big names such as Gilberto Santa Rosa, Vicente García and the Aragón Orchestra. She has also toured with Rubén Blades, Yuri Buenaventura, Issac Delgado, Sonora Ponceña and Oscar D’ León, among others. Her latest album Cuba Linda was recorded in the legendary Egrem studios (Buena Vista Social Club). After a 5-year break, she is now back on stage in search of a musical adventure, together with Ramón Valle.

Ramón Valle
Ramón Valle was born in Holguín, Cuba. Growing up in a family of musicians, he developed an interest in the piano at an early age.
At the age of 8 he began his classical piano studies and at the age of 20 he graduated with honors from the Havana Conservatory.
In Cuba, Ramón plays with na8onal heroes such as Silvio Rodríguez, Emiliano Salvador and San8ago Feliu. Despite his classical studies, Ramón has an incredible passion for jazz music and decides to go to Europe to further develop his own sound.
He se`led in the Netherlands in 1997, from where he traveled all over the world with his music and made interna8onal collabora8ons with, among others, Roy Hargrove, Marcus Miller Russell Malone and Chucho Valdés. But also in the Netherlands Valle immediately connects with the best of the Dutch scene such as Eric Vloeimans, Jesse van Ruller, Reinier Baas, Benjamin Herman, Martin Fondse, Tania Cross Lavinia Meijer and Ruth Jaco`. He has inspired more than 200,000 visitors with his live music. He sold out the Concertgebouw during the Robeco Summer Series, played several times at the North Sea Jazz Festival and was even considered the surprise of the festival by critics during his first year.
Ramón has released 14 albums with various pres8gious record labels and today has a recording contract with the international In+Out Records. He composes music for various symphony orchestras and tours with them as a guest soloist in Israel, Germany, the Netherlands and Cuba, among others. He is a popular guest on media such as
VRIJE GELUIDEN by VPRO, Opium Radio, Sublime FM. Valle also composed the music for a VPRO documentary. In 2018, Ramón Valle won the Cubadisco Award, the most prestigious award in Cuban music, for his album “The Art Of Two” in the category “Best Instrumental Album”. In 2019, Ramón received an honorary award for his work as a pianist and composer and was named ‘’one of the best Latin Jazz pianists in the world’’.
Since January 2020, Ramón Valle is an official Steinway Artist.