World Music at The Suffolk

World music returns to The Suffolk with performances from two extraordinary groups that showcase traditional music and dance from Spain, Brazil, Cuba, and more — Benise World Music & Dance Spectacular on Sunday, April 14, at 7 p.m. and Orquesta Akokán on Thursday, April 18, at 8 p.m.

Up first is the Emmy Award-winning show, Benise World Music & Dance Spectacular — a musical journey through Spanish flamenco, Cuban salsa, Brazilian samba, Parisian waltz, exotic drumming and much more. For Benise, music has always been a journey — from his humble beginnings as a street performer to having seven PBS specials, being featured on “Dancing With the Stars,” and performing around the world. His 20th anniversary tour in 2021 established his performance as one of the longest running global Latin-themed theatrical productions and solidified Benise as America’s foremost native-born ambassador of Spanish guitar.

The following weekend welcomes in Orquesta Akokán, a selection of Havana, Cuba’s most extraordinary musicians performing authentic mambo with an open dance floor. When this group burst onto the global music scene in 2018, their no-holds-barred 21st century take on the venerable Cuban mambo lit up stages around the world with a fierce and unremitting joy. Chulo Records producer and multi-instrumentalist Jacob Plasse, and arranger Michael Eckroth joined forces with a carefully curated group of musicians, polishing Cuban mambo’s golden sound to a luminous, contemporary sheen. Along the way Orquesta Akokán imbued these legendary Cuban grooves with a renewed vitality and powerful sense of akokán — the Yoruba word used by Cubans to mean “from the heart” or “soul.”

Tickets for each show are $49 to $69 at thesuffolk.org. The Suffolk is at 118 East Main Street in Riverhead.