| Program Notes
Composers
Sindo Garay
Sindo Garay was born in 1867 in Santiago de Cuba. Until the end of his life he was unable to read a note of music, and yet, through his genius, he created an enormous musical oeuvre that is considered immortal. Sindo was famous for, among other things, being the best exponent of the oriental Bolero for which he invented the peculiar style of scratching the guitar chords at the end of musical phrases and created its rhythmical base with the so-called “cinquillo cubano”.
His was a true inspiration. He sang to the Cuban landscape, to Cuban women, to the most important facts of Cuban history. With music, he expressed every facet of his life. He died at age 89.
Pablo Milanes
Pablo Milanes is one of Cuba's top composers. A founder of the Nueva Trova mouvement, Pablo was born in Bayamo in 1943. Some of his first songs were related to the Cuban music movement known as "Feeling", and he is also known for his “Son”. In 1968, he joined the Canción Protesta de la Casa de las Américas. He is also a member of GES (Grupo de Experimentacion Sonora) and his music is featured in a number of films, including Oggun, directed by Gloria Rolando.
Ignacio Pineiro
As a young musician Ignacio Pineiro was not satisfied with the existing sound of the Son groups. This sound was mainly based on vocals percussion and strings. Thus, in 1927, he created his own group, the 'Septeto Nacional' adding, for the first time in the history of Son, a trumpet as lead instrument. This completely changed the sound and Son quickly became the most celebrated music in Cuba. Not long after, it also became well known outside the country. In 1928 Son and Septeto Nacional were the sensation of the World Exposition in Sevilla. Son was here to stay and became the basis for many other music styles such as Mambo and Salsa. Today, after more than seventy years of success, the "Septeto Nacional" is still alive and kicking.
Benny More
Benny Moré must be regarded as the most comprehensive popular artist of all times (or at least of the 20th century) to be born in Cuba. He was a prolific composer and indefatigable performer as musical director and singer. He was an extraordinary innovator of new interpretations of such dissimilar genres as son, guaracha, guajira changüí, canción, mambo, criolla, chachachá, batanga, guaguancó, afro, danzón and bolero. In addition to the abovementioned Cuban idioms, Moré interpreted various rhythms from other Caribbean nations SUCH ASmerengue, bomba, plena, tamborito, mazumba and porro.
Known for his versatile, refined and melodious voice, Moré established an expressive style that would be inherited by such singers as Tito Contreras, Leo Castañeda, Julio César Fonseca, and in more recent times, Félix Baloy and Lázaro Miguel Rodríguez.
Moises Simons
Born in 1889, Moises Simons was widely known in the artistic world of the Caribbean and Latin America. He composed music of all diverse genres.
“El Manisero” was popularized in Cuba by Rita Montaner and the United States by Antonio Machín. It was so popular that director Ernesto Lecuona included it in films such as “The Cuba Song” from Metro Goldwyn Mayer and in the 1950’s Judy Garland sang it in “A Star is Born”. It has continued its triumphant journey throughout the world to this day.
Eliseo Grenet
Composer, pianist and conductor, Eliseo Grenet began his piano studies at age five, and at thirteen he became the pianist at the La Caricatura theatre, accompanying silent films. At sixteen, he directed the Politeama Habanera Orquestra. In 1926 he toured the island, conducting the Compania Arquimedes Pous Orquestra, and later traveled with a group of Cuban artists and musicians to North and South America. In 1936 Grenet went to New York, where he played an active role in the development of Cuban music and introduced La Conga. His travels then took him to France, Spain and other European centres. In 1948 Eliseo Grenet won first place in the Concurso de Canciones Cubanas with his song El Sitierito.
The susu-sucs rhythm found in "Felipe Blanco" is a branch of the changUi from both Pinar del Rio, Cuba's westernmost province, and the island of Pino.
Martin Riseley
Martin Riseley was born in New Zealand and completed his Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees at the Juilliard School in New York, as a student of Dorothy DeLay. He has been Concertmaster of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra since 1994 and recently served as Interim Associate Concertmaster of the National Arts Center in Ottawa and Guest Concertmaster of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.
Program notes by Tanya Prochazka, Guido Lopez Gavilan, Grazyna Sobieraj, Olivia Walsh abd Helio Orovio.
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