Cubadisco: “Nachito Herrera is back home to express his forever gratitude”

Cubadisco: “Nachito Herrera is back home to express his forever gratitude”
Fecha de publicación: 
16 May 2022
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Ignacio “Nachito” Herrera is back in Havana to inaugurate the greatest feast of Cuban music, the 2022 International Fair Cubadisco. With a feeling that is not even chilled by the snow if Minnesota, this skillful Cuban musician based in the United States said:

 

“We are here, happy, once again fulfilling a humanitarian mission, bringing a lot of things, and above all, our soul, our feeling, our heart to the Cuban people, and say that the brother, the friend is here again, at home, in Cuba.”

 

The outstanding Cuban pianist revealed that he will share today the stage of the Cuba's National Theater with Habana Jazz, the National Symphony Orchestra, under maestro Enrique Pérez Mesa; the National Choir, led by maestro Digna Guerra, and Amadeo Roldán’s jazz band. But Nachito went forward and detailed the reasons behind this performance:

 

“To me, it is a must. Back to my student years, it was an incentive playing with professional musicians on the stage, and I want to continue providing Cuban students with that opportunity.”

 

But to the opening concert of Cubadisco, Nachito invited a special guest: “I am honored to share stage, for the first time, with one of the greatest violinists in the world of jazz, not only within the U.S.: but in the world. Since we first invited her, she said YES. We already played together ten years ago.”

 

“Karen Brets has exalted the virtues of women to the top. Many people saw her in the 1970s and 1980s playing with a pianist named Yanni. Now she has her own project, but she plays with great musicians around the world. She is going to be playing many songs, including a well-known classical-pop version of a Rimsky Korsakov’s song named Scheherezade. That is a song we love playing together.”

 

To close the concert, they are going to play a song that has become an anthem of this generation in Cuba and Nachito wanted to echo as well:

 

“It was actually a surprise. I do not want it to be a surprise anymore. I am pretty happy. I am honored to perform along with the boys of duet Buena Fe because there is song performed by them that I love, named La Fuerza de un País. When I was amid the work planning with my wife, Aurora, who is the general producer, I told her: that is the song I want to close the concert. This way, we are going to pay homage to our health personnel, as we must feel proud of them since Cuba has 96-97% of its entire population vaccinated. We are the first nation in Latin America and the world to immunize children with 2 years old and over…I mean, Nachito is back home to express his forever gratitude.”

 

It will be a kind of “Cuba vive” part II, with which Nachito opened the Jazz Plaza Festival a few months ago. About the importance it has for him to be opening an important music event in Cuba, he stated:

 

“This concert means a lot to me and we are going to show the world once again that Cuba can make classical music and can make popular music, and can make choral music. The range of music education in Cuba is one of the best in the world,” he explained, and the added:

 

“We are living under very tough conditions. We are witnessing a media campaign against us, which looks strong, but it is not so. Plain and simple, we want to pave our own way, letting the world know that Cuba is a country of art, music…Cuba is a nation that welcomes us all. And it meant the world to me that I was called once again…It means the world. We are doing this together.”

 

Translated by Sergio A. Paneque Díaz / CubaSí Translation Staff

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