MARQUETTE, Mich.—The Northern Nights series at Northern Michigan University will conclude its 2012-13 season with a performance by the three-time Grammy nominated Cuban group, Tiempo Libre.  The concert will take place at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 18, in Kaufman Auditorium. Tickets can be purchased in advance at all EZ ticket outlets, on-line at www.nmu.edu/tickets or by calling 227-1032.   Prices are: students/kids, $6 advance/$7 door; NMU faculty/staff/seniors 60+ - $14/$16; and general public, $19/$21. All prices include a $1 Kaufman Auditorium capital improvement fee.

Since their formation in 2001, the members of Tiempo Libre have been on a mission: to share the musical heritage in which they grew up with as wide an audience as possible, reinterpreting and reinvigorating traditional Cuban music with a youthful, modern sound and forging a new style born from the melding of their Cuban roots and their new American experience.

Classically trained at Cuba’s premier conservatories, the group is celebrated for its sophisticated performances of timba, a joyous mix of high-voltage Latin jazz and the seductive rhythms. Sony Masterworks released the group’s latest timba recording, My Secret Radio, in May, 2011. The album pays homage to Tiempo Libre’s teenage years in Cuba, a time when the government forbade its citizens from listening to American music.