For this award, Oberstein produced the album Back to the Sunset, performed by the Dafnis Prieto Big Band. In 2015, Oberstein won the Best Latin Jazz Album GRAMMY for producing The Offense of the Drum with friend and musical collaborator, Arturo O’Farrill with the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra.
Raised just outside of Queens, NY on Long Island by a Cuban mother and an American father, Oberstein has maintained a deep love for Latin jazz since his childhood. As an undergraduate Duke student, Oberstein interned with Jazz at Lincoln Center through the Duke in New York program. He caught a lucky break after college when Arturo O’Farrill hired him as an intern after reading Oberstein’s contact information on the back of an audience response card. Several GRAMMY and Latin GRAMMY nominations later, Oberstein serves as the Associate Director of Duke Performances and produces jazz and Latin jazz with Prieto and others in his spare time.
Oberstein will be teaching the class, “Introduction to Performing Arts Management & Entrepreneurship” in the Rubenstein Arts Center in Spring ’19. Duke Performances will present the Dafnis Prieto Big Band at Baldwin Auditorium on Friday, March 29. Tune in to the GRAMMY awards on Sunday, Feb 10 to see if Oberstein and the Dafnis Prieto Big Band receive this award.