Bandleader. Percussionist.Educator.
Deemed “Kansas City’s Heart & Soul of Latin Music,” Pablo Sanhueza is the region’s premier Salsa and Latin Jazz percussionist and bandleader. Since arriving from Santiago, Chile, in 1996, Sanhueza has dedicated his distinguished career to the Latin American musical experience, collaborating with three generations of musicians spanning Europe, Africa, and the Americas—from the historic 18th & Vine Jazz District to international stages. In 2025, Sanhueza made history as the first jazz artist to be recognized in the Missouri Folk Arts Living Traditions Fellows Program.
As a performer, Sanhueza embodies the charisma and technical precision of the Mambo and Big Band era maestros. In 2019, he presented his ensembles, featuring apprentice and veteran musicians, across the Midwest to an audience of nearly 40,000. He hosts the longest-running Salsa and Latin Jazz residency in the Midwest at the Blue Room in the Historic 18th & Vine Jazz District.
Sanhueza’s pedigree includes study with masters Jesus Alfonso and Sandy Perez (Muñequitos de Matanzas). He has shared the stage with legends such as Poncho Sanchez, David Valentin, and Tito Sompa, and toured Europe with Bobby Watson, appearing at the Montreux Jazz Festival, the North Sea Jazz Festival, and the Champs-Élysées in Paris.
In 2014, Sanhueza completed an immersion year in South America studying Afro-Chilean and Afro-Andino folkloric music and dance. Since then, he has returned frequently to lead ongoing artistic exchanges, conducting jazz and folk workshops and concerts in both Chile and the United States–establishing the Chile-Kansas City Jazz Exchange and Festival del Tambor.
In 2018, Sanhueza co-founded the Kansas City Latin Jazz Orchestra (KCLJO) and the Latin Jazz Institute, the first performance, apprenticeship, and education non-profit in the Midwestern United States dedicated to Salsa, Latin Jazz, and the intersection of Latin American music and jazz.
A standard-bearer for Latino leadership in the arts, Sanhueza is a Missouri Arts Council Touring Artist and a Missouri Humanities Council Speakers Bureau member. In 2019, he welcomed Pedrito Martinez to Kansas City for the historic Folly Jazz Series. Sanhueza has been endorsed by the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz for cultural and educational outreach. Sanhueza is also a master artist for the Missouri Traditional Arts Apprentice program and was the featured jazz presenter for the Missouri Bicentennial Celebration in 2021.
His impact continues to grow; in 2021, his orchestra received a National Endowment for the Arts grant to support a commission and collaboration with NEA Jazz Master Maestro Eddie Palmieri. In 2022, he was a featured artist at the Charles Mingus Centennial Jazz Festival in Nogales, Arizona, served as Artistic Director for Tito Puente Jr., and performed at the Bronx Music Heritage Center representing his Chilean musical heritage.
As a bandleader, he has presented his ensembles at the Kansas City Blues & Jazz Festival, Boulevardia, Hermann Jazz Festival, Missouri Jazz Festival, the American Jazz Walk of Fame, and festivals in Iowa, Nebraska, New Mexico, Kansas, and Oklahoma.
As a Latin jazz ambassador Sanhueza has collaborated with the Consulate of Mexico-Kansas City, American Corners Chile, and the Italian Cultural Institute of Chicago, and has hosted guest artists from Brazil, Colombia, Congo, Cuba, El Salvador, Italy, and Peru. Since 2012, he has organized International Jazz Day events in the Kansas City region.
Through these landmark accomplishments, Pablo Sanhueza has distinguished himself as one of the foremost exponents of Latin American and Caribbean music in the United States. He views himself primarily as a “village musician”—an artist whose presence is felt through the energy of live performance and sustained through deep relationship-building with youth and local institutions to create lasting impact.
RECENT MEDIA APPEARANCES:
Kansas City Magazine: 10 Musicians Shaping the City’s Sound (2025)
VoyageKC: Hidden Gems Meet Pablo Sanhueza (2025)
KCUR: Pablo Sanhueza 2023
Missouri Folk Living Traditions Fellow 2025: Missouri Folk Arts Program Announces 2025 Living Traditions Fellows
Latin Jazz Net: Pablo Sanhueza Presents Charles Mingus’ “Cumbia & Jazz Fusion” at Centennial Jazz Fest
American Corners Arica, Chile Jazz Appreciation Month May 2021 (Spanish)
Local Community Arts Are Getting Creative, KCLJO January 2021
ST. Louis Public Radio: Afro-Latin Music’s Foray Into the Midwest
KCUR Central Standard: Cuban and Afro-Latino Influence in Kansas City Culture
KKFI ArtSpeak: October Extravaganza
KC STUDIO Magazine October 2018
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Pablo Sanhueza 