Havana hosts the 35th Havana Contemporary Music Festival
The 35th edition of the Havana Contemporary Music Festival will be held from 28 October to 4 November, organised by the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (Uneac) with the support of various cultural institutions.
Guido López-Gavilán, renowned musician and president of the event, explained the details of the event. He emphasised its constant commitment to contemporary creation and the dissemination of new works, which is also a way of stimulating the work of performers and composers.
For more than three decades we have had the presence of great universal composers, and for this edition we are proud of the presence of Elena Zucchini, an outstanding Italian guitarist. I will have the pleasure of accompanying her in the premiere of two works by Walfrido Domínguez, dedicated to our deities Oshún and Ochosi, at the inauguration of the event next Saturday in the Basílica Menor del Convento de San Francisco de Asís.»
Maestro López-Gavilán points out that the festival will also reach the Casa de las Américas. On the 30th and 31st of October, there will be a concert of electro-acoustic music and a chamber music concert.
«We will also have the presence of Eduardo Kusnir, a renowned Argentinean musician with close ties with Cuba, as one of the first to conduct the orchestra of the National Ballet of Cuba in the 1960s, who will give a masterclass on his music in the Villena Hall of the Uneac.
The event will be enriched by the participation of groups and personalities from the Cuban and international music scene, such as Ernesto Oliva, Walfrido Domínguez and the Música Eterna chamber orchestra, conducted by Maestro Guido López-Gavilán himself.
«We organise this festival to promote Cuba’s musical heritage, to promote the nation’s musical creation and to keep abreast of what is being created in the rest of the world.
We also have a very special event dedicated to young musicians and current musical creation with the latest trends.
The aim of the Havana Festival of Contemporary Music is to encourage young musicians to continue the legacy of rescuing the classics and offering innovative nuances that will spread new creations and promote the best of this genre.
The venues for this 35th edition include the emblematic Villena Hall of the Uneac, where the event’s colloquium will be held, the Basílica Menor del Convento de San Francisco de Asís, the Casa de las Américas and the Fábrica de Arte Cubano.
Translated by Luis E. Amador Dominguez
