Raul Midón. Photo by Samuel Prather
Wortham Center for the Performing Arts invites you to experience musical creativity with no bounds as renowned singer-songwriter Raul Midón performs on Saturday, April 15, at 8 p.m. in Diana Wortham Theatre. Blind since birth, Midón lives in a world of sound, singing with the passion of the best classic soul singers and playing guitar with the instrumental chops of history’s most accomplished jazz musicians. As someone who has never experienced the world visually, his interpretation of his surroundings is limitless—and that comes through with unworldly vibrance in his work.
“There is always a story behind the music of an artist,” says the Wortham Center’s managing director Rae Geoffrey, “but Raul’s story is deeply woven into his work, resulting in a multi-layered experience providing stellar music and inspiration for his audiences.”
A native of New Mexico, Midón established himself as a first-call session singer upon graduation from the prestigious Studio Jazz program at the University of Miami in 1991. He sang background vocals on more than 60 Latin recordings, many of them GRAMMY-winning. In 1999 he joined the touring band of Shakira. During that time, he created his own original music, signed a development deal with Warner Chappell Music, then left Shakira’s band to move to NYC and pursue his own career.
Midón has since collaborated with musical legends including Herbie Hancock, Stevie Wonder and Bill Withers, and has contributed to recordings by Queen Latifah and Snoop Dogg and to the soundtrack to Spike Lee’s She Hate Me. Midón has earned acclaim the world over, with a fanbase that stretches from San Francisco to India, and Amsterdam to Tokyo. His 2017 release, Bad Ass and Blind, earned the singer a GRAMMY nomination for Best Jazz Vocal Performance. In 2021 his album The Mirror was nominated for Best Jazz Album from the A2IM Libera Awards. Also, in 2021 he was awarded the Disability Rights Ambassador of the year award, presented to him in a virtual ceremony by his friend and colleague Jason Mraz.
Told as a child that his blindness meant he couldn’t do things, Midón has lived a life devoted to beating the odds and shattering stereotypes, learning his own lessons along the way. His signature silky voice and percussive guitar are a syncopated wonder in which bass, harmony and melodic lines fly from the fretboard.
“I always play a mixture of new and older material in my shows,” says Midón. “My performance at Wortham will be eclectic and feature a good bit of improvisation, from the mouth trumpet to guitar, percussion to vocals. Most likely I will premiere a new tune in the show.”
The Wortham Center for the Performing Arts is located at 18 Biltmore Avenue in downtown Asheville. To learn more or purchase tickets, visit WorthamArts.org or call 828.257.4530.
