Attest to Hope

Concerts of the Minnesota Symphony Orchestra in Havana

A symphony orchestra of any city, as most outstanding it can be, which will perform in a city in another country does not become news. But if the cultural exchange takes place between two nations that for more than fifty years have maintained a political dispute that in the peak moment put humanity on the brink of World War III or what is the same, the end of our species, then the uniqueness of such an event will be understood.

It was the Minnesota Symphony Orchestra that became the first training of its kind in the United States performing in Havana since diplomatic approach between the two countries began on December 17, 2014.

The last time an American symphony orchestra performed in Cuba in December 1999, when the Milwaukee Orchestra performed in Havana. From that day forward more than fifteen years have passed and the context of both exchanges is very different.

In the days before the two functions, various media alluded to the historical significance of the event. For example, statements such as from Marilyn Nelson, lifetime director of the board of the symphonic group circulated, who said that this meeting chance will "demonstrate the power of music to offer extraordinary opportunities for cultural exchange", or President and CEO of the assembly, Kevin Smith, who said it would be "a privilege for the Minnesota Orchestra to perform this event for the public in Havana."

As a clear signal of historical relevance that the Minnesota Symphony Orchestra gave its presentations in Cuba, the direction of it decided to choose for its first night of identical function repertoire that it interpreted the formation when it debuted in Cuba in 1929, when the group was known as the Minneapolis Symphony. With that performance in Havana, before a crowded place according to the press of the time, the band stepped on the first international stage since its foundation in 1903.

Those who after 86 years later had the opportunity  to attend one of the two recent presentations, either Friday 15th , where the group played a whole program that included Beethoven's Egmont Overture, Opus 84, the Symphony no. 3 and the Fantasy for piano, chorus and orchestra, opus 80, in which the pianist Frank Fernandez accompanied, 

with the Vocal Leo choir chamber and the National Choir of Cuba, or Saturday 16th, an occasion that the program was different, to give sound life to the scores danzon by Alejandro Garcia Caturla, the symphonic dances from West sidestory music of  Leonard Bernstein and one of the suites of Romeo and Juliet by Sergei Prokofiev, from our seats in the Sala Avellaneda we witnessed of how artistic culture, with that special something or individual it owns, has the power to cause political or ideological stick surrenders to art.

Thus, at least for a while, good music of old times, today and always carried by wind-metal, woodwind, strings and percussion musicians of the Minnesota Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Finnish master OsmoVänskä, made us forget.

Anyway, the two concerts featuring in Havana by the Minnesota Symphony Orchestra, its visits to the National School of Music and the Higher Institute of Art, are steps in the direction that one day Cuba and the United States maintain a cordial relationship. It is obvious that the process of achieving such a goal will be long and complicated, but performances as those of May 15 and 16 at the Avellaneda Hall of the National Theatre attest to hope that it can be done.