Minnesota Symphony Orchestra: in Cuba after 85 Years

More than a hundred members of the Minnesota Symphony Orchestra arrived in this capital on Wednesday to participate in the program of this year’s edition of Cubadisco, the island’s International Record Fair and Contest, after and absence of 85 years of the Orchestra from Cuban stages.

We arrived safe and sound this afternoon in Havana, they published along with several photos on the official Facebook page of the U.S. group, the first one to visit the Caribbean nation since the United States and Cuba announced in December the intention of resuming relations.

Directed by Finnish Osmo Vänskä, the group will offer two concerts at the National Theater of Cuba, Friday 16 and Saturday 17, the first of which will have maestro Frank Fernandez and the Cuban National Choir and the Vocal Leo Chamber Choir as guests.

Programmed for Thursday is a visit to the National Music School, to see, first hand, the processes of training of students and give them courses and practical classes.

A rehearsal with the Youth Orchestra of the Amadeo Roldan Conservatory at the Avellaneda Hall of the National Theater and a jazz jam session at the Havana Cafe of the Melia Cohiba Hotel are also included in the program.

Enjoyed in Cuba for the last time during the 1929-1930 tour, this trip represents for the U.S. group a return after 85 years of absence from Cuban soil.

Eighty five years ago, the Minnesota Orchestra played music by Beethoven for Cuban audiences. It is an honor and a privilege for us to do the same so many decades later, asserted in an interview Finnish Osmo Vänskä, who heads the delegation to this edition of Cubadisco.