Crash Course: Bad Bunny and Beyond – Musical Aesthetics and Puerto Rican History

Join us for a deep dive into Puerto Rican history and identity through the sounds that shape it—from Bad Bunny to the Puerto Rico Symphony. Dr. Albert Laguna (Yale University) guides this one-of-a-kind crash course, using music as a lens to explore cultural shifts, politics, and aesthetics.

Featuring special guests: 
Luis Sanz, virtuoso cuatro player featured on Bad Bunny’s latest album 
Angélica Negrón, acclaimed composer and PR Symphony collaborator

The evening concludes with a lively audience Q&A. Come ready to listen and learn.

Luis Sanz
Born on August 2, 1994, in Bayamón, Puerto Rico, award-winning artist Luis Sanz is a renowned cuatro player, composer, co-founder of the band Hermanos Sanz, and professor at the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico. His exceptional improvisational skill and creative depth have led him to compose original works for symphony orchestra and collaborate with a wide range of acclaimed artists, including Lin-Manuel Miranda, Residente (Calle 13), Ednita Nazario, Luis Fonsi, Gilberto Santa Rosa, Bernie Williams, Víctor Manuelle, Elvis Crespo, José Nogueras, Danny Rivera, Hermes Croatto, El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico, Kany García, Olga Tañón, Lucecita Benítez, Bad Bunny, among others.

Luis began playing the Puerto Rican cuatro at the age of four, and by nine, he had performed with the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra. His compositions have been performed across China, Spain, the United Kingdom, France, South America, and the United States. In 2016, he received a recognition from the Puerto Rican Arts Alliance of Chicago for his outstanding contributions to the cuatro.

In 2017, Sanz performed at the Latin Grammy Awards alongside Residente and collaborated with Lin-Manuel Miranda on a film celebrating Puerto Rican culture. He was named Ambassador of the Puerto Rican Cuatro at the 2018 National Puerto Rican Day Parade in New York and received the Artpreneur Presidential Scholarship from the Kenan Institute for the Arts (2019). That same year, he earned the Isla del Encanto Award for Best Short Film (Expresiones II: Pasivo) at the International Puerto Rican Heritage Film Festival in New York.

His 2019 album Cuatro Sinfónico—featuring all original music—combines Puerto Rican folkloric and classical traditions with diverse instrumentation and was ranked #5 Best Puerto Rican Record Production by the “Fundación Nacional para la Cultura Popular”.  

In 2023, he launched Cuatro Beats, an innovative project that fuses Puerto Rican folk music with instrumental trap and electronic textures. The music video, created with artificial intelligence, is available on his YouTube channel, Luis Sanz Music.

In 2024, Sanz was appointed Director of the Department of Contemporary Arts at the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico, Metropolitan Campus, where he leads both the Popular Music and Design Programs.

In 2025, Luis reached global audiences as a featured cuatro and bordonúa player on Bad Bunny’s Lo Que Le Pasó a Hawái from the album Debí Tirar Más Fotos, and he also appeared performing live with Bad Bunny on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert.

Luis holds a Bachelor’s degree in Music Composition from the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music, a Bachelor’s degree in Electric Bass Performance with a minor in Education from the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico, and a Master’s degree in Composition from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. He is currently pursuing a Doctorate (DPS) in Organizational Systems Management at the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico. 

Angélica Negrón
Angélica Negrón is a Puerto Rican-born composer and multi-instrumentalist. She writes music for voices, orchestras, ensembles and film as well as robots, toys, and plants. Angélica is known for playing with the unexpected intersection of classical and electronic music, unusual instruments, and found sounds.

Upcoming premieres include a cello concerto performed by Yo-Yo Ma and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel and a requiem for Dallas Symphony Orchestra. Recent commissions include works for Opera Philadelphia (a drag opera film in collaboration with Mathew Placek and Sasha Velour), New York Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, the NY Botanical Garden, Kronos Quartet, Roomful of Teeth, and her Carnegie Hall debut, commissioned and performed by Sō Percussion. As a guest curator for Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Green Umbrella series (2025), under the creative direction of John Adams, Angélica brings together collaborators Lido Pimienta, Darian Donovan Thomas and Raquel Acevedo Klein; and continues to develop a multi-disciplinary work as a Lincoln Center Collider Fellow. As the recipient of the 2022 Hermitage Greenfield Prize, Angélica composed a new work synchronized to the setting sun for EnsembleNewSRQ.

Angélica’s original scores include the HBO docuseries Menudo: Forever Young and You Were My First Boyfriend directed by Cecilia Aldarondo. She regularly performs a solo show and is a founding member of the tropical electronic band Balún. As an educator, Angélica has been a teaching artist with NY Philharmonic’s Very Young Composers program and with Lincoln Center Education.

Angélica lives in Brooklyn, where she’s always looking for ways to incorporate her love of drag, comedy, and the natural world into her work.