Founder, Chris “Ifatoye” Theberge
Chris is a Grammy nominated musician/entrepreneur with decades of experience in international performance, music production, marketing/tech joint ventures, cultural/event curation, and studio/label ownership and management.
He is a founding member of the internationally renowned, Grammy-nominated jazz group Groove Collective, releasing albums on Warner/Reprise, Universal/Impuls and touring across the globe, performing at Montreux Jazz, North Sea Jazz, Red Rocks, WOMAD, Mount Fuji, and Blue Note jazz clubs in New York, Milan, Tokyo, Osaka & Nagoya.
Chris currently serves as Director of The Bowery Jazz Messengers, a NYC-based non-profit that helps high-school jazz musicians develop their craft while being of service, performing for the homeless and migrant communities in NYC’s.
He also served as a member of the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative during their African music cycle featuring music icon Youssou N'Dour and the late great Honduran artist Aurelio Martinez.
In 2018 Music Works production/label, in partnership with Sendero Music in Matanzas, won Cuba’s prestigious national Cubadisco award for Ilú Keké: Transmisión en la Erita Meta. The project is the historic recorded musical account of one of the oldest sets of Bata drums on the island and the African descendants & culture surrounding it.
He is currently producing projects in Cuba and Nigeria and curates “House of Drums”, an ongoing live event series celebrating Afro-descendant music & culture in New York City.
info@musicworksnyc.com