Reflections by Maestro Javier Zalba at the 2023 Havana Book Fair
Cuban music education will have a new material for professional development. It is the book Proceso de enseñanza aprendizaje de los instrumentos de viento madera. Reflexiones de un músico by the saxophonist and professor Javier Zalba.
The presentation of the book by Ediciones CIDMUC, the Center for Research and Development of Cuban Music, will take place on Saturday, 11 February at 11:00 a.m. in the National Museum of Music, located at Capdevila 1 in Old Havana, as part of the intense program of the 31st Havana International Book Fair.
Proceso de enseñanza aprendizaje proposes to provide the students with different tools for their performance as teachers since the Cuban artistic education system prepares its graduates in two categories, instrumentalists and teachers, so that after graduating students can also work as teachers.
According to Maestro Zalba, who is also a Professor of Woodwind Methodology at the Amadeo Roldan Conservatory and the National School of Music, «these young teachers work at the elementary level, which means a high degree of responsibility in the training of new musicians, and this material would be ideal for their teaching practice.
The renowned performer adds that his reflections are based on many of his experiences as a teacher and instrumentalist. The book covers the flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and saxophone.
«Roughly speaking, it contains general information for woodwind instruments, and even brass instruments, because it shows how the teacher manifests himself in the classroom, the class, the parameters, in short, everything that concerns the work of the pedagogue,» he comments.
This Saturday, as a prelude to the book presentation, the girls of the Kokan Sax saxophone quartet, from the third year of the Chamber Music class at the Amadeo Roldán Conservatory, taught by Maestro Zalba, will perform. They will perform four dances and contradanzas by Manuel Saumell and Ignacio Cervantes.
A virtuoso on the clarinet, flute, and saxophone, Javier Zalba is also a composer. His long artistic career has seen him work with renowned Cuban ensembles and soloists, performing a variety of Cuban musical genres, contemporary music, and jazz.
