The 15th International Chamber Music Festival will be held in Havana from Thursday, October 29 to Sunday, November 1, with a program featuring renowned pianist and composer Aldo López-Gavilán among its protagonists.

An occasional and promising duo with violinist William Roblejo will take place during the opening gala in the Covarrubias Hall at 7:00 p.m., a show presided over by the Festival's leader, Maestro Frank Fernández, and featuring performances by Russian singer Natalia Kirillova; the trio made up of Americans Gaul G. Richard (viola), Kachian E. Samuel (guitar) and Cuban cellist Amaya; as well as the Camerata Cortés conducted by Tony Pedroso, Pancho Amat and the Cabildo del Son, and the Sinfonietta Duchesne Cuzán, under the direction of Igor Corcuera.

López-Gavilán, in an exclusive interview with the Cuban News Agency, said they will perform three small but very beautiful works, written by Russian composer and pianist Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) and arranged by Juan Piñera precisely for violin and piano.

It is a selection from the Visions Fugitives made by the famous author between 1915 and 1917, which after passing through the hands of Maestro Piñera receive the name Prokofianas, clarified the musician.

The allusions to the notable creator are determined because the Festival on this occasion counts among its dedications the figures of Prokofiev and Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975).

Next, López-Gavilán and Roblejo will perform Waltz, a piece of approximately three minutes that Aldo — the author — and his brother Ilmar included on the album Hermanos Brothers (2019); closing the presentation with the piece Guajira Danzonera, originally appearing on the album Los 3 Mosqueteros (2022), where William Roblejo joined pianist Harold López-Nussa and percussionist Ruy Adrián López-Nussa.

If the presentation on the great opening night of the Chamber Music Festival will be varied and dynamic, the evening of Saturday the 31st in the same hall promises just as much; an occasion on which he will make available to the attending public an equally interesting repertoire, alongside other virtuoso instrumentalists.

He detailed that he will perform with flutist Niurka González two of his pieces: Habanera Melancólica and Danzón Contigo Pan y Cebolla, the latter inspired by the famous theatrical piece by playwright Héctor Quintero (1942-1998), and recorded on the album Habana a toda cuerda (2026) together with an expanded Havana Chamber Orchestra, under the direction of Maestra Daiana García.

Curiously, those same works were performed — and recorded in audiovisual format — at the Ojalá Studios (2021) by González, Malva Rodríguez González on piano and Oliver Valdés on drums and percussion, for the New York Flute Center.

Later, López-Gavilán will join the Alma Quartet, under the direction of cellist Amaya Justiz, in a repertoire made up of other pieces of his: Costas del Mar Egeo (Playgrounds, 2019) and Viernes de Ciudad (Más Allá del Ocaso, 2011); among other surprises.