Eric Oberstein
Eric Oberstein

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About ERIC

 

PRODUCER | CURATOR | ARTS ADMINISTRATOR | EDUCATOR

 

Eric Oberstein is a multiple GRAMMY and Latin GRAMMY-winning producer, senior-level curator and arts administrator, and educator. Oberstein has 14 years of executive and senior-level experience managing arts organizations in the non-profit and higher education spheres. He is a respected leader and valued collaborator, committed to creating environments that nurture adventurous artists to achieve their goals — whether in the studio, on stage, or in the community. He is equally invested in building and managing sustainable arts organizations, and producing unique arts experiences that bring people together.

Oberstein serves as Managing Director of Harlem Stage, the award-winning, New York-based performing arts center committed to visionary artists of color through transformative presenting, commissioning, producing, and educational work, operating out of the historic Gatehouse. Oberstein and his colleagues have curated, commissioned, and produced projects and presentations by artists including Craig Harris, Jason ‘Timbuktu’ Diakité, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company, nia love, Cynthia Oliver, nora chipaumire, Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE, Stew, Henry Threadgill, Vijay Iyer, Ambrose Akinmusire, Michela Marino Lerman, Flor de Toloache, and many more. Oberstein is proud to co-manage Harlem Stage’s robust Education program, serving a network of Harlem schools and community partners.

Oberstein collaborates with Cuban-born, GRAMMY-winning drummer, composer, educator, and MacArthur Fellow Dafnis Prieto, serving as Producer on the Dafnis Prieto Big Band’s 2018 GRAMMY-winning album, Back to the Sunset; the Dafnis Prieto Sextet’s 2020 GRAMMY-nominated album, Transparency; and Dafnis Prieto’s 2022 album, Cantar, featuring vocalist Luciana Souza and co-produced with Larry Klein. Oberstein is currently producing Prieto’s forthcoming Sí o Sí Quartet album, out Fall 2024. He produced Prieto’s tour to his native Cuba in January 2019, to perform his music on the island for the first time in 20 years, documented in the short film, Regresar: Back in Cuba.

Oberstein previously served as Interim Director (and Associate Director) of Duke Performances, the professional performing arts presenting organization at his alma mater, Duke University. At Duke Performances, Oberstein worked with a team committed to presenting world-class, forward-thinking performing arts. He managed large-scale commissions and visiting artist residencies that engaged both Duke’s campus and the broader Durham community by artists that included Jason Moran, Gerald Clayton, Leyla McCalla, Bijayini Satpathy, Camille A. Brown, Kyle Abraham, Simone Dinnerstein & Pam Tanowitz Dance, American Ballet Theatre & Stefanie Batten Bland, Malpaso Dance Company, Hiss Golden Messenger, Jenny Scheinman, yMusic, Jennifer Koh, Imani Winds, Fisk Jubilee Singers, Ana Tijoux, Saul Williams, and many others. Oberstein also collaborated on producing MONK@100, a ten-day festival in October 2017 celebrating the centenary of jazz icon and North Carolina native Thelonious Monk.

Prior to returning to Duke, Oberstein served as Executive Director of the Afro Latin Jazz Alliance, the New York-based non-profit dedicated to Afro Latin Jazz performance, education, and preservation, and the home of the GRAMMY-winning Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, directed by pianist, composer, and educator Arturo O’Farrill. In 2010 Oberstein produced the Chico O’Farrill Afro Cuban Jazz Orchestra’s tour to Cuba, returning legendary Cuban composer and arranger Chico O’Farrill’s musicians to his homeland for headlining performances at the 26th edition of the Havana International Jazz Plaza Festival.

A New York-born and raised saxophonist and drummer of Cuban American heritage, Oberstein is an accomplished music producer with an appetite and ear for music across genres and styles. Oberstein has won two GRAMMY Awards and two Latin GRAMMY Awards, and his productions have earned 11 nominations and six wins. His albums have been named to “Best of” lists by NPR Music, iTunes, DownBeat, JazzTimes, and The Village Voice, among others.

Oberstein previously produced six albums with O’Farrill, ranging from solo piano to big bands. Credits with O’Farrill include: Cuba: The Conversation Continues, The Offense of the Drum, Final Night at Birdland, The Noguchi Sessions, 40 Acres and a Burro, and Risa Negra. He also served as Project Manager on Fences, the 2017 record by Durham, NC-based folk-pop trio, Bombadil.

Oberstein is working on a forthcoming EP from vocalist Vuyo Sotashe and pianist Chris Pattishall, co-produced with Rafiq Bhatia.

Longtime New York Times jazz critic Nate Chinen named both Dafnis Prieto Big Band’s Back to the Sunset, and Arturo O’Farrill & the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra’s 40 Acres and a Burro, both produced by Oberstein, as two of “The 129 Essential Albums of the Twenty-First Century (So Far)” in his 2018 book, Playing Changes: Jazz for the New Century.

Oberstein is also a committed educator, invested in mentoring young arts administrators. He previously served as an adjunct faculty member in Duke’s Innovation & Entrepreneurship program, where he designed and taught a fully enrolled course, Introduction to Performing Arts Management & Entrepreneurship, for Duke undergraduates, a collaboration with Duke Performances and Duke Arts.

Oberstein has conducted research and written on the Creative Campus movement and the role of the arts in higher education, authoring a chapter which appears in the critically acclaimed anthology, 20UNDER40: Re-inventing the Arts and Arts Education for the 21st Century, a collection of twenty essays about the future of the arts and arts education, each written by an emerging leader under the age of forty.

He has previously worked at Jazz at Lincoln Center, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, the Office for the Arts at Harvard, and the Research Center for Arts and Culture.

Oberstein has been invited as a guest speaker at colleges and universities, including Duke, Columbia, Harvard, Pratt Institute, Stony Brook University, LIU Post, and UNC Pembroke. He has also served on numerous arts grant panels throughout his career. He was an invited member of the 2018 cohort of the Association of Performing Arts Professionals’ (APAP) Emerging Leadership Institute, and he is a proud member of the Creative & Independent Producer Alliance (CIPA).

Oberstein holds Master’s degrees in Arts Administration and Arts in Education from Columbia University and Harvard University, respectively. He earned his undergraduate degree with distinction from Duke University.

PRODUCING HISTORY

Dafnis Prieto

Vuyo Sotashe & Chris Pattishall

  • 2024: EP (forthcoming)

 

Photo by Alex Boerner.