Leo Brouwer announces
Paco de Lucia visit

Mireya Castañeda

THE maestro Leo Brouwer has announced that Paco de Lucía, the internationally renowned flamenco guitarist and composer, is returning to the Cuban stage in October after an absence of 26 years.

De Lucía, also an important Andalusian composer, has been invited to the 5th Leo Brouwer Chamber Music Festival, which opens in Havana on September 22 and then tours the Americas through October 13.

Paco de Lucía (1947) is noted for his unique style of playing, and for pioneering the evolution of flamenco, opening it up to a fusion with other musical genres and styles. His legendary partnership in Cuba with the island’s traditional flamenco singer Camarón is still recalled.

At a press conference in the Dulce María Loynaz Cultural Center, Brouwer stated, "Paco has always wanted to return to Cuba but had to find a space in his hectic schedule for this tour. It is going to be possible to see a Paco spectacular, with flamenco singers and dancers." (El Farru, Antonio Fernández Montoya).

Brouwer also announced that the eminent composer and guitar player is to be presented with the 2013 International Cubadisco Prize, awarded to him in his absence earlier this year.

BROUWER FLAMENCO

One of the most interesting entries in Cubadisco 2013 was the Brouwer Flamenco concert from the CD of the same name, recorded by the Mexico-based Cuban guitarist Josué Tacoronte.

With the Brouwer Flamenco CD, produced by Brouwer and Isabelle Hernández and issued by Ediciones Espiral Eterna, Tacoronte won the 2013 Cubadisco Prize for best concert soloist.

Brouwer highlighted "the unique enchantment" that Tacoronte breathed into his flamenco versions. "For a creator, an interpretative version of his work is always important and wonderful. For me, once the work is done, it is no longer mine, it has its own life. Once it has been performed by another artist, it belongs to him, it becomes a pretext. These interpreters love the rare music I write and have brought it to flamenco."

Tacoronte (Havana 1977), a graduate from the Amadeo Roldán Conservatory, commented that 10 years ago, he began to experiment with Brouwer's music as if it were flamenco. "I discovered that each piece has its origin in the flamenco tradition, including the seguidilla, bulería, or fandango. His music already was flamenco."

The recording includes versions of 11 of Brouwer's compositions, including "El Decameron Negro" (tanguillos, bulerías, rumba), "Nuevo Estudio Sencillo".

For the concert in the National Theater's Covarrubias Hall, Tacoronte's guitar came together with Mexicans Alberto Solís, voice and cajón, and Omar Leo, bass; plus Cubans Ruy Adrián López-Nussa, percussion; Niurka González, flute; Alejandro Martínez, cello; and Erdwin Vichot, lute.

In the Loynaz Center’s Federico García Lorca Hall, Brouwer, an untiring promoter of the finest musical culture, also presented Salomón Gadles Mikowsky, outstanding pianist and professor at the Manhattan School of Music in New York, referring to him as "the great Cuban educator, one of the greats in the history of piano playing", and recalled that last year he generously donated a Steinway piano to the Cervantes Hall.

Gadles Mikowsky sponsored the 1st Encounter of Young Pianists, organized by the Havana City Historian's Office Esteban Salas Musical Heritage Cabinet, with performances in Havana (May 25- June 9) from 12 pianists from eight countries, all award winning students of his, and four Cubans, who gave 16 concerts, with unique repertoires, in the Ignacio Cervantes Hall and the San Francisco de Asis Lesser Basilica.

The young visitors were Wengiao Jiang, Yuan Sheng and Ruiqi Fang (China), Alexandra Beliakovich (Belarus), Simone Dinnerstein (United States), Gustavo Díaz-Jerez (Spain), Khowoon Kim and Youngho Kim (South Korea), Wael Farouk (Egypt), Alexandre Moutoukine and Tatiana Tessman (Russia) and Willany Darias (Cuba), and Cubans Daniel Rodríguez, Liana Fernández, Aldo López Gavilán and Harold López-Nussa, the last two closing the encounter.

The highlights of the piano encounter included the complete Danzas (40) of Ignacio Cervantes, and more than six of Ernesto Lecuona’s Danzas afrocubanas, performed by 15-year-old Wengiao Jiang.

Appropriately, during the Opening Gala in the Cervantes Hall, a new edition of Ignacio Cervantes y la danza en Cuba (Ediciones Boloña), was presented by Gadles Mikowsky, a book which represents "the first all-embracing study of his dances for piano in the general context of the 19th century."

Asked in a press conference about his method of teaching, Gadles Mikowsky affirmed that he focuses on the beauty of the sound, the use of phrasing, students’ musical talent. "My teacher was César Pérez Sentenat (Havana, 1896-1973), who studied in Paris with Joaquin Nin, one of Moszkowski's pupils, who in turn was a student of Liszt. There is a tradition behind us and I realize the value of the maestro Sentenat."