José Antonio Zayas Cabán

A Grammy-nominated artist and McKnight Fellow, José A. Zayas Cabán has presented performances and taught master classes throughout Europe, the Caribbean, and North America. A native Puerto Rican (born and raised in Mayagüez PR) and musician activist, José now resides in Minneapolis MN and is building an artistic career focused on developing projects, albums, and collaborations that address, respond, and raise awareness about current events and social issues.

Winner of the 2019 New Music USA Project Grant, Cabán is currently collaborating with multiple Grammy Nominee and Guggenheim and MacArthur Fellow Miguel Zenón on a work titled El País Invisible (The Invisible Nation, 2019), which was nominated for Best Composition in the 2023 GRAMMY® awards. The single, released July 2022, reflects on the relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States Empire.

In addition, Cabán is developing a project with Angélica Negrón as the recipient of the McKnight Visiting Composer Fellowship that will result in a new composition titled Pedacito de Tierra (Little Piece of Land). Influenced by the work of Rafael Tufiño, and photographer Erika Rodriguez, Pedacito de Tierra will celebrate Puerto Rico’s stories and struggles. The collaboration with Angélica Negrón and Miguel Zenón is part of a larger, long term, project called Puerto Rico se Re-Inventa.

Cabán is developing this project to schedule annual residencies in Puerto Rico and bring free music concerts to the communities of Puerto Rico and, by documenting these visits to the island, raise consciousness and awareness about Puerto Rico in the mainland United States.

His debut album, CENTENNIAL, commemorates the women’s suffrage movement and the ratification of the 19th amendment in August 1920. It includes music by Kinds of Kings composers Gemma Peacocke (Skin, 2016) and Shelley Washington (Big Talk, 2016), as well as trios by Amanda Feery (Gone to Earth, 2018) and Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel (Trio, Op. 11, 1846).

Cabán is the co-founder of the Chamber Music Trio {Trés}, which was started as a collaborative project by Cabán and Colin Young with the purpose of creating transcriptions and commissioning new works for a two saxophone and piano ensemble to perform. The trio has since performed chamber music by a wide range of composers in Central America, the Caribbean, and throughout the United States. In the wake of Hurricanes Irma and María, {Trés} finished a national tour (2018) titled A Tribute to Puerto Rico to help raise funds and awareness about Puerto Rico and the island’s efforts to recover from the hurricanes. In November 2019, the trio completed its first residency in Puerto Rico.

Cabán is a D’Addario, LefreQue, and Yamaha Artist.