MUSIC

The 2011 Berklee College of Music Signature Series continues on Thursday, January 20 with Oscar-winning singer-songwriter Jorge Drexler. Matching a world music sensibility with the rhythms of his native Uruguay, Drexler has received a combined total of seven Grammy and Latin Grammy award nominations, and has won two Spanish Music Prizes. Jorge Drexler Meets Berklee takes place on Thursday, January 20, at 8:15 p.m. at the Berklee Performance Center, 136 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston. General admission tickets are $15 and $10 reserved seating, and are available at the box office, at ticketmaster.com, or by calling 617 931-2000. For more information, call 617 747-2261 or visit berkleebpc.com. The concert is produced by bass professor Oscar Stagnaro and arranged and conducted by contemporary writing and production chair Matt Nicholl. Faculty cellist Eugene Friesen will be featured on Drexler's composition, "Al Otro Lado del Río." Berklee student Emily Elbert (http://emilyelbert.com) will open the show. Jorge Drexler (http://www.jorgedrexler.com), in 1994, became the first Uruguayan to win an Academy Award with Best Original Song "Al Otro Lado del Río," from the internationally acclaimed film The Motorcycle Diaries. Drexler's recent work includes the soundtrack for James Ivory's film The City of Your Final Destination. His latest album, Amar la Trama (2010), recorded in four days in front of a small audience chosen from an online contest, received four nominations for the 11th Latin Grammy Awards. Drexler was born in Montevideo to a Jewish family. His German parents migrated to Uruguay to escape German persecution. In 1992, he released his first album, La Luz Que Sabe Robar, the same year he earned a doctorate from the University of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay. In 1995, he was invited to Madrid by Spanish songwriter Joaquín Sabina, who introduced him to other important Spanish singers. Drexler went to Spain to record the album Vaivén in 1996 with Spanish musicians. Vaivén included some old songs from his previous releases mixed with new compositions. He moved to Spain and recorded another four albums: Llueve (1998), Frontera (1999), Sea (2001) and Eco (2004). Although he lives most of the year in Spain, many of his albums were partially recorded in Uruguay with Uruguayan musicians. Artists such as Mercedes Sosa, Shakira, Omara Portuondo, Maria Rita, Ana Belén, Victor Manuel, and Zélia Duncan have recorded on his songs.