Kamini Purushothaman, Contributing Photographer

Love, song and dance await audiences at La Orquesta Tertulia’s “Noche de Amor” this Feb. 16 and 17 in the Grace Hopper Cabaret. 

The Valentine’s Day-themed event will be the orchestra’s first-ever formal showcase. La Orquesta Tertulia, formerly a low-profile group on campus, is Yale’s premier salsa and merengue Latin band. This year, leaders said that the Orquesta is aiming to establish a more formal presence on campus. 

“We’re basically inviting the audience to dance and fall in love with each other and us and to experience the atmosphere of amor,” said Risha Chakraborty ’25, a trumpet player and one of the Orquesta’s three band leaders.

Chakraborty joined the Orquesta as a first year, when the band, still operating informally, was revived from a period of inactivity spurred by the pandemic. As she is not Latina, the experience served as her first exposure to salsa and merengue music, which has since become her favorite genre to play, she said. Now, the group is undergoing a second revival, spearheaded by Chakraborty and her fellow bandleaders. 

While the group was founded 10 years ago, until now it has operated mostly informally, performing a few songs at events hosted by other groups on campus. This showcase, however, will be hosted by the Orquesta itself, inaugurating a more formal presence on campus for the group and launching its partnership with La Casa Cultural. 

This process of formalization will allow the Orquesta greater access to funding from University organizations, as well as more opportunities for collaboration with other performing groups on campus. By affiliating with La Casa in particular, the orchestra’s leaders said they hope that the group can reach a wider audience and further integrate itself into Yale’s Latine community. 

“It’s important to have organizations like these on campus to represent what is a substantial and growing demographic within the United States more generally and, in particular, within the Yale community as well,” Frederick Rivas-Giorgi ’26 told the News. 

Rivas-Giorgi, a pianist and another of the Orquesta’s co-band leaders, shared that with the recent influx of Caribbean — specifically Venezuelan — immigrants entering the United States, salsa music has become more popular around the country.

Yale’s Latine student population is also at an all-time high, with about one out of every five students in the Class of 2027 identifying as Latine. Rivas-Giorgi said he believes that this increasing diversity on both the national and campus levels makes the representation of different musical traditions with groups like the Orquesta even more necessary. 

“Noche de Amor” will combine the group’s passion for Latin American musical tradition with a celebration of Valentine’s Day, a holiday that echoes the themes of love and heartbreak presented in much of the group’s repertoire.  

“A lot of salsa, merengue music is about love,” said Chakraborty. “It’s about the different processes of love: breaking up, having really serious anger toward your ex … And [of] being so desperately in love with someone.”

The performance is set to highlight around ten songs — a much longer setlist than usual for the group — interspersed with skits. The skits follow two characters, played by Chakraborty and one of the Orquesta’s singers, as they fall in love. 

This is the first time that the Orquesta has attempted to combine its musical storytelling with acting, all under the umbrella of a Valentine’s Day theme. Given the holiday’s resonance with salsa and merengue music, group members like Eliana Cortez ’25, the third band leader, hope that this can become an annual tradition. 

“We’re telling a story with the songs that we chose,” said Cortez. 

Cortez and her fellow bandleaders shared that one of the most unique elements of salsa and merengue as orchestral genres is the way in which they inspire audience engagement. Unlike Western symphony orchestras, these Latin American musical styles encourage audiences to dance alongside musicians, changing the experience for audience members and performers alike. 

For this reason, the Orquesta selected the Grace Hopper Cabaret as the location for a performance, given the amount of space available for movement in the venue. Group members said they hope that the Cabaret can create a speakeasy-like setting for the audience to enjoy and engage with the Orquesta’s combination of song and skit. 

“Playing music for an audience that is designed to make them get up and dance and engage with the band is really, really fun,” Chakraborty concluded. 

Tickets for La Orquesta Tertulia’s shows on Friday at 8 p.m. and Saturday at 3 p.m. can be purchased through Yale Connect.