The Deering Estate in Palmetto Bay will host its annual Hispanic Heritage Month concert with vocalist Susana Behar on Sunday, October 25, running from 6 to 7 p.m. at the estate's Visitor Center Theater, followed by a reception. Behar, an award-winning singer with an ongoing artistic residency at the estate, leads an ensemble built around her signature blend of Judeo-Spanish and Latin American musical traditions.
According to Miami's Community Newspapers, the concert honors the artistic voices, stories, and legacies of Hispanic composers and iconic vocalists, with Behar as lead singer accompanied by an ensemble of musicians including Michel Gonzalez on guitar, Adolfo Herrera on percussion and vocals, Magela Herrera on flute and vocals, and Javier Espinoza on bass, with Simone Levy joining as a special guest bassist. Tickets cost $30 plus tax and are available through the Deering Estate website and Eventbrite, with no refunds, exchanges, or rainchecks, per the same report.
A Voice Shaped by Three Continents
Behar's own story mirrors the layered migrations common across Miami-Dade County. Born in Havana to a Cuban-Jewish family with Turkish Sephardic roots, she later lived in Venezuela, where she earned a biology degree, before immigrating to Miami in 1983. Her work draws on Sephardic Judeo-Spanish heritage and Latin American musical influences.
That mission crystallized in 2017, when Behar premiered her signature project, “Ladino Meets Latino,” blending Judeo-Spanish Sephardic songs with Latin American folk rhythms and instrumentation, according to eSefarad. Ladino, or Judeo-Spanish, incorporates elements of Spanish, Turkish, Arabic, and Hebrew spoken by Sephardic diaspora communities. Behar completed a residency at HistoryMiami Museum in 2020 before joining the Deering Estate's artist residency program in 2023, per the Ashkenaz Festival.
Her credentials include a 2015 Individual Artist Fellowship Award in Folk and Traditional Arts from the Florida Department of State.
Two Decades of Artist Residencies
Behar's residency places her within a program with deep roots at the estate. Established in 2006, the Deering Estate Artist-in-Residence Program has hosted over 100 residencies supporting artists from various disciplines, per program documentation posted by the Deering Estate.
The estate documents many of these residencies through its AIR Archive Project, a short film series produced by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Jorge Gonzalez Graupera, himself a former AIR resident, that was showcased at Miami International Airport between September and December 2025. The same filmmaker's documentation of another Deering Estate resident recently surfaced in Hoodline's coverage of the Lilian Garcia-Roig retrospective in Pembroke Pines.
A Historic Bayfront Setting
The concert unfolds on grounds with their own layered past. Spanning 444 acres in Palmetto Bay along Biscayne Bay, the Deering Estate preserves the 1920s winter retreat of industrialist Charles Deering and contains archaeological sites with evidence of human settlement dating back 10,000 years, according to the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau. The property features the historic Stone House and Richmond Cottage alongside protected tropical hardwood hammocks, the bureau notes.
Per Miami's Community Newspapers, the Deering Estate is a 21st-century house museum and cultural and ecological field station, listed as a national landmark on the National Register of Historic Places. It is owned by the State of Florida and managed by the Miami-Dade County Parks, Recreation and Open Spaces Department, designated as one of seven Miami-Dade County heritage parks that provide historical, environmental, recreational, and cultural experiences.
Funding a Regional Tradition
Deering Estate materials name the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs, the Cultural Affairs Council and The Jorge M. Pérez Family Foundation as supporters of cultural programming.
The performance also lands in a county where Hispanic and Latino residents account for roughly 70.3% of Miami-Dade's total population of 2.8 million, per 2025 estimates cited by USAFacts. That demographic backdrop has shaped years of Hispanic Heritage Month programming at the estate, including a Hoodline-covered Miami Short Film Festival showcase on Hispanic filmmakers held there in September 2024.
The Deering Estate is located at 16701 SW 72nd Avenue in Palmetto Bay, with the Visitor Center Theater sharing that address. The concert begins at 6 p.m. on October 25, with a reception to follow the hour-long performance.
