SPECIALTY PROGRAMS

Que Viva La Musica with Vicki Sola

Saturdays, 12:00Noon to 4:00PM Eastern Time

Biography

Since 1983, Vicki Sola has provided the New York-New Jersey Latino community with quality salsa and Latin jazz produced by a singular mix of famous performers, plus artists rarely heard on more commercial stations. On her Saturday afternoon program QUE VIVA LA MUSICA, She also presents live interviews with musicians, writers, and other individuals active in the arts.

Sola is also an author, and has been writing about music and the arts since the eighties. Her work has appeared in various respected trade periodicals of local & international circulations. Her articles have been published in Impacto magazine and Que Pasa. Since October 1998, Sola has covered the New York Metropolitan Latin Music Scene for the Internationally Circulated Latin Beat Magazine, writing the two-page monthly column " A bite from the apple", listing New York City's top 20 hit parades, and contributing feature articles. Sola, who majored in english and communications at Fairleigh Dickinson University, also served as New York columnist for the Internationally Circulated Latin London Magazine. Since 1996, she has been a contributing editor and columnist for the Newsletter and Catalog Descarga, a bible of Latin music which features industry news, plus listings of most of the CDs, videos and books ever produced in the field.

Sola, born of a Puerto Rican father and a Russian-Norwegian mother, is listed in the Encyclopedia of Latin American Music in New York (Pillar Publications). Her program QUE VIVA LA MUSICA received mention by composer Jimmy Webb, in the book "Tunesmith" (Hyperion). Sola was selected as an Outstanding Young Woman of America by that organization, in recognition of exceptional ability, accomplishments, and service to the community. She was also presented a proclamation from New York senator David Rosado, in recognition of her accomplishments, and was the recipient of an International Latin Music Hall of Fame special recognition award for the year 2001.

By special invitation, Sola has served twice as a judge in the final rounds of the AFIM Indie Awards (Association for Independent Music), evaluating and rating recordings in the recently added Latin Music category.

In 1999, Sola accepted an invitation from the Smithsonian Institution to serve as an advisor to the Smithsonian Institution's Latin Jazz planning committee, organized by the Smithsonian's America's jazz heritage. She assisted in the planning of a traveling exhibition for the Smithsonian Institution's Travelling Exhibition Service and America's Jazz Heritage, entitled "Latin Jazz: La Combinacion Perfecta", and she also helped choose the selections included in the CD released in conjuction with the exhibition "Latin Jazz: La Combinacion Perfecta" (SMITHSONIAN FOLKWAYS RECORDINGS). In the exhibition's interactive media module, Sola's voice can be heard along with Tito Puente's narrating a segment describing the mambo. The exhibition opened in Washington, D.C. on October 19, 2002.