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ADMINISTRATION
Emily Cardenas is a New York transplant who has made Miami her home since 1989.
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She is a career communicator and storyteller with decades of experience as a journalist, PR and marketing professional and consultant.
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Before joining Dranoff 2 Piano, she was the executive editor of both The Miami Times and Biscayne Times newspapers, the first being South Florida’s premier weekly newspaper serving the Black community for more than a century. The latter is a prestigious, monthly news magazine serving the Miami-Dade Biscayne corridor.
She began her career as a television news writer and producer in Philadelphia.
In South Florida, Cardenas was the 6 o’clock news producer at Telemundo 51, an Emmy award-winning, segment producer for the Sun Sentinel’s one-time Spanish-language Exito TV news magazine program, a writer/producer for CBS4 Miami, and the executive producer of two weekly political talk shows at WPLG Local 10, This Week in South Florida with Michael Putney and The Putney Perspective. During her tenure, she also produced all the station’s political debates, election coverage, live town meetings and documentaries.
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Outside of journalism, Cardenas served as the senior communications manager and then the communications director at The Children’s Trust, Miami-Dade County’s leading funder of programs and services benefiting children and families. Over the course of nearly 15 years, she created the brand, was the agency’s leading spokesperson and played a pivotal role in messaging the special taxing district’s accomplishments to the community leading up to its overwhelming reaffirmation by voter referendum.
Throughout that time, she also served as The Children’s Trust’s liaison to the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs to support arts education programs countywide.
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Cardenas has worked as an independent consultant for numerous clients in the non-profit arena. As vice president at Hank Meyer Associates, she provided full spectrum public relations services to clients in a wide range of industries, while specializing in issues management, crisis communications counseling, political public relations, and media training.
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She earned her bachelors’ degree in broadcast journalism from Temple University. Born in Hartford, Connecticut of Cuban heritage, she is the mother of two adult daughters and has been married for nearly 40 years.
EMILY CARDENAS
Executive Director
emily@dranoff2piano.org
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In addition to serving as Dranoff 2 Piano Fusion’s music director, acclaimed pianist and composer Martin Bejerano heads the Jazz Piano Studio at the University of Miami’s acclaimed Frost School of Music.
Bejerano has performed and recorded with numerous jazz luminaries including his 20-year association with GRAMMY Lifetime Achievement Award-winning drummer Roy Haynes, Christian McBride Band, Dave Holland, Pat Metheny, Ignacio Berroa, Ron Carter, Russell Malone, Dafnis Prieto, Roxana Amed, Brian Lynch, Adam Nussbaum, John Faddis, Roy Hargrove, Marcus Strickland, E.J. Strickland, Mike Rodriguez, Kevin Mahogony, and Lauren Kinhan.
He has performed at most of the major jazz clubs, festivals and venues around the world and is featured on more than 25 recordings, including the GRAMMY nominated Fountain of Youth with the Roy Haynes Quartet, and Roxana Amed’s Latin GRAMMY nominated album Ontology.
An award-winning bandleader, Bejerano’s trio has performed at such notable venues as Symphony Space, Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, The Jazz Gallery, Barquisimeto Jazz Festival, El Hatillo Jazz Festival, St. Petersburg Jazz Festival, Festival Miami, and Lucerne Piano Off-Stage Festival. His last recording, Trio Miami, was named “Editor’s Choice” by Downbeat Magazine. Jazz Times has said, “Add Martin Bejerano to the expanding roster of hot young pianists that stretches from Hiromi Uehara and Eldar Djangirov to Robert Glasper and Taylor Eigsti.”
Chamber Music America awarded Bejerano his second “New Jazz Works” grant in 2017. He has also composed original work for Dranoff 2 Piano Fusion and the Sonos Chamber Orchestra. His work on Roxana Amed’s acclaimed Ontology album in 2021, on which he played piano, composed, and arranged much of the music, contributed to its nomination for a Latin GRAMMY award.
Bejerano continues touring and recording with artists including Roy Haynes, Ignacio Berroa Trio, Dafnis Prieto, Jonathan Kreisberg Quartet, and Roxana Amed, as well as with his current project, #CubanAmerican Trio.
He also is a proud board member of “Arts for Learning,” a non-profit organization that provides free arts education to thousands of children in South Florida.
