Trombonist, composer and arranger Allie Biancoviso will bring her jazz orchestra to Coral Gables on Friday for a free concert that moves from big-band standards and original compositions to Cuban rhythms and contemporary pop.
The Allie Biancoviso Jazz Orchestra performs Oct. 2 at 7:30 p.m. at First United Methodist Church of Coral Gables, 536 Coral Way. Admission is free and open to the public.
Biancoviso leads the ensemble from the trombone chair, but the orchestra is built to give its musicians room of their own. Solo turns move around the band rather than remaining concentrated among one or two featured players, with Biancoviso’s arrangements providing the framework.
The program mixes her original compositions with arrangements of familiar songs, drawing from jazz standards, Cuban music and contemporary pop. The result is a concert designed to offer recognizable entry points while still giving Biancoviso’s own writing a prominent place.
A career spanning jazz, pop and Cuba
Biancoviso grew up on Staten Island and now lives in Miami, where her career has crossed a wide range of musical settings.
She has performed with bassist Christian McBride, appeared onstage with Bad Bunny and played with the Colombian group Monsieur Periné and South Florida’s RF Factor, in addition to steady freelance work around the region.
In January 2024, the Allie Biancoviso Quintet reached the finals of the Music at McBride Performance Series. Later that year, she toured Cuba as a sideman with the Mike Davison Big Band, performing at the Festival Internacional Jazz Plaza in Santiago de Cuba.
She was selected for the Stanford Jazz Workshop’s Mentor Fellow Cohort in both 2024 and 2025 and performed at the Stanford Jazz Festival in 2025.
Those appearances reflect the range of a musician whose work moves between ensemble playing, arranging, composing and education rather than remaining in a single lane.
Performance and teaching in parallel
Teaching has developed alongside Biancoviso’s performing career.
She serves on the faculty of the Stanford Jazz Workshop, teaches as an adjunct instructor at Westminster Christian School and works as a teaching assistant with the University of Miami’s Shalala MusicReach Program. She has also led masterclasses in Cuba and taught private students from around the country.
Biancoviso is pursuing a doctorate in jazz composition at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music. She previously earned a master’s degree in jazz pedagogy there and received a fellowship with the Henry Mancini Institute. Her undergraduate degree in music education is from Penn State.
Her work as both performer and educator has brought recognition beyond the stage. Biancoviso received the Jazz Education Network’s Hal Leonard Scholarship and the Margot Jazz Fund Award in 2022. In June 2024, she was selected for Jazz Aspen Snowmass’ JAS Academy, a competitive program for rising jazz musicians.
That combination of performance and study feeds directly into the orchestra she brings to Coral Gables. Rather than functioning only as a vehicle for familiar big-band repertoire, the ensemble gives Biancoviso a setting for her own writing and arranging while creating space for individual musicians to step forward.
Jazz in a century-old sanctuary
Friday’s concert also puts the orchestra inside one of Coral Gables’ older musical settings.
First United Methodist Church of Coral Gables dates to 1926 and was designed by architect William H. Merriam. Its main sanctuary has housed a Schantz pipe organ since 1994 and has long served as a setting for live music.
A jazz orchestra brings a different sound to that room.
Big bands centered on the writing and arrangements of a working composer offer something different from programs built primarily around familiar standards. Biancoviso’s ensemble combines both approaches, placing her own compositions alongside recognizable material and drawing from jazz, Cuban music and contemporary pop.
That range gives listeners who do not ordinarily seek out big-band jazz an accessible way into the program without reducing the concert to familiar material alone. For experienced jazz audiences, the attraction is the chance to hear how a young composer and arranger shapes a large ensemble around her own musical voice.
The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 2. Seating is first come, first served.
For information, call 305-445-2578.
Author: Coral Gables Gazette News Staff
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