Tampa Bay Times
By John Fleming, Times Performing Arts Critic
Posted: Feb 28, 2012 11:38 AM
Cuba's symphony orchestra will begin its stay in the area with a chamber music concert, including members of the Florida Orchestra, on Nov. 5 at the Cuban Club in Tampa's Ybor City, the old cigar factory district that has deep historic ties to Cuba. On Nov. 7 — the day after the presidential election — the Cuban National Symphony will perform at the Mahaffey Theater in St. Petersburg.
The concerts in the bay area are part of a U.S. tour by the National Symphony Orchestra of Cuba — believed to be the first since the assumption of power by Fidel Castro in 1959 — that starts in Kansas City in October and includes 17 cities in 10 states at this point.
Florida Orchestra officials stress that the Cuban concerts represent more than simply the presentation of a touring orchestra. "We are thrilled that we have the honor of not only presenting this wonderful orchestra in concert, but that their musicians will also be leading master classes in our community and participating in a collaborative chamber music concert featuring musicians from both orchestras," said board chairman Thomas Farquhar in a prepared statement. "The NSOC's additional activities here in the Tampa Bay area are a very natural extension of our cultural exchange."
At the Mahaffey concert, the program will feature Cuban pianist Ignacio "Nachito" Herrera in Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, along with Gershwin's Cuban Rhapsody, Guaguanco by Cuban composer-conductor Guido Lopez-Gavilan and Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. The conductors will be music director Enrique Perez Mesa and Lopez-Gavilan.
The chamber music concert program is to be determined. In addition to the concerts, Perez Mesa and members of the National Symphony will offer master classes. Also on hand will be Roberto Chorens, executive director of the NSOC and director of the Amadeo Roldan Conservatory, where the Florida Orchestra quintet members gave master classes during their visit to Havana.
This May, the Cuban cultural exchange proceeds with Perez Mesa making his U.S. debut as guest conductor of the Florida Orchestra in a program that includes Cuban music. Stefan Sanderling, the Florida music director, has been invited to guest conduct the Cuban orchestra in Havana in spring 2013. Cuban guest artists and composers are likely to be featured in Florida Orchestra programs. The ultimate goal is to send the entire Florida Orchestra to Cuba to perform as early as the 2013-14 season.
John Fleming can be reached at fleming@tampabay.com or (727) 893-8716.
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By Douglas Stanglin, USA TODAY
In fall, the National Symphony Orchestra of Cuba will begin its first U.S. tour since the Castro revolution, visiting 17 cities, including a chamber music performance at Tampa's famed Cuban Club, the Tampa Bay Times reports.
The tour begins in Kansas City in October and tentatively plans to visit 10 states.
The three-day stop in November in the Tampa Bay area, however, will likely be the highlight, because of the performance at the Cuban Club, which was founded by Cuban immigrants in 1899.
Tampa Bay's Florida Orchestra is presenting the Cubans as part of a multiyear cultural exchange with the island nation, which began with a visit to Havana by the orchestra's wind quintet in September.
"They aren't just coming into town, playing a concert and leaving the next morning," orchestra president Michael Pastreich tells the newspaper. "What we're able to do is have a full-fledged residency where we can embrace the Cuban national orchestra into the fabric of our organization and the fabric of our community."
The orchestra, however, is skipping Miami, a hotbed of anti-Castro politics, the newspaper notes.
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